About kerning and tracking

In typography, character spacing shapes readability and visual balance. In InDesign, you adjust it with kerning and tracking. Kerning fine-tunes space between specific letter pairs like LA, To, or Wa for a balanced look. Tracking adjusts spacing uniformly across a range of characters, tightening or loosening entire blocks of text.

Types of kerning

You can automatically kern text using Metrics kerning or Optical kerning.

Metrics kerning

Metrics kerning uses kern pairs built into most fonts. The spacing values are defined by the font designer for specific letter combinations, such as LA, P., To, Tr, Ta, Tu, Te, Ty, Wa, WA, We, Wo, Ya, and Yo.

In InDesign, metrics kerning is applied by default when you import or type text, so these predefined pairs are automatically adjusted. To disable metrics kerning, set the kerning value to 0.

Optical kerning

Optical kerning adjusts spacing based on the shape of adjacent characters rather than predefined font data.

This method is especially useful when a font has few or no built-in kern pairs, when multiple typefaces are used within the same word, or when different font sizes appear on the same line. Optical kerning, designed for Roman glyphs, can improve spacing consistency when font metrics fall short.

Manual kerning

You can apply manual kerning to adjust the spacing between two specific characters. Manual kerning is useful for fine typographic control, especially in headlines, logos, or display text where precise spacing is important. Manual kerning and tracking are cumulative. This means you can first adjust the spacing between individual letter pairs and then tighten or loosen the overall text without changing those relative adjustments.

Kerning vs. word spacing

Word kerning differs from the Word Spacing setting available in the Justification dialog box.

• Word kerning changes the kerning value only between a word’s first character and the preceding word space.
• Word spacing adjusts the spacing between all words when text is justified.

How kerning and tracking are measured

Kerning and tracking are measured in 1/1000 em, a unit relative to the current type size.

For example:

• In a 6-point font, 1 em = 6 points
• In a 10-point font, 1 em = 10 points

Because these values are relative to the font size, kerning and tracking adjustments scale proportionally with the text. When you place the insertion point between two characters, InDesign displays the kerning value in both the Character and Control panels. If the kerning is Metrics or Optical, the value appears in parentheses. Similarly, when you select a word or a range of text, the tracking value appears in the Character panel and Control panel, allowing you to adjust the spacing for the selected text.