Bad kerning is what happens when the space between two letters is wrong, and it can turn a harmless word into something very different. Squeeze a "c" and an "l" together and they can read as a "d". Leave a gap in the middle of a word and it splits into two new words nobody intended. Designers have a joke name for the result: "keming", which is what the word "kerning" looks like when the "r" and "n" crowd together.
The photos below are real-world examples collected online over the years: shop signs, cake icing, a coffee cup, a receipt and product packaging where a few millimetres of spacing changed the message. Some of the readings are rude, so we describe them politely and a few photos are blurred until you choose to view them. Along the way you will learn what kerning actually is, why some letter pairs cause more trouble than others, and how to check your own signs before they go to print.
What kerning is and why it goes wrong
Kerning is the adjustment of space between two specific characters. It is different from tracking, which changes spacing evenly across a whole word or line. The term comes from the days of metal type, when the part of a letter that overhung its neighbour was called a "kern", according to Wikipedia's kerning article.
Digital fonts store kerning values for pairs such as "Ta" or "To", which usually need tightening so they do not look gappy. Software can apply these built-in "metric" values or calculate "optical" kerning from the letter shapes. Trouble starts when spacing is set by hand, when a font has poor pair data, or when someone writes freehand with a marker or icing bag. The most dangerous combinations are letters whose shapes can merge or separate into other letters: "cl" next to each other can look like "d", "rn" can look like "m", and a narrow "li" can blur into a "u".
Shop signs and logos
A pub banner that split in the wrong place
The Wig & Pen is a classic name for a British pub, a nod to the wigs and quill pens of lawyers. On this banner, the gap between "Pen" and "is" vanished, so the words "pen is" run together into a word for male anatomy. Leaving a clear space, or putting the name in quotation marks, would have kept the joke out of the message.
Photo credit: unknown
A storefront with gaps in the wrong places
Large illuminated letters are often mounted one by one on a building front, and the installer decides the spacing on site. Here the gaps break the name into separate chunks that read as three short words, two of them anatomical. Spacing letters evenly, or grouping them by the brand's syllables, avoids this.
Photo credit: Imgur user
A computer shop and the "cl" problem
This sign for a computer specialist shows the most famous kerning trap of all. Set tightly in bold type, the "c" and "l" of "click" fuse into a "d", turning the business into something it definitely is not. The little computer-mouse logo is a nice touch; slightly wider letter spacing would have been a better one.
Photo credit: EGoatMan
A children's shop that needed one more space
The store sells second-hand children's goods, and its name is meant to be read as "Kids Exchange". Written as a single string of letters, the eye can just as easily break it after "kid" and find a very different word. This is the same problem that famously caught out some website addresses, where words run together without spaces. Capitalising each word or adding a visible gap fixes it.
Photo credit: Imgur user
A video rental store with crowded letters
Megaflicks appears to have been a video and DVD store. In the condensed lettering of this sign, the "l" and "i" sit so close together that, at a glance, they read as a single "u", which turns "flicks" into a swear word. Condensed typefaces are especially prone to this, because narrow letters leave little room for error.
Photo credit: Jeff Miller
A toy store sign with the same "cl" trap
A store selling LEGO sets used the name "clickbrick", written in lowercase with tight spacing. Once again "cl" reads as "d", which changes the first word into something rather less family-friendly. The photo was shared by the Twitter account Kerncerned, whose name says it all.
Photo credit: Kerncerned
Handwritten mix-ups at the counter
A barista's handwriting on a coffee cup
The customer's name was Clint, but in quick marker on a plastic cup the "l" and "i" ran together into what looks like a "u", producing a very offensive word. Someone has helpfully added the correct name underneath. Coffee shops write names quickly for speed, which makes this kind of slip almost inevitable now and then.
Photo credit: unknown
A note on a card machine
A shop worker left a note saying the stylus pen was broken and customers should sign with a finger. Written by hand, "Pen is" closed up into one word, and the message took on a meaning the writer certainly did not intend. A capital letter on a new line, or simply writing "Stylus broken", would have avoided it.
