Kerning

Kerning is the space between two specific letters, adjusted by hand so the pair looks right. Not the spacing of a whole word or a paragraph. One pair at a time.

Certain letter pairs are troublemakers. Put a capital A next to a capital V and their slanted sides open an awkward gap that spacing math alone can't fix. Kerning is the manual nudge that closes the gap so "AVOCADO" doesn't read like "A VOCADO." Big headlines and logos are where it earns its keep; at body-text sizes nobody can see it.

It gets confused with two siblings. Tracking (letter-spacing) spreads every letter in a word evenly, like loosening a whole belt. Leading is the vertical space between lines of text. Kerning is couples therapy for two letters.

Once you see bad kerning you can't unsee it, and there's a running joke that learning the word ruins storefront signs forever. Sorry in advance.

If a logo or headline looks slightly off and you can't say why, the gaps between letters are the first suspects. Now you can say "check the kerning" and sound like you've done this before.