Adjust character spacing

You can increase or decrease the spacing between characters in any text. You might want to do this, for example, to experiment with line length in a document, or to make a title fit on a single line.

Another way to affect character spacing is to use ligatures, a decorative joining of two characters to form a single typographic character. You can use ligatures in your document if the font you’re using supports them.

Text examples with and without ligatures.

Increase or decrease the space between characters

  1. Select the text you want to change, or select a text box to change all the text in it.

    • For specific text: The character spacing applies only to that text.

    • For a text box: The character spacing applies to any text you type in the box after you apply the change.

  2. In the Format  sidebar, click the Style button near the top.

    If the text is in a text box, table, or shape, first click the Text tab at the top of the sidebar, then click the Style button.

  3. In the Font section, click the Advanced options checkbox, then use the arrows to change the Character Spacing value.

    The default spacing is zero. Increasing the value widens the spacing, and decreasing the value tightens it.

    The Advanced Options checkbox next to Bold, Italic, and Underline buttons.

If you want other text in the document to use the same settings, you can define a new paragraph style from your selection, then use that style for other text in your document.

Turn ligatures on or off for the document

  1. In the Document  sidebar, click the Document tab.

  2. Select or deselect the Ligatures checkbox.

Regardless of the document-wide setting for ligatures, you can turn ligatures on or off for specific text. See the next task to learn how.

Turn ligatures on or off for selected text

  1. Select the text you want to change, or select a text box to change all the text in it.

  2. In the Format  sidebar, click the Style button near the top.

    If the text is in a text box, table, or shape, first click the Text tab at the top of the sidebar, then click the Style button.

  3. In the Font section, click the Advanced Options checkbox, then click the Ligatures pop-up menu and choose an option.

    The Advanced Options checkbox next to Bold, Italic, and Underline buttons.
    • Use Default: Uses the ligature settings specified in the Typography window for the font you’re using.

      To open the Typography window, choose Format > Font > Show Fonts (from the Format window at the top of your screen).

    • Use None: Uses regular spacing with no ligatures for the font.

    • Use All: Uses all available ligatures for the font.

See alsoRaise and lower characters and textUse accents and special charactersFormat an equation with MathTypeCreate and use character styles