Adobe Illustrator CS5 One-on-One

You can adjust the leading value directly from the Character

panel (or from the Character panel pop-up menu by clicking

the word Character in the control panel), but there’s also a

keyboard shortcut that allows you to adjust it without chang-

ing tools and see your changes as you go. Press Alt+ or Alt+

(Option- or Option-) to adjust the leading up or down by

0.5 points (assuming you changed your preferences as directed

in the sidebar). Adding the Ctrl (or ) key increases the change

to fi ve times the normal value. After each keypress, the value

updates in the Character panel; once you’ve reached a leading

of 15 pt, you should have the spacing shown in Figure 4-19.

11. Change the byline tracking. I’d like the byline to fi ll out more

of the space under the title, but I don’t want to change the point

size. What I want is to increase the space between the charac-

ters; this attribute is known as tracking. You

can adjust the tracking directly from the

Character panel, but there is (you guessed

it) a shortcut. Press Alt+ and Alt+ (Op-

tion- and Option-) to adjust the tracking

out or in by

5

/1000 of an em space. A tracking

value of 0 uses standard spacing. Negative

numbers reduce the space between letters,

or tighten the tracking, while positive num-

bers increase the space, or loosen the track-

ing. Keep loosening the tracking until the

byline takes up roughly the space under

the ...