Kerning, tracking, and leading (line height) are the three fundamental spacing controls in typography. Small adjustments make a significant difference to readability and visual tone.
Letter spacing (tracking)
Tight: letter-spacing: -0.04em
Fresh bread from the village bakery every Saturday morning
Normal: letter-spacing: 0
Fresh bread from the village bakery every Saturday morning
Open: letter-spacing: 0.1em
Fresh bread from the village bakery every Saturday morning
Wide: letter-spacing: 0.25em
Saturday Market
Word spacing
Normal: word-spacing: 0
The morning light fell softly through the kitchen curtains and onto the table where breakfast was laid.
Wide: word-spacing: 0.4em
The morning light fell softly through the kitchen curtains and onto the table where breakfast was laid.
Line height (leading)
line-height: 1.2
The narrow lanes of the old quarter wind between whitewashed walls, shaded by bougainvillea and jasmine that spill over every balcony.
line-height: 1.6
The narrow lanes of the old quarter wind between whitewashed walls, shaded by bougainvillea and jasmine that spill over every balcony.
line-height: 2.2
The narrow lanes of the old quarter wind between whitewashed walls, shaded by bougainvillea and jasmine that spill over every balcony.
Kerning
CSS font-kerning controls whether a font's built-in kerning pairs are applied. Kerning tightens space between specific character pairs (AV, To, We) that would otherwise look too wide.
font-kerning: auto (default)
AVOCADO · ToWards · WaVing · Yes
font-kerning: none
AVOCADO · ToWards · WaVing · Yes