Kerning, or crénage in French, is the adjustment of the space between two specific letters whose shapes create a gap or a collision. Unlike letter spacing, which applies to every letter, it only concerns certain pairs.
Where to see it
Kerning can be seen in pairs such as “AV”, “To”, “Ta”, “LT” or “Wa”, where the letters need to move closer together for the spacing to look even. It is built into the font by its designer, but is often corrected by hand in headlines, logotypes and large point sizes, where the slightest flaw stands out.
Why this detail matters
Kerning is one of the details that set careful typesetting apart from approximate typesetting:
- Without kerning, some pairs leave visible holes that visually split a word in two;
- In a logotype or a large headline, every gap is magnified by the size: kerning adjusted by eye produces a sharp, balanced whole;
- The quality of a font is also judged by its kerning tables, which sometimes include thousands of pairs corrected by its designer.
Related term
Tracking, or overall letter spacing, uniformly adjusts the space between all the letters in a selection, whereas kerning only corrects certain pairs.