Abstract: Apparatus and methods for setting intercharacter spacing for display, rendering or other output of strings of adjacent characters utilize character shapes to set final spacing amounts. The invention stores specifications of characters to be rendered adjacently along an axis, the specifications including a font associated with each of the characters, each character having an associated interior portion defined by a contour portion, and adjacent characters having opposed contour segments separated along the axis by at least one intercharacter contour distance at an initial (e.g., default) intercharacter spacing; and sets a final intercharacter spacing between pairs of adjacent characters along the axis based on a portion of the intercharacter contour distances; the invention may further utilize statistical analysis of these distances in setting spacing.