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25th Oct 2016

People could not stop laughing at this Pointless contestant’s name badge

Oh... it's meant to read CLINT.

Carl Anka

Dear readers… it’s time we learnt about something called “kerning”.

Kerning is the practice of organising the space between letters to make text easily readable.

This is normal kerning using a web font. T h i s is me using a wider kerning, which makes the first “is” confusing to read in this sentence. T his is irregular kerning, which makes the word “this” less pleasant to read.

Kerning is a very important skill for typographers and advertisers. It can be the difference between a well-designed piece of work, and something that’s a headache to look at.

(Infamously, the end credits to “Skyfall” have really bad kerning.)

Why are we going on about a niche skill so much? Because on Monday evening, a gentlemen went on “Pointless” and well… look.

Clint-Pointless

That is what happens when you don’t sort your kerning out. A lovely gentleman called Clint turns up on tele with a nametag that looks like… well… y’know.

It didn’t take long for Pointless viewers to start rubbing their eyes in disbelief.

https://twitter.com/JQW/status/790590368748306436

Lovely lovely Clint is a property developer from Surrey, and popped up on the show with his son Colm.

“I have a love of Bruce Springsteen, the England football team and Colm,” he told Richard and Alexander.

We’re really sorry Clint. You seem like a lovely fella. But let’s take this as an exercise in learning proper kerning.

You can catch up on the latest episode of JOE’s Football Friday Live right here…

Topics:

Pointless