Karaktertér

Karaktertér (character space) is a term used in typography to describe the horizontal space allocated to a single character in a line of text. It is determined by the glyph’s advance width and by any side bearings that precede or follow the glyph within the font's metrics. In monospace fonts, every character occupies the same karaktertér; in proportional fonts, the width varies from glyph to glyph.

In font design, the karaktertér is defined within the font's metrics: the advance width is the distance the cursor moves after rendering the character, while left and right side bearings define extra spacing before and after the glyph. The em square (often denoted as 1000 units in font files) provides the reference frame for measuring these values. The bounding box of the glyph describes its visual limits, but the karaktertér is the space the glyph occupies in layout.

Spacing adjustments: Kerning adjusts the space between specific pairs of characters; tracking (letter-spacing) adjusts the karaktertér uniformly across a range of text. In CSS and typesetting, properties like letter-spacing or font-feature-settings influence perceived karaktertér.

Applications and implications: Karaktertér affects readability, word-wrapping, justification, and line length. Designers balance a comfortable karaktertér with font aesthetics and the available line width. In digital interfaces, accurate karaktertér ensures alignment in grids, monospaced code blocks, and tabular data.

See also: kerning, tracking, advance width, font metrics, em units.