topic Re: What is character tracking increasing? in AutoCAD Forum

What is character tracking increasing?

NikhilPundir — Fri, 26 Sep 2025 20:25:45 GMT

I thought character tracking multiplies the character spacing by that factor. But in the attached image, the bottom most text has character tracking of 1, middle text has tracking of 2 and top has tracking of 4. I don't need middle text but added it for reference.

I was expecting the character spacing to be double in middle text and then 4 times in top text. But as you can see its much more that expected.

Also why cant the tracking be more than 4? I believe there is no such limit in illustrator. I did try to increase the width of MText but still tracking cannot be more than 4.

Re: What is character tracking increasing?

engrjvb — Sat, 27 Sep 2025 01:42:23 GMT

Hi @NikhilPundir, the spacing for MText is not absolute spacing where a value of 4 does not mean 4x the spacing but the relative distance or space between the characters. As you can see, the hypen (-) has the most space as it relatively has a small space.

You can try using fields to make it more customizable or refer to this post for more spacing : https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/change-character-spacing-of-in-a-sentense-one-line/td-p/7948942

Mark as solution or upvote if this answered your question—let’s keep the knowledge flowing.

Re: What is character tracking increasing?

Kent1Cooper — Sat, 27 Sep 2025 15:32:07 GMT

I suspect it's not the empty space between characters that is multiplied by the tracking number, but rather the character-to-character distance, whether that's left-side-to-left-side, or center-to-center, or some other basis points. Which basis is used would make some difference depending on the widths of the specific characters involved. Whatever the basis, it will be multiplying the tracking factor by a larger distance than your assumption. To me, that looks about right in the proportions in your image.

Re: What is character tracking increasing?

CGBenner — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 12:58:56 GMT

@NikhilPundir

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