Character Spacing

[anakanya]

I write text to a pdf template based on the client's spec.

I can set all the font name, sizes, etc

pdf.beginText();
pdf.setFontAndSize(arg1, arg2);
pdf.showTextAligned(align, text, x,y,0F);
pdf.endText();

The problem I have is this part
pdf.setCharacterSpacing(float a);

When I look at the properties of the text on the pdf (by right clicking on the text and got to Properties), it says Character Spacing = 200

I cant say pdf.setCharacterSpacing(200) because the character spacing will be too huge.
I believe the 200 figure can be represented by a smaller number in Java (iText).

When I talk character spacing I mean
e.g.

instead of People
I have P e o p l e

Any advice will be appreciated in this regard.