Adventures in Kerning

   To kern is to adjust the space between characters. In a world without kerning, kerning is spelled "keming." It is a world where "r" and "n" combine to make "m". It is a world where "L" and "i" combine to make "U". It is a world where graphic designers cry themselves to sleep every night.
    Kerning is necessary to make type readable, and pleasing. However, bad kerning might be used in artistic, and satirical circumstances.
   Fonts are usually auto kerned, but when you change the size,  boldness, tracking, or another aspect of the type, the computer's algorithms for kerning might not work. Characters then have to be manually kerned. Lastly, characters can be optically kerned, which is based on the shapes of the letters. Manual kerning usually provides the best resulsts.
    Kerning and tracking are actually different. Tracking adjusts the spacing between all letters. Kerning adjusts spacing between letter pairs such as "AV".
    If you would like to test your spacing capabilities click here: http://type.method.ac/. This is a game called Kerntype, that challenges your innate sense of spacing.