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What does letter spacing mean?

Author

Olivia Shea

Updated on March 21, 2026

What does letter spacing mean?

In typography, letter-spacing, also referred to as tracking by typographers, refers to an optically consistent degree of increase (or sometimes decrease) of space between letters to affect visual density in a line or block of text. Letter-spacing should not be confused with kerning.

Likewise, what is the meaning of letter spacing?

1 : insertion of space between the letters of a word. 2 : the standard distance between adjacent characters (as in composed text) : tracking — compare kerning.

Subsequently, question is, what is letter spacing in word? Character Spacing | Spacing lets you stretch or compress text. It's a handy trick for headings, it makes them look bigger without increasing the font size. Default 'Heading 1' with Expanded text. Or compress text so more fits into limited space.

Simply so, what are the 2 spacing of letters?

Kerning refers to the amount of space between two letters (or other characters: Numbers, punctuation, etc.) and the process of adjusting that space to avoid awkward-looking gaps between your letters and improve legibility. In this article, we will outline how to kern like a professional designer.

How do you space out letters?

The rule of thumb is that the space in between the letters in a word should be half of the letter width and the space in between words should be the width of one letter. If your letters are two inches wide, then the space between letters should be one inch and the space between words should be two inches.

What is the difference between letter spacing and kerning?

Letter-spacing/tracking is when you adjust the overall spacing between letters. Kerning is when you manually adjust spacing between specific letter pairs in words that cause problems to improve consistency and legibility (and make them fit).

What is the use of line spacing?

Line spacing determines the amount of vertical space between lines of text in a paragraph. By default, lines are single-spaced, meaning that the spacing accommodates the largest font in that line, plus a small amount of extra space. Paragraph spacing determines the amount of space above or below a paragraph.

What is the difference between kerning and tracking?

Kerning and tracking are two related and frequently confused typographical terms. Both refer to the adjustment of space between characters of type to improve readability and appearance. Kerning adjusts the space between two letters. Tracking applies the same amount of space between each character in a selection.

How do I fix font spacing?

Expand or condense the space evenly between all the selected characters
  1. Select the text that you want to change.
  2. On the Home tab, click the Font Dialog Box Launcher, and then click the Advanced tab.
  3. In the Spacing box, click Expanded or Condensed, and then specify how much space you want in the By box.

What is tracking in typesetting?

Tracking is a term used to identify the way you decrease or increase the horizontal spacing between a range of letters or characters. Usually, this technique is a method designers leverage to adjust and fine-tune the letter spacing of a logo, or font on a website. It works alongside kerning and leading.

How do I get perfect kerning?

10 top tips for kerning type
  1. Choose your typeface early on.
  2. Consider specific letter combinations.
  3. Blur your eyes.
  4. Flip the typeface upside down.
  5. Create rhythm and consistency.
  6. Remember spacing between words.
  7. Supply two versions of a logo.
  8. Try out a kerning tool.

How do I get rid of weird spaces in Word?

Remove double line spacing
  1. Select the paragraph you want to change, or press Ctrl+A to select all text.
  2. Go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing.
  3. Select the line spacing you want.
  4. For more exact spacing, select Line Spacing Options, and make changes under Spacing.

Why is there a huge space in my Word document?

This happens when the text alignment is "justified" in word. Just go to the end of the line and press enter once. This normally happens when after the sentence is over, we do not hit enter, but just keep typing "space" and the sentence starts on the next line. This gap is due to section break.

What is 1.5 spacing word?

The lines in all Word documents are single-spaced by default, which is appropriate for letters and most documents. But you can easily change your document line spacing to double or 1.5 lines to allow extra space between every line. This is useful when you want to make notes on a printed document.

How do I fix Canva spacing?

Adjust text spacing
  1. Tap the text with spacing you'd like to edit.
  2. Select Spacing below the font size selector.
  3. Drag the sliders to the left to decrease and right to increase both height and spacing.
  4. Tap Done to save.

How do I change the spacing between lines in Word 2010?

Change the line spacing in a portion of the document
  1. Select the paragraphs you want to change.
  2. Go to Home > Line and Paragraph Spacing.
  3. Choose the number of line spaces you want or select Line Spacing Options, and then select the options you want under Spacing.

How do you adjust kerning?

Changing Kerning
  1. Select the text whose kerning you want to adjust.
  2. Press Ctrl+D. Word displays the Font dialog box.
  3. In Word 2007 make sure the Character Spacing tab is selected.
  4. Click on the Kerning for Fonts check box.
  5. Adjust the character point size to indicate when Word should start adjusting kerning.
  6. Click on OK.

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