Tracking

Tracking is the uniform adjustment of space between all characters in a block of text, applied evenly across a word, line, or paragraph. It's typically measured in small units like em or thousandths of an em, and can be set tighter or looser to change how dense or airy the text feels.
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Unlike kerning, which adjusts spacing between specific letter pairs, tracking affects the whole selection at once. It's a common tool in typography and UI design for improving legibility, fitting text into a given space, or achieving a particular visual style.

Why does Tracking matter?

Good tracking keeps text comfortable to read. Too tight, and letters crowd together and blur, especially at small sizes; too loose, and words lose cohesion and become harder to scan.

Designers often increase tracking slightly for all-caps headings or small labels to improve readability, and tighten it for large display headlines to keep them looking solid and connected. Most design tools let you fine-tune tracking as a percentage or point value applied to selected text.

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