Every once in a while, it’s a good idea to force the selected glyphs to update their sidebearings by choosing Glyph > Update Metrics (Ctrl-Cmd-M). So, we enter n in both the LSB and the RSB of n, and h will dynamically take over the sidebearings of n: It even works for Widths: setting the RSB and Width will recalculate the LSB, setting the LSB and Width will yield a calculated RSB. What we do is this: instead of entering a number value indicating the sidebearing distance, we enter the name of another glyph! Glyphs will then reduplicate the other letter’s sidebearing in the current letter. But that’s suboptimal, because what happens if we later change the sidebearing of the n again? Do we really want to keep track of all the sidebearings manually? Hell no. So, for instance, we could go check on the n and copy the sidebearings into the grey info area (Cmd-Shift-I) of h. In many cases, it can have the same sidebearings as n, because, except for the ascender, h and n look pretty much the same, at least in a sans. Sidebearing arithmeticsīut wait a minute, h should be easy if we already have the n. If that happens, just move the cursor back in front of another letter. Watch out, the placeholder can act weird if the cursor is all the way at the end of the test text you entered. You can check on the sidebearings and the width of any glyph by taking a look at the grey info panel ( View > Show Info, Cmd-Shift-I):

The Preview area has options for blurring and flipping your text so you can keep a fresh look at your design. You can drag its separator line to the intended reading size. Consider opening the Preview area at the bottom with the eye symbol in the bottom left corner of the window. If you are zoomed in too much, you will tend to make it too tight. Tip: Make sure you do your spacing in the correct size. The string contains an n between two o’s, an o between two n’s, double-o and double-n: if you manage to make them all appear, for your eyes, equidistant to each other, you win. So, I recommend you type something like noononno and fiddle around with those sidebearings until you’re satisfied. Once those two letters have proper sidebearings, the rest is relatively easy.

When doing the spacing of a Latin alphabet, it is a good idea to start out with n and o.

Principle app letter spacing