Got an email at 9:12am asking me to ‘make the kerning bolder’ on a 2-color letterpress job — so I sent a photo of my spacebar doing push-ups. Any other print folks translating typography requests like this, or is it just me turning tracking into charades?
I translate “bolder kerning” to +10 tracking, A/B proofs, and note ink gain: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/kerning-tracking.html — sound okay?
The 9:12am “bolder kerning” emails make my spacebar sweat too, . On a 2‑color letterpress piece I send a fast A/B: tighter kerning pairs vs the same layout in the next weight up, plus a note that ink gain can fake ‘bold’ on cotton stock, and ask which flavor of “bold” they really want. Small caveat: if they pick spacing, I proof on the actual paper because impression can swallow those hairline gaps.
On a 2‑color letterpress job I send a quick two‑panel: kerning unchanged but a 0.15 pt inside stroke on outlined type to fake the “bolder” they asked for, next to the same line at −15 tracking so they can point at what they mean… If they still look puzzled, I drop this explainer in the email: https://typography.guru/journal/kerning-vs-tracking/. Small caveat: I remove the stroke before plates, since impression will add heft on its own.
Quick move: a three-up proof — kerning untouched, tracking +8, and the same line set one weight heavier — then I ask which feels ‘bolder kerning’ and lock it in. If they’re still squinting, I switch to Optical kerning plus a tiny word-space tweak to make it read stronger in print. My spacebar can rest.