Compress or expand the height of selected characters is known as?

• A. Leading
• B. Tracking
• C. Kerning
• D. Vertical scaling

Answer: (D)

Vertical scaling is about changing the height of the glyphs themselves by scaling along the vertical axis, compressing or expanding their height to achieve a taller or shorter look. This is different from leading, which adjusts the vertical space between lines; tracking, which affects the overall spacing of characters in a line; and kerning, which fine-tunes the space between specific character pairs. Use vertical scaling when you need to alter the perceived height of selected characters to fit a design or achieve a particular proportion, while keeping in mind that overdoing it can distort readability.