Kerning versus Leading

Let’s continue looking at specific publishing terms that can be confused (and that may be to some, a bit obscure.)

Both of these are related to the appearance of text. These are listed in our Publishing Glossary, posted here.

kerning

The selective adjustment of space between particular characters (called “letterspacing”) to improve appearance or ease of reading. (From The Chicago Manual of Style, 16e.)

A typographical term that refers to adjusting the space between characters, especially by placing two characters closer together than normal. Kerning makes certain combinations of letters, such as WA, MW, TA, and VA, look better. (From webopedia.com.)

Only the most sophisticated word processors and desktop publishing systems perform kerning. Normally, you can activate or deactivate kerning for particular fonts (From webopedia.com.) (Compare leading.)

leading (pronounced LED-ing)

A typographical term that refers to the vertical space between lines of text. The word derives from the fact that typographers once used thin strips of lead to separate lines. The leading value also includes the size of the font. For example, 10-point text with 2 points of spacing between lines would mean a leading of 12 points.

Many word processors and all desktop publishing systems allow you to specify the leading. In addition, some systems automatically adjust leading so that columns and pages have even bottom margins. This feature is called vertical justification.

Leading is also called line spacing. (Excerpted from webopedia.com; edited.)

Simply stated, kerning involves the spacing between letters, while leading involves the spacing between lines.

Both of these tools can be extremely useful in order to produce a balanced, good-looking page. I’ll occasionally use the leading feature in Microsoft Word when preparing an important document that will simply be converted to .pdf directly from the Word. In my experience, the need to use the kerning feature in Word rarely comes up. The reality is that it’s beyond the true purpose and capabilities of Word.

For authors who are writing the text for the manuscript of a book to be produced in Adobe InDesign, both of the features should be completely ignored, because the changes you make will not apply to the book page that will be produced. Adjusting either the kerning or the leading will, at minimum, create additional work for the compositor (the person who lays out the pages) and could lead to additional anomalies later on.

So when writing the text, it’s best not to monkey around with the finer details of the layout, which will be discarded. You’ll get a far superior final product if you leave this to the professionals.

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