Glossary - K

 K    

 kanji - A graphic character set consisting of symbols used in Japanese 
    ideographic alphabets. Each character is represented by 2 bytes. 

 kernel - (1) The part of an operating system that performs basic 
    functions such as allocating hardware resources. (2) A program that 
    can run under different operating system environments. 

 kerning - The design of graphic characters so that their character boxes 
    overlap. The toned picture elements (pels) of the character appear 
    outside the character cell. 

    Note:  Kerning allows character boxes to overlap and characters to run 
    together, so that characters can be designed for cursive languages, 
    ligatures, or any other kind of character that requires more than one 
    character box. It also allows for design of proportional-spaced fonts. 
    By overlapping character boxes, characters can be placed closer 
    together, or they can be placed farther apart by using overlapped 
    blank character boxes.