Abstract: Kerning information that allows font characters to contact the outlines of immediately preceding characters when the setting of character spaces is zero is set for the data on said font characters. The result of output with the setting of character spaces being zero is such that all font characters contact each other continuously. If the character space is set to a desired value greater than zero, a uniform space is provided between every font character. This insures that in a line of type such as where the letter "A" follows "W", the "A" is automatically kerned into the letter region of "W". As a result, the method of kerning in the processing of documents written in European languages is rationalized to obviate the need to perform calculations for setting letter spaces.