Give Me Some Space

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.