Kerning
Kerning
The spacing adjustment between specific letter pairs. Affects subtitle legibility, especially for thin display fonts and ALL-CAPS text.
In depth
Kerning is the typographic adjustment of spacing between specific pairs of glyphs (AV, To, We, etc.) to compensate for the optical illusion that uneven shapes create when set at uniform spacing. For subtitles, kerning matters most with display fonts, ALL CAPS settings, and condensed sans-serifs. Most professional fonts ship with kerning tables; the OpenType `kern` feature is on by default in modern renderers.
When to use it
Care about kerning when designing custom caption styles in ASS or when using condensed display fonts. For default sans-serif captions, the font's built-in kerning handles it.
Frequently asked
Is kerning the same as letter-spacing?+
No. Kerning is per-pair adjustment defined by the font. Letter-spacing (tracking) is uniform spacing applied across all letters. Kerning + tracking together control caption legibility.