Leading, Tracking, and Kerning in After Effects

Mastering typography in Adobe After Effects is essential for creating polished, professional motion graphics. This guide breaks down the core typographic spacing controls in After Effects: leading (vertical line spacing), tracking (overall character spacing across a selection), and kerning (spacing between specific pairs of letters). By understanding where to locate these settings in the Character panel and how to adjust them, you can dramatically improve the legibility, visual balance, and aesthetic impact of your animated text.

Accessing the Character Panel

All spacing adjustments are located within the Character panel. If this panel is not visible in your workspace, open it by navigating to Window > Character or pressing Ctrl+6 (Windows) or Cmd+6 (macOS).

1. Leading: Vertical Line Spacing

What It Is

Leading refers to the vertical distance between the baselines of consecutive lines of text. The term originates from traditional typesetting, where strips of lead were inserted between rows of letters.

How to Adjust It in After Effects

• Character Panel Icon: Represented by two vertical capital letters (\(A\) over \(A\)) with a vertical double-headed arrow next to them.
• Auto Leading: By default, After Effects sets leading to "Auto," which scales proportionally to the font size (typically 120% of the type size).
• Manual Adjustment: Highlight the lines of text you want to adjust, then click and drag the numerical leading value left or right, or type a specific point value.
• Keyboard Shortcut: Highlight the text and press Alt + Down Arrow (Windows) or Option + Down Arrow (macOS) to increase leading, or Alt/Option + Up Arrow to decrease it.

Best Uses

• Tightening line height for bold, multiline cinematic titles.
• Increasing line spacing in dense paragraphs to improve readability on digital screens.

2. Tracking: Overall Character Spacing

What It Is

Tracking (often referred to as letter-spacing) adjusts the uniform horizontal space across an entire block of text, word, or sentence. Unlike kerning, tracking applies equally to all selected characters.

How to Adjust It in After Effects

• Character Panel Icon: Represented by the letters VA over a horizontal double-headed arrow.
• Manual Adjustment: Select the text layer or highlight a specific range of characters, then scrub the numerical field to the right (positive values expand spacing) or to the left (negative values condense spacing). The default value is 0.
• Keyboard Shortcut: Highlight the text and press Alt + Right Arrow (Windows) or Option + Right Arrow (macOS) to increase tracking, or Alt/Option + Left Arrow to decrease it.
• Animation: Tracking can be animated over time using the Text Animator (select the text layer, click Animate > Tracking in the Timeline) to create popular expanding text reveals.

Best Uses

• Expanding all-caps titles and subtitles for a modern, high-end look.
• Animating title sequences where letters drift apart or converge smoothly.

3. Kerning: Individual Character Spacing

What It Is

Kerning is the adjustment of horizontal space between two specific adjacent letters. Certain letter pairings (such as "AV", "To", "Wa", or "T.") often leave awkward visual gaps due to their diagonal or overhang shapes. Kerning corrects these optical imbalances.

How to Adjust It in After Effects

• Character Panel Icon: Represented by the letters V/A with a horizontal divider or arrow.
• Kerning Methods:
  • Metrics Kerning: Uses the built-in font designer's default kerning pairs.
  • Optical Kerning: Uses After Effects' algorithm to calculate spacing based on character shapes. This is especially useful when combining different fonts or using poorly kerned display typefaces.
• Manual Kerning: Place your text cursor directly between the two characters you wish to adjust (do not highlight them). Scrub the kerning value or enter a number.
• Keyboard Shortcut: With the cursor between two letters, press Alt + Left Arrow (Windows) or Option + Left Arrow (macOS) to decrease space, or Alt/Option + Right Arrow to increase space.

Best Uses

• Refining large headline text and logos where uneven spacing between letters is noticeably visible.
• Correcting awkward gaps between punctuation marks and adjacent letters.

Summary of Spacing Controls