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Adjusting character and word spacing

You can improve text readability by adjusting the character and word spacing. When letters or words are too close together, or too far apart, they become difficult to read. CorelDRAW offers you different tools for controlling text spacing.

Character spacing

You can change the spacing between characters (also known as "letter spacing") in a block of text. For example, fully justifying a block of text may insert too much space between characters, which creates a visual imbalance. To improve readability, you can decrease the character spacing.

Increased character spacing (left) makes it difficult to read the text. Decreased character spacing (right) improves readability.

If you want to change the spacing between several characters, you need to adjust the kerning. For more information, see Kerning a range of characters.

Word spacing

You can also adjust the spacing between words.

Decreased word spacing makes it difficult to discern the individual words in a paragraph (left). Increased word spacing (right) makes easier to read the paragraph.

To adjust character spacing Back to Top
1.
 
Do one of the following:
Using the Text tool , position the cursor in a block of text.
Using the Pick tool , click an artistic text object or a text frame.
If the Object properties docker is not open, click Window Dockers Object properties.
2.
 
In the Object properties docker, click the Paragraph button to display the paragraph-related options.
3.
 
In the Paragraph area of the Object properties docker, type a value in the Character spacing box.
Values for adjusting spacing represent a percentage of the space character. The Character values range from -100 to 2000 percent. All other values range from 0 to 2000 percent.
You can also change the character spacing proportionally by clicking the Shape tool , selecting the text object, and dragging the Interactive horizontal spacing arrow in the lower-right corner of the text object.
To adjust word spacing Back to Top
1.
 
Do one of the following:
Using the Text tool , position the cursor in a block of text.
Using the Pick tool , click an artistic text object or a text frame.
If the Object properties docker is not open, click Window Dockers Object properties.
2.
 
In the Object properties docker, click the Paragraph button to display the paragraph-related options.
3.
 
In the Paragraph area of the Object properties docker, type a value in the Word spacing box.
You can also change the word spacing proportionally by clicking the Shape tool , holding down Shift, selecting the text object, and dragging the Interactive horizontal spacing arrow in the lower-right corner of the text object.

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