When letters are not correctly spaced, the appearance of your design suffers. The worst kerning is frequently the result of not kerning at all, relying on the typographer and your graphic design tools to perform their jobs correctly. You get fortunate a lot of the time, but there's no need to leave the success of your design to chance. There are many ways you can ensure that your typeface looks its best by using proper kerning. Kerning refers to the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a word or text string. Properly used, it allows you to create designs that are both attractive and readable. When done incorrectly, however, it can make reading difficult by causing words to overlap or giving an otherwise pleasing composition a messy look. In order for kerning to be effective, certain conditions must be met. First, the typefaces must be equally spaced (i.e., they should have the same leading). If they don't, then some sort of adjustment needs to be made so that they do. For example, if one typeface has more space between each letter than another, then those letters should be adjusted down so that they appear equal in height. Secondly, the amount by which each typeface is kerned must be consistent across the entire design. If some letters are spaced much closer together than others, the effect will not be uniform and your design will not read properly.