How to audit kerning quality for brand typography
- Step 1List your critical pairs — Write down the kerning pairs that appear in your brand text. Brand name (often 5–10 unique pairs), headline templates (10–20 pairs), call-to-action text. These are the non-negotiables.
- Step 2Audit against the font — Run the Kerning Pair Auditor with limit=500. Search for each critical pair in the JSON output. Missing pairs are tofu-equivalents in typographic quality terms.
- Step 3Document gaps — For pairs the font lacks, decide: switch fonts, request foundry update, or accept the gap (some fonts are intentionally minimal). Pin the decision in design review notes.
Frequently asked questions
How many pairs should a quality font have?+
Latin-only display fonts: 500–1500 pairs. Body type with full coverage: 2000+. CJK and complex-script fonts: tens of thousands via GPOS class-based encoding. Light-on-pairs fonts (under 200) usually feel amateur at large sizes.
Are missing pairs visible in body text?+
Less visible. Below 16px, kerning gaps blend into general type density. Above 24px (headlines), missing pairs jump out. If your brand uses display-size typography, audit kerning thoroughly.
Can I add kerning pairs after the fact?+
Not in the browser — opentype.js can read but not safely write GPOS. Use FontForge or Glyphs to add pairs. For rapid prototyping, font-feature-settings: 'kern' 0 + manual letter-spacing CSS approximates it.
Privacy first
Every JAD Font tool runs entirely in your browser using opentype.js and the wawoff2 WASM Brotli encoder. Your fonts never leave your device — verified by zero outbound network requests during processing.