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2026-02-08
Kerning, Tracking, and Leading: The Three Spacing Knobs That Make Fonts Look Expensive
Typography has a funny secret: two designs can use the same font, the same colors, the same layout—yet one looks “premium” and the other looks like it was assembled during a coffee shortage. The difference is often spacing. Specifically: kerning, tracking, and leading.
Kerning is the adjustment between specific letter pairs (think “A” next to “V”). Good fonts ship with kerning tables, but not every renderer respects them, and not every font’s kerning is perfect. When headings look slightly off—like letters are quietly arguing—kerning is usually the culprit.
Tracking is the overall spacing applied evenly across a range of text. Tight tracking can make headlines feel bold and modern; too tight and you get a typographic traffic jam. Loose tracking can feel elegant—until it starts looking like the text is social distancing.
Leading is line spacing. Many sites default to something that’s “fine,” but fine is not a brand. A tiny increase in line-height can dramatically improve readability, especially for long lists of font names or licensing notes.
Here’s a practical, non-destructive way to improve typography on a legacy site (without redesigning everything):
- For body text: aim for
line-height: 1.5–1.7 and avoid super-narrow columns.
- For headings: test slightly tighter tracking (e.g.
letter-spacing: -0.01em).
- For all-caps labels: add a bit of tracking (e.g.
0.06em) so it breathes.
- Check two tricky pairs: “AV” and “To”. If they look wrong, kerning support is weak.
If you’re browsing fonts, you’ll also notice that the same word can look wildly different between fonts. That’s why using a consistent preview phrase on a font page matters. It’s not just aesthetics—it’s a usability feature.
We keep improving the preview and download flow on FontFreak, so if you want a quick reference point, open a font page and compare how the name and preview render. For example, here’s a direct page you can use for spacing eyeballing: Khan Light.
TL;DR: Kerning fixes awkward pairs, tracking sets the overall “tightness,” and leading makes paragraphs readable. Small spacing tweaks = big perceived quality.
