[f. KERN v.2 + -ING1.] The operation of making kerns on type; the making of kerned letters. Also attrib. as kerning-knife, -stick, tools used in kerning letters.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xix. ¶ 5. This Kerning-stick is somewhat more than an Handful long…. He also provides a Kerning-knife.
1788. Chambers’s Cycl., s.v. Foundery, These … are scraped on the broad-sides with a knife or file…. This operation is called kerning.
1824. J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 22. The kerning of letters, it must be owned, may serve many good purposes.
