Typography is the art of arranging letters so words are clear, balanced, and expressive. Kerning, tracking, and leading are three spacing controls that strongly affect how text feels and how easily it can be read. Good spacing creates visual rhythm, guides the eye, and makes a design look polished.
Poor spacing can make even a strong font look awkward or difficult to understand.
Kerning adjusts the space between specific pairs of letters, such as A and V, where shapes can create uneven gaps. Tracking changes the overall spacing across a word, line, or paragraph, making text feel tighter, wider, denser, or more open. Leading controls the vertical distance from one baseline of text to the next, which affects how comfortably the eye moves through multiple lines.
Designers use these tools together to balance readability, hierarchy, mood, and page composition.
Key Facts
- Kerning = spacing adjustment between individual letter pairs.
- Tracking = uniform letter spacing applied across a range of text.
- Leading = baseline to baseline distance between lines of text.
- Point size and leading are often written as font size/leading, such as 12/16.
- Extra leading = leading value - font size, such as 16 pt - 12 pt = 4 pt.
- Readable body text often uses leading about 120% to 150% of font size, so leading = font size x 1.2 to 1.5.
Vocabulary
- Kerning
- Kerning is the adjustment of space between two specific letters to make the gap look visually even.
- Tracking
- Tracking is the overall adjustment of letter spacing across a word, sentence, or block of text.
- Leading
- Leading is the vertical distance between the baselines of two lines of text.
- Baseline
- The baseline is the invisible line that most letters sit on in a line of type.
- Readability
- Readability is how easily a person can recognize and understand written text.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using tracking instead of kerning for one awkward letter pair is wrong because tracking changes every letter space, not just the problem gap.
- Making tracking too tight is wrong because letters can collide visually and make words harder to recognize quickly.
- Using leading that is too small is wrong because lines crowd together and the reader may lose their place while reading.
- Assuming equal mathematical spacing always looks best is wrong because different letter shapes create different visual gaps, so spacing must be judged optically.
Practice Questions
- 1 A paragraph is set in 10 pt type with 14 pt leading. How much extra leading is there between lines?
- 2 A designer wants leading equal to 130% of a 12 pt font size. What leading value should the designer use?
- 3 A logo contains the letters A and V, and the space between them looks larger than the spaces between the other letters. Should the designer adjust kerning, tracking, or leading, and why?