Welcome back to Lesson 12!! We are making some progress on learning all the tools in Silhouette Studio. We are learning all about Kerning today. Last week we learned all about using Scale and Shear in Silhouette Studio. Silhouette Boot Camp is filled with mini lessons that help us learn the terminology used in the Silhouette Studio software so that we can cut any design we can dream up with ease!
Before we get started, there are a couple of things to help you get the most of the experience:
- If you are new here, take a look the Silhouette Boot Camp Welcome with all courses listed and catch up on any you missed.
- Sign up for my Silhouette Newsletter which will email you when the lessons are released each week. {click HERE to sign up!}
- Pin this post! Each of these lessons takes me on average, 8-12 hours to create for you. I can do these lessons for FREE thanks to your support in coming to my site, reading the tutorials and sharing it with your friends. By pinning this post or sharing it on Facebook with your Silhouette friends, it helps you know where to find it if you need to reference it again, and it helps me spread the word so that I can keep the resources and freebies FREE to you!
What does Kerning mean in Silhouette Studio?
As defined in Silhouette Studio Kerning is the manipulating the space between certain characters/letters in certain fonts. FYI kerning is off by default in Silhouette Studio. Kerning is useful to all of us if we are using words with a wide font. The differences are very small but sometimes make a difference when you want the spacing perfect.
How do I use Kerning?
To use Kerning you will find it under the text window the right side of your screen. Kerning is off by default but you can click AV on after you have highlighted your word.
Where do I find Kerning in Silhouette Studio?
Kerning can be found in one place but you can get access to it in two different places.
- Right hand side of the screen, select the text icon (A with a line), you will find kerning (AV) at the bottom of the box.
- In the top menu, click Panels, then select Textstyle. This will take you to the text box.
Example of Kerning:
In the example I wrote the words Taco and Van. The top word is with Kerning (AV) off and the bottom word is with Kerning (AV) on. I then placed them on top of each other and you can see the small differences. The word is then evenly spaced and more appealing to the eye. 
When to use Kerning:
Kerning is great to use in Wide fonts and Script fonts. You will notice your first two letters have a space between them no matter how much you change the character spacing. Kerning helps get rid of this space and makes it more visually appealing.
Special Notes on Kerning:
VA, TA, and P. are know as a Kerning pair. The changes when you use Kerning are very small but it can make your word more pleasing and evenly spaced.
That’s all I have for you in Lesson 12, it was super short but a very important feature in Silhouette Studio. Join us next week to learn all about Nesting and how to use it.
Leave a Comment