Some useful strings and tools to use in spacing and kerning type.
Pull Requests of further resources are welcome!
Paul Barnes said "There should be the international standard of spacing tests," and recommended this:
(Text wasn't directly given, so this is what I remember).
nnonnoonoo nnannooaoo nnbnnooboo nncnnoocoo nndnnoodoo nnennooeoo nnfnnoofoo nngnnoogoo nnhnnoohoo nninnooioo nnjnnoojoo nnknnookoo nnlnnooloo nnmnnoomoo nnpnnoopoo nnqnnooqoo nnrnnooroo nnsnnoosoo nntnnootoo nnunnoouoo nnvnnoovoo nnwnnoowoo nnxnnooxoo nnynnooyoo nnznnoozoo
HHOHHOOHOO HHAHHOOAOO HHBHHOOBOO HHCHHOOCOO HHDHHOODOO HHEHHOOEOO HHFHHOOFOO HHGHHOOGOO HHIHHOOIOO HHJHHOOJOO HHKHHOOKOO HHLHHOOLOO HHMHHOOMOO HHNHHOONOO HHPHHOOPOO HHQHHOOQOO HHRHHOOROO HHSHHOOSOO HHTHHOOTOO HHUHHOOUOO HHVHHOOVOO HHWHHOOWOO HHXHHOOXOO HHYHHOOYOO HHZHHOOZOO
008088088 0010088188 0020088288 0030088388 0040088488 0050088588 0060088688 0070088788 0090088988
The best part is that it's a simple, brief, memorable set of tests.
It is useful to adapt as needed, e.g. sometimes I use nnnannnoooaooo if it seems easier, I set different characters between numerals, etc.
As you design, use Word-o-Mat (available for both RoboFont and GlyphsApp)
Public-domain books across many languages: https://www.gutenberg.org/
EU documents are translated into all European languages. Find them at https://eur-lex.europa.eu. Try the feature that sets different languages side-by-side! Random example: "Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway on reciprocal access to fishing in the Skagerrak for vessels flying the flag of Denmark, Norway and Sweden"
Drag-and-drop test specimens: http://www.cyreal.org/Font-Testing-Page/
Drawbot: an open-source, Python-based design tool which is excellent for testing fonts in a programmatic way. See Python for Designers as an introduction to this.
https://ohnotype.co/blog/spacing
Suggestions below are from an archived blog post by Ultrasparky (Dan Rhatigan): Spacing Tests
1000 digits of Pi - more at https://www.piday.org/million/
3141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067982148086513282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381964428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609433057270365759591953092186117381932611793105118548074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011949129833673362440656643086021394946395224737190702179860943702770539217176293176752384674818467669405132000568127145263560827785771342757789609173637178721468440901224953430146549585371050792279689258923542019956112129021960864034418159813629774771309960518707211349999998372978049951059731732816096318595024459455346908302642522308253344685035261931188171010003137838752886587533208381420617177669147303598253490428755468731159562863882353787593751957781857780532171226806613001927876611195909216420198
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vertrag crainte screw verwalter croyant science verzicht fratricide sketchy vorrede frivolité story yankee instruction take zwetschge lyre treaty zypresse navette tricycle fraktur nocturne typograph kraft pervertir vanity raffeln presto victory reaktion prévoyant vivacity rekord priorité wayward revolte proscrire efficiency tritt raviver without trotzkopf tactilité through tyrann arrêt known
Originally devised by Leslie Cabarga
How to Use Kern King
First, complete the spacing of your font in progress, but before adding kerning . . . paste [this text] into a word processing or layout program document, look at the words in lowercase, then as all caps, and see how they set. Make a list of all the problem pairs: those that are too far apart, and those that are too close together. Open up the font again in Fontographer or FontLab, make corrections to spacing and add kerning. Generate the font a second time. Check again. Repeat process until [spacing and] kerning seems perfect.
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7071727374757677879700
8081828384858687889800
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