Hidden under the Type menu, inside the Insert White Space submenu, you’ll find all the space you could ever want. I will be covering lots of these exacting spaces in upcoming tips, but today I will concentrate on just two – the Em Space and the En Space.
You could assume, like I did, that these spaces are equal to the width of the letters M and N respectively. But, you will see as we venture further into space, assuming anything is not a good idea. An Em Space is actually the same width as the point size of your type. So, when using 12 point type, an Em is 12 points wide. Go ahead, try it. Type in a few words using 12 point type in any typeface. Go to Type > Insert White Space > Em Space. To see how an Em measures up, draw a 12 point by 12 point rectangle. (Click with your Rectangle tool, type in “12 pt” for both measurements, and click OK.) Fill the rectangle with any Swatch color to make it easier to see. Now select just your Em Space. The highlighted Em is exactly the same width as your filled rectangle. If you’re using 12 point type with 12 points of Leading, the highlighted Em Space is an exact 12 point by 12 point square. What about an En Space? An En Space is exactly half the width of an Em. So when using 12 point type, an En Space is 6 points wide.
Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Certified Adobe® Training Provider.
Author: jeff witchel
Jeff Witchel graduated from Pratt Institute in 1973 with a B.F.A. (Cum Laude) in Advertising Design and Visual Communications. He has been an award-winning advertising art director, writer, designer, illustrator, and TV producer ever since.
Before starting his own advertising agency in New Jersey, Jeff built his career at top New York ad agencies such as Young & Rubicam, Grey Advertising, and Wells, Rich, Greene. Over the years, he has created award-winning work for many clients including AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Jell-O Pudding, The Plaza Hotel, and Pfizer. His many prestigious awards include N.Y. Art Directors Club Gold Award, One Show Gold Award, N.J. Art Directors Club Award, multiple Andy Awards, Graphis Annual, numerous readership awards, plus an Emmy Award nomination.
Jeff is a self-taught computer artist with over 19 years of experience. His initial introduction to the computer was with PageMaker, but he switched to Quark 1.0 when it was first introduced in 1987. Having arrived on the desktop publishing scene so early, Jeff became the “go to” guy for answers when others started getting into computer graphics.
As an Adobe Certified Expert, he’s provided online support for Adobe and is now an Adobe Certified Training Provider for both Adobe Illustrator CS2 and Adobe InDesign CS2. Jeff is one of just a handful of Adobe Certified Instructors in the New York metropolitan area. He also is a Quark Certified Expert in QuarkXPress 6 as well as a master of Adobe Photoshop and related applications. He counts among his training clients ad agencies, design studios, magazines, illustrators, and photographers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
