Non-Designer’s Type Book, The, Second Edition

Kerning Definitions

These are brief definitions of the variety of terms related to kerning.

What it is	What it means	When to use it
Letter spacing	Adding or decreasing the same amount of space between all the letters. Letter spacing is applied to a range of text; kerning is applied to individual pairs.	Usually used to change the spacing of a large amount of text to open the face or tighten it, depending on the natural characteristics of the typeface and its purpose on the page.
Kerning	General term for adjusting the space between letters.	Kern to create a visually consistent look.
Pair kerning	The special kerning built into certain combinations of letters when the typeface was designed. You can use special programs to add more kerning pairs to your fonts. ...