the adjustment of space between the letters of words to improve the appearance of printed text
kerning in American English
(ˈkɜːrnɪŋ)
noun
Printing
the setting of two letters closer together than is usual by removing space between them
Word origin
[1675–85; kern2 + -ing1]This word is first recorded in the period 1675–85. Other words that entered Englishat around the same time include: explorer, prairie, retouch, surf, upstream-ing is a suffix of nouns formed from verbs, expressing the action of the verb or itsresult, product, material, etc. (the art of building; a new building; cotton wadding). It is also used to form nouns from words other than verbs (offing; shirting). Verbal nouns ending in -ing are often used attributively (the printing trade) and in forming compounds (drinking song). In some compounds (sewing machine), the first element might reasonably be regarded as the participial adjective, -ing, the compound thus meaning “a machine that sews,” but it is commonly taken as a verbalnoun, the compound being explained as “a machine for sewing”