Part 3: Optical balance cheat sheet

Back by popular demand

Part 1: talked about how optical balance is used when creating typography.

Part 2: talked about how to use shapes and colors to achieve optical balance.

Today I'm telling you not to blindly trust your fonts

Here are 4 ways fonts deceive you

Periods

When text is displayed over 2 lines center-aligned. A period at the end can mess up the optical balance.

Quotes

Take control of your quotes and let them hang when aligning left.

Padding

When you are typing in a box it's better to leave less vertical space around the text than horizontal space. I mean, it's not terrible if you don't but we're not okay with just 'not terrible'

Kerning

If you don't know what kerning is, it's the space between the letters. The space between the letters should be looked at by their total volume and not the closest distance.

Pro tip! if you kern upside down it's easier to look at the font as just shapes.

Recap: Don't let fonts deceive you.

Ignore periods when balancing center-aligned text.

Let your quotes hang from the side when aligning left

Less vertical padding more horizontal padding

Kern upside down

Those sneaky fonts...