Hanging Punctuation
Hanging punctuation is a way of typesetting quotation marks and bullet
points. By not doing so a quotation mark that is flush with the text will
interrupt the left margin and disrupt the rhythm of the reader. The use of
hanging quotes keeps the left alignment intact and balanced therefore
increasing readability.
Kerning
Characters in proportional fonts take up different amounts of space
between them. By means of kerning the spacing between characters in
proportional fonts is reduced thus forming a more consistent typeface.
Source: Wikipedia
Ligature
In typography a ligature occurs when two or more characters are joined to
one single glyph or type, which were used in old printing machines. In the
Western writing system ligatures are mainly used to reduce white space
between two letters, i.e. letters are not joined to one glyph but the
whitespace between them, for example, in letter combinations such as fi, ffl