Select the text object whose character spacing you want to modify using the Selection tool.
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Turn fractional character widths off or on
Last updated on
Oct 27, 2025
Learn more on how to turn fractional character widths off or on in Illustrator.
By default, Illustrator applies fractional character widths, causing the spacing between characters to vary and sometimes use fractions of a pixel rather than whole pixels. Turn off fractional widths when you want to fix type spacing in whole pixel increments and prevent small type from running together.
Note
The fractional character width setting affects all characters on a type layer and cannot be applied to individual characters.
Select Window > Type > Character.
In the Character panel, select More options > Fractional Widths.
Tip
Select Fractional Widths option again to turn it off.
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