This post brought to you by the word "Kerning"

[pendell]

A neat little game based around the concept of "kerning" (http://type.method.ac/#), that is, spacing the letters out on a sign so it looks attractive.

I scored 64/100. Was hitting 70-90 fairly frequently, but totally boned the last two. Good luck!

Respectfully,

Brian P.

PS. Hat tip to the XKCD message forum. -- BDP.

[Pika...]

Fun game. I completely failed, though. LoL.


ps.
On a side note, I find it interesting that there is a word just for that method of spacing letters. Seems so...unneeded? Perhaps the English language does have too many words. :smalleek:

[DeadManSleeping]

I got an 83, and I got at least four 100/100 solutions.

I am a man of considerable taste, clearly :smallamused:

Kerning is a pretty darn important thing in design. People who don't recognize it easily simply find something "wrong" with the design. Something undefinably unappealing. It's a good idea to have your kerning sorted out.

I'd really like to know what the programmers for that game used to determine match strength. It's clearly not completely straightforward.

[Weezer]

Yikes. I'm really bad at this. But I do find kerning pretty cool, and I think it's just as useful a word as any other bit of very specific technical jargon. How can a language have too many words?

[Pika...]

Yikes. I'm really bad at this. But I do find kerning pretty cool, and I think it's just as useful a word as any other bit of very specific technical jargon. How can a language have too many words?

That is what I hear a lot of true Hispanics say makes learning English difficult for them. Or was that too many words have too many meanings? I forget. :smallwink:

[Elder Tsofu]

85/100, got easier when I realized I could drag the letters with the pointer instead of using the arrows. -.-

[Dogmantra]

I got a few 100/100 solutions but ended up with a measly 59/100 overall score.

It's interesting to see that I apparently got the spacing between all the letters in the middle correct, or pretty close to correct, but I tended to shift them all too far to the right so poor Mr First Letter was all on his own.

[Astrella]

Got 80/100, got I think six 100/100, but botched up one completely because I hadn't noticed I dragged two letter over eachother. :s

[Cristo Meyers]

Wow...53/100...not so good. I did tend to at least move the letters in the right direction, at least. Just not far enough.

Oddly enough, I aced the last one :smallbiggrin:

[Remmirath]

I got 95/100, which is better than I would've expected. The way it determines how close it is does seem a little odd to me - some of the 100s I got didn't look as though they would be exact. It was interesting, though.

[Serpentine]

I got 83/100 :D Wonder what I would've gotten if I hadn't gotten 0 on the first one because I didn't understand how the thing works.

[DeadManSleeping]

Did you read the postscript, Eakin?

[Lady Moreta]

I got an 83, and I got at least four 100/100 solutions.

That's pretty much exactly what I got too... same score and same number of full marks... though I'm not 100% sure I deserved some of the full marks, it kept giving me 100/100 even when my solution didn't match the professionals - then again, I don't know how the program was marking it, so meh.

I found how easy it was depended on the fonts being used, serif were the hardest for me to figure out.

[Othesemo]

Hm... I got an 80/100. I completely bombed Gargantuan, but I think I did pretty well otherwise. At least 4 100%s.

[Objection]

60 out of 100 overall. Got a couple of 100s but often I found that I didn't bring the letters far enough to the left overall.

[noparlpf]

I got 71/100, with three or four 100/100s but the last two both under 25/100.

I was thinking about kerning on Friday or Saturday while attempting to configure OpenOffice now that I'm using it instead of MS Word (at least temporarily). The kerning in the sample text when I was picking fonts didn't feel right to me.

[Fiery Diamond]

I got 79/100. A got 3 (i think) 100s, and a couple that were in the 60s, with a smattering of 70-somethings and 80-somethings and one 91. I didn't agree with them on Quijote. The long curly thing on the end of the Q completely changes what looks right to me, and they didn't take it into account at all it seemed to me.

[noparlpf]

I think "Toronto" or whichever it was was one of my worse ones. I placed everything way too far to the right. I like to give my capital letters their space.

[Eakin]

Did you read the postscript, Eakin?

Pfft... Obviously. What kind of idiot would miss some critical detail in the very first post of a thread?

In fact... wait... LOOK! OVER THERE! A DISTRACTION! *destroys evidence*

[Ranger Mattos]

I got a 72/100, with two 100/100s. I probably would have done much better if not for that one I somehow got a 8/100 on >.<

[Trog]

Hmm.. 93/100. Not bad considering I do this for a living. Would have been better if I hadn't differed from the typographer who made this in my treatment of the word "Type." Ah well. We can't all agree. :smalltongue:

[Knaight]

76/100, with several 100s and a lot of 90-99s. And 2 20-30s, which are, in retrospect, pretty obvious (I gave the first letter way too much space on both)

[Feytalist]

At first I thought this was about last week's xkcd strip, heh.

