Letter Spacing vs Kerning: How to Set the Space Between Letters in a Logo

The short answer

Letter spacing, also called tracking, changes the space evenly across a whole selection of letters, such as an entire wordmark. Kerning changes the space between one specific pair of adjacent letters. In logo work, you normally set tracking first to establish the overall density of the word. You then kern individual pairs that look too open or too tight, so that the spacing appears even to the eye.

The difference matters because the two tools fix different problems. Tracking controls the overall look of the word: airy, compact or neutral. Kerning corrects local unevenness caused by letter shapes. If you use one in place of the other, you get either a word whose overall texture is wrong or one in which particular pairs still stand out.

Key terms

• Tracking (letter spacing): a uniform increase or decrease of space applied across every letter in a selection.
• Kerning: an adjustment to the space between one specific pair of characters, such as A and V.
• Sidebearings: the built-in space a typeface designer places on the left and right of each glyph. Tracking and kerning work on top of these defaults.
• Metric kerning: the kerning pairs stored inside the font file by its designer.
• Optical kerning: spacing that design software calculates from the visible shapes of the letters instead of using the font's stored pairs.
• Em: a unit equal to the current type size. In many design applications, tracking and kerning values are entered in thousandths of an em, so a value scales with the type size.

Letter spacing vs kerning at a glance

Aspect | Tracking (letter spacing) | Kerning

Scope | Every letter in the selection | One pair of adjacent letters

Main purpose | Sets overall density and character of the word | Corrects uneven gaps caused by specific letter shapes

Typical order in logo work | First | After tracking is settled

Typical problem it solves | A word that feels too cramped or too loose overall | Pairs such as AV, To, LT or rn that look gappy or collide

Why logos need manual spacing

Typefaces are spaced for running text at reading sizes, where many words are viewed together. A logo is a single word or short phrase that people look at closely and often see very large or very small. Pairs that pass unnoticed in a paragraph can stand out in a wordmark. Common examples are diagonal letters next to each other, round letters next to straight ones, and capitals with overhanging arms beside lowercase letters. For this reason, logo lettering usually needs manual review rather than relying only on the font's default spacing.

The goal is optically even spacing, not mathematically equal distances. The space between two straight stems, between a straight and a round letter, and between two round letters will each measure differently when the word looks balanced. Judge the area of white space between letters, not the narrowest gap between them.

Step-by-step: spacing a logo wordmark

• 1. Set the word in live, editable type at a large size, and save a copy of this live-type version before making any other change.
• 2. Reset any existing tracking and kerning adjustments so that you are working from the font's defaults.
• 3. Compare metric and optical kerning, if your software offers both, and choose the one that looks more even as a starting point.
• 4. Adjust tracking for the whole word until the overall density suits the brand: tighter for a compact, solid feel, and looser for an open feel, especially in all-caps settings.
• 5. Kern pair by pair from left to right. Look at each gap in relation to its neighbors rather than in isolation.
• 6. Check the result upside down, blurred or zoomed out. These views make uneven gaps easier to see because you stop reading the word.
• 7. Check the logo at the smallest and largest sizes it will be used. Spacing that looks right large can appear to close up small, so a separate small-size version may be justified.
• 8. Have someone else review the spacing, since familiarity with the word makes problems harder to see.

Turning spacing into usable logo artwork

Once the spacing is final, logo files for delivery are commonly prepared with the type converted to outlines, which turns letters into vector paths. This makes the artwork display consistently on systems that do not have the font installed. After conversion, though, tracking and kerning controls no longer apply. Later changes to spacing mean moving paths by hand. For this reason, keep the live-type master file alongside the outlined delivery files.

If you are modifying letterforms or joining letters, convert the type to outlines only after the spacing is approved. Then check that the resulting paths are clean: no stray points, no overlapping shapes left unmerged where they should be unified, and no accidental gaps.

Font licenses differ in what they permit, including use in a logo and sharing the font file with clients or printers. Read the specific license before you deliver live-type files or font files. Note also that a vector file extension alone does not prove the file contains outlined, editable vector paths, and it does not grant permission to reuse a logo. Open the file and inspect its contents.

How to verify the result

• No single pair draws the eye as noticeably tighter or looser than the rest.
• The overall density matches the intended character of the brand.
• The spacing holds up at the smallest and largest intended sizes.
• The outlined delivery artwork matches the approved live-type version exactly.
• A live-type master is stored separately for future spacing edits.

What this guide does not specify

There is no universal correct tracking or kerning value. Suitable values depend on the typeface, the letter combination, whether the word is set in capitals or lowercase, and the size at which the logo appears. No typeface-specific measurements or benchmarks were available for this guide, so final spacing should be decided by visual review of your own artwork at its real sizes of use.