An introduction to kerning.

Explore the typographic art of kerning.

Design is full of detail-level concepts that matter more than their superficial simplicity would suggest. Kerning is a great example. When used effectively, kerning can be a powerful tool to influence aesthetic and communication through type. It’s a tool that, when used well, won’t be noticed by the average reader.

“If you start to look for it,” says designer Madeline DeCotes, “you’ll realize there’s so much more to letters than you thought possible.”

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What is kerning?

Kerning is the spacing between individual letters or characters. Unlike tracking, which adjusts the amount of space between the letters of an entire word in equal increments, kerning is focused on how type looks — creating readable text that’s visually pleasing. While typeface designers build in spaces around each letter, and sometimes between pairs of letters, those spaces don’t always work in all situations, especially if you’re using a typeface in a way the designer didn’t foresee. That’s when manual kerning comes in. Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder, no two kerning jobs will be the same.

“Kerning is a strikingly subjective art form,” explains DeCotes. “The designer needs to look at the space between each letter in a word and ask, ‘Does this look like enough space? Does it look like too much? Are the letters too tight?’”

Determining when to use kerning.

There are a number of situations where you’ll want to manually kern your type. Text that looks good at smaller point sizes, such as in a paragraph on a magazine page, may look awkward at larger sizes, like an article headline or a billboard. This is because smaller text sizes need more space between letters to maintain legibility. If you enlarge the text size without manually shrinking the space between characters, you probably won’t like the results.

Logos are another example where a font’s automatic kerning may not cut it. Designing a logo demands that you consider your kerning for a variety of applications — signs, websites, mugs, and pencils are all possibilities — and a good designer will kern with these potential uses in mind.

“If you’re not a designer, it’s not something you think about,” DeCotes says. “People don’t realize anytime they see giant text, whether it’s on a poster, a billboard, or a website, headline fonts have probably been thoughtfully kerned.”

Fonts downloaded from the internet for free can be problematic for designers, as their default kerning (also called metric kerning) is not set professionally. Designer Nick Escobar notes that free fonts are usually produced by amateurs. “They often have pretty bad kerning, so you have to go in and manually adjust it.”

As a general rule of thumb, Escobar says, “The better drawn a font is, and the more seasoned the artist is, the less you have to adjust the kerning.”

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Ways you can play with kerning.

The lack of set rules for kerning becomes the designer’s biggest advantage when working on more creative applications with type, such as logo design or editorial work. In these mediums, kerning becomes a way to influence the look and tone of your design.

“If you want to create fun shapes or energy in your logo, you can mess up the kerning and start to see how letterforms interact,” says designer Jimmy Presler. He offers the example of the FedEx logo, with its hidden arrow formed by the negative space between the letters.

DeCotes points to Nike as another example of intentional kerning. “If you look at the classic ‘Just Do It’ ads, you’ll notice the letters are kerned so tightly it’s obviously not the default font. But if they weren’t so tightly kerned together, it wouldn’t be as bold or impactful.”

The takeaway? Use the flexibility kerning offers to your advantage. Get creative and you could find new ways to control the look, feel, or even the meaning of your type.

“Whether things are tightly kerned or they’re spaced out, airy, and comfortable, you get different feelings, just like if you’re listening to a punk rock song, a jazz song, or a piece of classical,” Presler explains.

A few more kerning tips.

While kerning is subjective, keep these tips from the pros in mind as you set out to improve your skills.

1. Break it down into pieces: Working with just two letters at a time is a great way to hone your eye. By isolating kerning pairs, you can more easily spot where adjustments need to be made.

2. Get outside input: It’s hard to spot your own mistakes, especially if you’re just starting out. “When you’re new to it, get eyes on it,” advises Escobar.

3. Distance yourself from the work: No matter how experienced you are, getting space from your work is crucial. “It’s a rabbit hole you can fall into, because you can get really into the minutiae of making sure everything is perfect,” says Presler. “Work on it, then step away for a little while.”

4. Print it out: Another way to get a fresh perspective is to print out your work. “Printing something out at varying sizes can really help you understand where you might need to adjust kerning,” explains Presler.

5. Memorize common troublemakers: Certain letter combinations — like letter pairs with diagonal arms or legs such as the A or V — typically need adjusting. Capital letters followed by lowercase letters are also potentially problematic kerning pairs. “The first letter after a capital tends to need more adjustment, especially with a serif font,” designer Robin Casey says.

6. Practice: Kern Type, a kerning game for practicing letterspacing, is great for getting instant feedback, while tutorials can dive into more advanced techniques in Illustrator or InDesign.

Practice and exposure are the key ingredients to fine-tuning your kerning expertise. Now that you have these tips and tricks in your back pocket, it’s time for you to put your kerning know-how into practice.