Found a hidden gem in a copy shop in Portland that fixed my kerning workflow

Went to this small print shop downtown Portland last week to pick up test sheets and noticed they had a huge type specimen wall with every font spaced out manually. The owner showed me how he eyeballs letter spacing using a simple trick: flip the text upside down and squint. I tried it right there on my phone with a mockup I was struggling with, and it actually worked better than my usual grid overlay method. Now I keep a mirror app open on my second monitor to flip type designs on the fly. It's free, takes two seconds, and catches awkward gaps I used to miss for days. Has anyone else tried a flipped-view trick for spacing or is there a tool that does this automatically?

2 comments

2 Comments

janahenderson10d ago

Flipping text upside down changed how I spot bad spacing too, it's wild!

jennifer_fisher9d ago

Did you hear about that trick on design podcasts too? Total game changer.