Tracking and Kerning 'Jitter'?

Question

In Photoshop, you can add jitter to brush settings, so opacity, size, etc., change within a range while drawing.

I'm curious if anyone knows of a method for creating jitter for kerning and tracking, so that a piece of text has randomized kerning/tracking values throughout without having to go through and edit the kerning and tracking every few characters.

Photoshop solutions or otherwise would be great! Thanks.

Answer 1

Here is a script for InDesign which allows you to randomize the tracking of the individual characters selected text.

The script has two settings: minTracking which sets the lowest allowed tracking and maxTracking which sets the highest allowed tracking.

Script

// settings
var minTracking = -100;
var maxTracking = 100;

// main function
function main() {
    // reference to the characters within the current selection
    var characters = app.selection[0].characters;
    // iterate through the selected characters
    for (var i = 0; i < characters.length; i++) {
        // set tracking to a random number between minTracking and maxTracking
        characters[i].tracking = Math.random() * (maxTracking - minTracking) + minTracking;
    }
}

// run main function as one undoable action
app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.javascript, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'Randomize Tracking');

Usage

• Copy the script and paste it into a text editor.
• Edit the two settings to fit your needs.
• Save the script as a .jsx file and place it in the folder with your other userscripts. (You can find them by right-clicking the User folder in the Scripts panel and choose Reveal in Explorer/Finder.)
• Make a text selection or select a text frame.
• Locate and double-click the script in the Scripts panel.

Notes

• The script will fail if you try to run it with no open document, without having any text selected or if you have a selection which contains other objects (and maybe more). Different checks could be added to account for these situations.
• An interface could be added to make it easier to choose other settings.