Kerning is the amount of space between two characters. Tracking is basically the same thing as kerning, except that tracking is the amount of space within an entire line of text. When you type a report in Microsoft Word, the program uses automatic kerning as you type each letter and spacebar between each word. Because of the huge number of possible letter combinations, font designs are inevitably flawed by several letter pairings that should be manually kerned (according to one's eye and taste... people have differing opinions as to how much space should be between any two characters) using programs such as Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, etc.
An iPhone/iPod Touch application (pictured above) that I found last night turns kerning into a game. Apparently, the app presents a word missing a letter; your job, as the two parts of the 'word' close in towards each other, is to insert the missing letter when the amount of space is agreeable. Wait too long, and you might end up with two letters in one (known in the design world as a ligature).
This sounds like an incredibly nerdy app. And totally worth $0.99. I shall probably purchase it. And show off the nerdiness. ;-D
-J. Gibb
