Non-Designer’s Type Book, The, Second Edition

Tracking

Tracking is a more complex issue, but only Adobe PageMaker uses true tracking. True tracking increases or reduces the letter spacing according to the point size of the type. If you use InDesign or QuarkXPress, you can skip the next three paragraphs.

Remember when we talked about display type, and how the original metal letters were redesigned for large and small sizes, and that the spacing values were different for large and small type? Small type requires extra letter spacing; large type, as in headlines, requires less letter spacing the larger it gets.

In PageMaker, if you choose Normal tracking for very small type, it adds letter space; if you choose Normal tracking for large type, PageMaker subtracts space. It takes all the built-in ...