After showing the basics of kerning and kerning groups, Ralph du Carrois got to the essential point: with this plugin, you no longer have to depend on detailed kerning lists that have to be copied as strings into the text/kerning function of the font editor. It is no longer the case that “the quality of your kerning depends on your list”. Instead, this plugin creates its own letter combinations and overviews, which you can even customise to suit your particular kerning issue and font. It also provides an easy to use interface.
Together with the plugin Kernschmelze (“meltdown” in German), which compares the amount and value of kerning pairs of the different masters, it is a very helpful tool for any type designer who works with Glyphs. The plugin even recognizes the different scripts that a designer might use within a single font.
Luckily, Mark Frömberg, the mastermind and programmer of Kernkraft, also took the stage and provided a more detailed description of how to apply the plugin to your workflow. I will definitely try it out.
Link:
Ralph du Carrois
Type Designer (Berlin)
Born 1975 February 3rd, Füssen/Allgäu.
Three children, married, 179 cm, 79 kg, myopia and light dyschromatopsia (red/green).
He studied product design at HfG Karlsruhe and graduated with his first commercial typeface PTL Maurea.
Since 2004 Ralph du Carrois and his team work in their studio in Berlin. They are focussing on large type design projects, language extension and the development of corporate typefaces. The corporate type for Suzuki was one of his early projects. Since then Ralph du Carrois has designed typefaces for TYPO3, the emblem for the City of Rome, an exclusive typeface for the Neue National Galerie, an icon set for the Museo the Art de Ponce, the new logo type for the fashion label Roeckl and many more.
In cooperation with Erik Spiekermann Carrois’ realized projects for Cisco or the German television broadcasting ZDF. Another result of this collaboration are typefaces like TERN (used for the new Austrian traffic signs), Fira (an open source type family for Mozilla) and FF Real, a new super family released by FontShop in summer 2015.
Currently Ralph du Carrois and his team work on their own new designs and smart plugins for the type editor Glyphs.
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