The optical center is a concept that
demonstrates that it can be better if you use what looks right rather than what
measures right. Because the true vertical center often looks too low, if you want something to appear equidistant from the bottom and
top, position it a little bit above the true
center. (The dot on the right is probably a bit too high.)
[above] Sometimes what you see (or think others will see) is more important that what
you measure. The upper line shows normal letterspacing. The lower line shows
that some adjacent vertical letters benefit from increased spacing, and that
adjacent round letters, which diverge from their closest points, look better
with less spacing.
[above] The upper line has normal letterspacing. The lower line looks better because letterspacing was decreased ("kerned") to compensate for the diverging letterforms.
[above] Parentheses and brackets may be too low to look right in large sizes. Change
the vertical alignment (within Font
settings in Word). There is probably no need to do this in text sizes.
[above] You may have to add additional space to keep a letter, number or symbol from
crashing into a parentheses or bracket. Height and spacing adjustments will vary with character, typeface, case and tilt (roman v. italic or oblique).
[above]
Hyphens, em dashes and en dashes may have to be raised a bit in large type.
[above] The
height and relative size of the “@” symbol varies greatly among typefaces. In
large type sizes, experiment with lowering and/or enlarging the symbol so it
aligns better with adjacent text.
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