Photo credit: Imgur user
A birthday cake for Curt
A relative in the Philippines baked a cheerful cake for an eighth birthday. In flowing script icing, the "r" in Curt picked up an extra stroke and looks like an "n", changing the name into the same offensive word as the coffee cup. Script letters connect to each other, so a single loop in the wrong place can change a letter.
Photo credit: applebottomgenes
A whiteboard reminder before the exam
A maths teacher wrote that students would be preparing for the final. The "F" ended up faint and separated from the rest of the word across a line break, so the most visible part reads as a crude anatomical word. Splitting a word across lines is risky on any board; keeping short words whole is the safer habit.
Photo credit: tallforahobbit
Packaging, print and plates
A receipt that was "just a click away"
Even big retailers are not immune. On this Walmart receipt, the slogan inviting customers to visit Walmart.com is printed in a tight font, and the "cl" of "click" merges into a "d". Receipt printers use small, narrow type, which makes letter collisions more likely than on a printed sign.
Photo credit: therespectrum
A mushroom label with an unlucky line break
Shiitake mushrooms are the edible fungus Lentinula edodes, widely grown in East Asia and now farmed around the world. On this pack from a Pennsylvania mushroom farm, the name was split with a space after the fourth letter, leaving a mild swear word on the front. The Korean name above it is perfectly fine.
Photo credit: mtstradling
Flickering candle lights at a discount store
These boxes of battery candles were meant to say "Flickering Lights". In the chosen typeface, a close-set "l" and "i" form what looks like a "u", and the result is the same word as the Megaflicks sign. The Reddit user who posted it said head office asked staff to pull the boxes from the shelves, and the item was linked to a Big Lots store; neither detail can be independently confirmed.
Photo credit: Pterodactyl418
A personalised plate about a fresh start
This California-style plate is meant to say "A New Start". Personalised plates have no room for spaces, so the letters run together, and the eye picks out an unfortunate anatomical word at the beginning. Whether it was a real registered plate or a novelty one is unclear, but it shows why people should read plate ideas aloud before ordering.
Photo credit: Bunuvasitch
Signs that should have had a second reader
A massage therapist's sign
The business offers massage therapy, but the word "therapist" is broken after its first three letters, and the leftover letters on the second line spell a word for a violent criminal. The result reads as something deeply unsettling. Splitting a word across two lines is the culprit here. Writing "Massage Therapy" on a single line would have avoided the problem completely.
Photo credit: EGoatMan
A hand car wash advertising its service
Strictly speaking, this one is not a kerning error at all. The 0161 phone code on the board places this hand car wash in the Greater Manchester area, and its banner is a deliberate double meaning about washing cars by hand. We include it because it shows how easily wording on a sign can be read in a way that a family audience may not appreciate.
Photo credit: Andrew Szypulski
How to avoid your own kerning disaster
Almost every example above could have been caught with a few simple checks before the sign was made or the cake was iced:
- Read it aloud and upside down. Reading a word upside down or backwards stops your brain filling in the word it expects and makes odd letter shapes stand out.
- Watch the danger pairs. Pay special attention to "cl", "rn", "li", "vv" and "nn", which can merge into other letters at small sizes or in bold or condensed fonts.
- Avoid splitting words. Do not break a word across two lines on a sign or board unless you have checked what each half says on its own.
- Use capitals or spaces in compound names. A business name or web address made from several words is easier to read correctly with visible breaks.
- Ask a fresh pair of eyes. Someone who has not seen the design before will read it the way the public will.
- Check at real size and distance. Print a sample or step back from the screen; spacing that looks fine up close can collapse when viewed from across a street.
Why spacing deserves more respect
These mistakes are funny because they are so small. Nobody chose the wrong word; a gap was a little too wide or a little too narrow. That is exactly why kerning matters to designers, sign makers and anyone writing something the public will read. Good spacing is invisible: you only notice it when it fails. The next time you write a name on a cake or order a sign for your shop, take a moment to look at the spaces as well as the letters.
Sources: Wikipedia: Kerning. Photos by the individual creators credited under each image, gathered from Imgur, Reddit, Flickr and Twitter; earlier compiled by EarthPorm and Bored Panda.
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