Train your eye for kerning, spacing and colour

Optical centre is not the measured centre

A shape can sit exactly in the middle by the numbers and still look low or off to one side. Triangles look centred when there is equal space to all three sides, not at the middle of their box. Heavy shapes look lower than light ones. Designers nudge by eye until the space around the shape feels even.

Even spacing is measured edge to edge

When you space a row of shapes, it is the gaps between their edges that should match, which is what Distribute Spacing does in design apps. Mixed shapes make it harder: a triangle or a star looks further away than its box says.

Kerning is about the space between letters

Some letter pairs leave a hole (A and V, T and y, L and T) and others crowd each other. The typeface designer sets kerning so the word reads as even, and good fonts carry thousands of these pairs. To practise, look at a word upside down or blurred: uneven gaps stand out.

Colour difference has a number

Two colours can look the same on one screen and different on another. Designers and printers measure the difference as ΔE (CIEDE2000): under 1 nobody can see it, under 2 only a trained eye can, and over 5 it is a different colour. Mixing a colour by hue, then saturation, then brightness is the quickest way to close in.

Practise for a few minutes a day with Eye (free)

Eye is a free daily game from KHBROS for Mac, Windows and Android, with every feature included.

1. Play Today's Seven: Centre, Bisect, Spacing, Kern, Colour, Spot and Bézier, the same rounds for everyone each day.
2. Each answer is measured against the perfect one, in points or in ΔE, and scored from 0 to 100.
3. Practise any round on its own, keep your daily streak and share your result.