[lloda]

in the text modes of old computers, there isn't anything to separate one character from those next to it, so that space has to be in the character itself.

[kragen]

not just text modes or old computers but literally anything made of pixels

[charcircuit]

The font can just encode how many pixels for kerning that it wants. There is no reason for it to be part of the character itself

[kragen]

it was pretty common for font roms to have implicit spacing pixels in between characters in order to save on rom space