Design Speak: Kerning and Leading

I realize that sometimes it seems like graphic designers (and printers) have their own language. I’ve started the Design Speak series here on my blog so I can help clarify some of these terms you may hear, but not totally understand. 

Today we are talking about: Kerning and Leading.

Kerning is the space between individual characters in a single word.

Leading is the space between the lines of words.

For whatever reason, when I was in school I used to mix these terms up. The way I got myself to remember is that leading is lines, and both of those words start with an L. Kerning, meanwhile, is characters. And while kerning and characters they don’t start with the same letter, they sound like the do, so it still works.