83/100. Coupla 100%s. Aced the last one. It got better once I realised I could use the arrow keys. More control.

[factotum]

80/100 here...I think I got 22 on Gargantuan (where it thought all my letters were too far right), but scored at least 59 on all the others and got a few 100s as well.

[The Extinguisher]

I love keming! It's my favourite thing ever.

On an unrelated note, I only got like 4 out of 100. I wonder why ?

[Flame of Anor]

I didn't agree with them on Quijote. The long curly thing on the end of the Q completely changes what looks right to me, and they didn't take it into account at all it seemed to me.

I'm afraid those always go under the next letters. It's established tradition, beginning with handwriting, and almost everyone agrees that it looks right.


Hmm.. 93/100. Not bad considering I do this for a living. Would have been better if I hadn't differed from the typographer who made this in my treatment of the word "Type." Ah well. We can't all agree. :smalltongue:

You're a typographer? Cool! :smile:

Also, I got 90/100.

[thubby]

87/100

and a lot of that is what i consider to be a poor aesthetic choice. like they have one that uses script letters starting with a Q with a really long tail. such things are often used in advertising to underline part of the word.
the game disagreed and crammed much of the word off the the right to avoid that

[KenderWizard]

I got 83/100 :D Wonder what I would've gotten if I hadn't gotten 0 on the first one because I didn't understand how the thing works.

I did a similar thing! I thought I was only able to move one letter, so I did really badly on the first one!

I got 87/100 overall, though, with several 100s (didn't count), including a perfect on the last one (no difference between mine and the solution at all!).

It must be a very clever thing that decides how close you are. Something like the amount of difference between the solutions, weighted by how well it balances (putting one letter 1 unit off is way worse than putting all the letters slightly off, with a total difference adding up to 1 unit), and divided by the amount of space possible? Probably down to a certain lower bound (putting half the letters in a pile is just as much a 0/100 as putting all the letters in a pile).

[Trog]

You're a typographer? Cool! :smile:
Er no, sorry. That would indeed be cool. I use kerning because I'm just one of those run-of-the-mill graphic designer types.

[Greenish]

Perhaps the English language does have too many words. :smalleek:Given that every other human language ever spoken has less words, it seems English could do with less.


85/100. The game is oddly soothing and makes me feel better about the world and myself.

[Archonic Energy]

as an IT person without an artistic bone in my body I was quite pleased with my 80/100

I even got 3 100s! :smallsmile:

[Knaight]

Hm... I got an 80/100. I completely bombed Gargantuan, but I think I did pretty well otherwise. At least 4 100%s.

Gargantuan and Quijote (which is a name, for those that don't know) both got me, due to giving the capitals way too much space in both. I'd estimate a 90 without them, though I'm basing this on fuzzy memory of how many words there were and not actually bothering with the math.

[Timeless Error]

Huh, I got an 87. Not bad for a first try!

It's a fun game. I think I'll play it again to see if I can improve my score.

EDIT: second time around, got a 95!

[Loki_42]

I got an 82, bombed about three-ish, got at least four 100's. Overall, not too shabby for a guy who had literally never heard of Kerning until a recent xkcd.

[Nepenthe]

93% overall. I think I had seven 100%.

There is no correct way to kern "WAVE." It'll always look terrible, and I don't feel my solution was more bad than theirs. :smalltongue:

[Iruka]

I got a few 100/100 solutions but ended up with a measly 59/100 overall score.

It's interesting to see that I apparently got the spacing between all the letters in the middle correct, or pretty close to correct, but I tended to shift them all too far to the right so poor Mr First Letter was all on his own.

I shifted them mostly too far to the left.
Got some 100/100 and some 50/100 for a 77/100 total.

[Faceist]

I think "Toronto" or whichever it was was one of my worse ones. I placed everything way too far to the right. I like to give my capital letters their space.God, yeah. I got 85/100, but they were all pretty much 80+ except for the Toronto one. That font just does not agree with my eyes.

[Greenish]

The word is "holly". I'm moving the other L, when the optic mouse decides to jump way to the side. Hey, cool, you can place them beyond the limiting letters!

I fix the L, continue, then click ready. 0/100. I had the two L's mixed. :smallannoyed: