Kerning is the adjustment of space between two specific letters in a piece of text. It fine-tunes the visual gaps between individual character pairs so the text looks even and reads smoothly.
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Unlike tracking, which spaces out an entire line or block of text uniformly, kerning targets specific letter combinations, like AV or To, that would otherwise look too tight or too loose.

Why does kerning matter?

Good kerning makes text look balanced, professional, and easy to read, while poor kerning can create awkward gaps or crowded letters that distract readers. It matters most at larger sizes, like logos and headlines, where uneven spacing is more noticeable.

Most fonts come with built-in kerning pairs, but designers often fine-tune kerning manually in tools like Figma or Adobe Illustrator, especially for wordmarks and display type.

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