Kerning is the alteration of spacing between letters to improve their appearance overall. Tracking is the spacing between characters in a line of text. The difference is that kerning deals with certain pairs of letters, while tracking refers to letter spacing overall.

I don't expect tattoo artists to have a complete understanding of typography. But the same eye that has to apply a stencil symmetrically—and account for slight rotation—is certainly able to see and adjust letter spacing that is off. Also, there aren't many days that go by without a client coming in and wanting a name, word, or phrase worked up. Over time, this becomes another quick tick to check in the mental list before beginning.

Now that software is beginning to get a handle on this, there are a few options to make sure the kerning is close to perfect. Adobe's programs have some great flexibility, so we'll go over the Photoshop way in this post.

For this example, the letter "W" and the letter "A" have a hard time fitting together properly with most fonts. Let's mess with the phrase below and notice the differences. The first "War&Peace" is set in Bookman Old Style and the kerning hasn't been touched. The second is after Photoshop's Optical Kerning has been applied.

Here's a closer shot of obvious differences with two sets of the letters.

The spacing in the standard text is off; here's the two methods I used to change it:

1. Place your cursor between the letters you wish to correct. Hold down your ALT key then use your arrow keys (left and right) to vary the distance.

2. Or select the entire text. Now, in your Character Palette, pull down the menu in the Kerning box. Instead of Metrical, select Optical. This is Photoshop's fake eye. It mimics how we see and tries to fix everything automatically. There are times this is a little off, when that happens I always revert to the first step.

Related Links:
Kerning at Wikipedia
Thinking With Type kerning examples
Great kerning post at Noisy Decent Graphics

The most recent issue of Tattoo Revue magazine has a great write up about AllenTattoo.com - go pick it up and give some to the neighbors.

Yep, I'm getting closer to an eating schedule. But I still have to get rid of garbage food.

Murph posted this comment, and it's worth reposting...
"You have to make them wait....How can you give them your full attention and BEST work if you are thinking of ANYTHING else. Food and drink is absolutely your most important thing to do everyday. If they really want your art they will wait for 1/2 hour while you eat...Hell make them buy you lunch..I DO."

Writer’s Dreamtools is a site compiled by writer/editor Larry Belling from over 25 years of research. He's posted an incredible historical database for free.

http://www.writersdreamtools.com

Any writer can immerse himself into the era to be able to write about whatever setting. And, any artist should be able to use the tool as well to pick up details otherwise missed.

That 1950's full sleeve? Elvis and a jukebox is obvious. But Writer's Dreamtools can show us some other interesting ideas that would go great in that sleeve: Mad magazine was introduced, men were wearing tweed and mohair coats, women were wearing 14 inch hemlines, Picasso was painting Sylvette, Tokien's The Fellowship of the Ring was released, and Hitchcock was presenting The Twilight Zone.

Better. Much better.

It's taken awhile, but I've finally put aside everything and updated the gallery section with ten more tattoos. Which brings me current up to #27. I've received great feedback about the addition of comments about the process of each tattoo, so I made a point to try and do the same.

Also, on the last tattoo I realized a mouse over effect would be nice for comparison of outline to final product. From now on I'll try and implement this wherever possible.

My mentor and I put together the new Green Monster shader. The machine took a little over half and hour, this post took over six because we made sure to take pictures and make asinine comments. Enjoy!

Over the next couple of days I'll be working on subtle tweaks. Don't mind if you run across odd looking pages or broken links.

I'm not sure why I haven't linked to it, but while I keep busy on the site... feel free to come and add me to your Myspace.

It's been interesting to see how some tattoo artists are utilizing the glorified guest book features of Myspace to push both their art and business. Most of these observations are obvious, but it's good to go over it anyway.

First, most are using a recent tattoo as their profile image. The image is pushed throughout the friend network and is a simple, but great idea. The key I'm seeing is to update it often. They rotate through a recent body of work and people get a powerful sample.

Second, in the area above the "Friend Space", many are loading it up with decent sized thumbnails of their work. Either they are static samples that link to bigger pictures, or people are running mini flash applications to pull off a moving slideshow. (like slide.com, or monoslideshow)

Having an area where clients, fans (once you get to that level), and friends can feel connected to you on a personal, updated level is worth every second put into it. Even if it's Myspace ugly.

Some examples:
Nikko
Markus
Robert Hernandez
Bob Tyrrell

It took a few days, but I've finally made the archives around this place a bit more accessible.

Here's the new archives index. I've added a handful of ways to dig through the entries: by tags, by month, and even a recently commented area.

I've had numerous requests for a list of the links (elsewhere) posted on the sidebar. So, to top it all off, the new links archive is up at Allentattoo.com/links

Now, I'm no stranger to the place being packed. But yesterday was different in the fact that I was thrown into rotation to help. I had an appointment coming in at 3:00 and my mind had been wrapped all around it. Suddenly, I had to mentally shift and realign all thoughts towards a 1:00 tattoo.

It went something like this:

Crap. Ok. I've got to finish the outline, but I can do that later. Wait, when is later? So finish the one that just landed on your plate in record time and life will be good. A solid, quick outline. Oh, I've got to come up with an stencil for this new one... alright. I'm on that. Geez, I'm never going to be able to clean tubes. Well, never meaning today, right? Ok, so, knock the 3:00 out of the park in good time and you'll have a little left for tubes, grips, counters, stations, garbage, and straightening up.

It didn't shake me up really, but it was certainly a loop. Carol, our piercer, noticed my downward spin and told me to take a second to breathe. So I did. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths, inhaling deep from my diaphragm. It helped to stall my crazy train.

But during that process I forgot about tattooing—I didn't take being in the skin into account. Now that I can step back and see entire day, I realize the calm in the middle of my mental storm was actually the zone I go to while I'm in the skin. It made the hustle worthwhile.

It's like being a kid. Wearing yourself out to work your way up to the top of some wonderful hill. Everything for the satisfaction of being able to coast back down the other side.

There's something cozy about this time of year. It's the best.

Enjoy your loved ones. Give lavishly. Enjoy a good smile.
Heck, enjoy keeping Santa sober.

I finished tattoo #35 and have caught up posting the rest in the gallery.

I'm starting to gain a new appreciation for flash. I heard a tattoo artist compare doing flash pieces to being in a cover band. Nice.