Definition
Tracking
Tracking is uniform letter-spacing applied across a run of text, unlike kerning which adjusts one pair. Small negative tracking can pull a stubborn widow back onto the previous line.
Typesetters use tracking in two ways: as a design choice — small caps and all-caps headings usually need a little added space to stop the letters colliding — and as a repair, where tightening a paragraph by a fraction of a unit removes an orphaned last word without anyone noticing. The limit is honesty about the eye: past roughly ±2% of the em, body text starts to look visibly squeezed or scattered, and the fix becomes more distracting than the fault.
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