7. Working with Typography

Lesson overview

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to do the following:

  • Adjust vertical and horizontal text spacing.

  • Change fonts and type styles.

  • Insert special characters.

  • Create a headline that spans multiple columns.

  • Adjust line and column breaks.

  • Hang punctuation outside a margin.

  • Add and format a drop cap.

  • Adjust line breaks.

  • Specify a tab with a leader and create a hanging indent.

  • Add a rule and shading to a paragraph.

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This lesson will take about 60 minutes to complete. To get the lesson files used in this chapter, download them from the web page for this book at www.adobepress.com/InDesignCIB2020. For more information, see “Accessing the lesson files and Web Edition” in the Getting Started section at the beginning of this book.

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The Adobe InDesign typography features make it easy to find just the right font for a document’s message; fine-tune character, word, line, and paragraph spacing for a professional look; and add special touches such as fractions and drop caps.

Getting started

In this lesson, you’ll fine-tune the typography in a magazine layout for a botanic gardens cafe. For the rich look of the magazine, the typography includes precision formatting and spacing along with decorative touches.

Image Note

If you have not already downloaded the project files for this lesson to your computer from your Account page, make sure to do so now. See “Getting Started” at the beginning of the book.

  1. To ensure that the preferences and default settings of your InDesign program match those used in this lesson, move the InDesign Defaults file to a different folder following the procedure in “Saving and restoring the InDesign Defaults file” on pages 45.

  2. Start InDesign.

  3. The InDesign Home screen displays. Click Open at left. (If the Home screen does not display, choose File > Open from the InDesign menu bar.)

  4. Open the 07_Start.indd file in the Lesson07 folder, located inside the Lessons folder within the InDesignCIB folder on your hard disk.

  5. Choose File > Save As, rename the file 07_Type.indd, and save it in the Lesson07 folder.

  6. To ensure that the panels and menu commands match those used in this lesson, choose Window > Workspace > [Essentials], and then choose Window > Workspace > Reset Essentials.

  7. To display the document at a higher resolution, choose View > Display Performance > High Quality Display (if it’s not already enabled).

    Image Note

    This lesson uses a PDF of the final document because the necessary fonts are embedded in the PDF file. If you open the final InDesign document now, the necessary fonts will be activated and it will be difficult to learn how to activate fonts later in the lesson.

  8. If you want to see what the finished document looks like, navigate to the Lesson07 folder on your system. Double-click 07_End.pdf to open it.

    In this lesson, you will work intensively with text. You can use the character-formatting controls and paragraph-formatting controls in the Properties panel, or you can use the Character panel and Paragraph panel.

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  9. Choose Type > Character and Type > Paragraph to open the two primary text-formatting panels. Leave these panels open until you finish this lesson.

    Image Note

    Drag the Paragraph panel tab into the Character panel tab to create a panel group, if you prefer.

  10. Choose Type > Show Hidden Characters so that you can see spaces, paragraph returns, tabs, and the like while you work on this lesson.

Adjusting vertical spacing

InDesign provides several options for customizing and adjusting the vertical spacing of text in a frame. You can do the following:

Image Note

The screen captures in this book show the Medium Light interface. Interface elements such as panels and dialog boxes will be darker on your screen if you are using the default interface.

  • Set the space between lines of paragraphs using a baseline grid (covered in Lesson 5, “Flowing Text”).

  • Set the space between lines using the Leading menu in the Character panel.

  • Set the space between paragraphs using the Space Before and Space After options in the Paragraph panel.

  • Use the Vertical Justification and Balance Columns options in the Text Frame Options dialog box to align text within a frame.

  • Control how paragraphs flow from one column to the next using the Keep Lines Together, Keep With Previous, and Keep With Next settings available in the Keep Options dialog box (choose Keep Options from the Paragraph panel menu).

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In this lesson, you will adjust the space between paragraphs and the line spacing within a paragraph.

Changing the spacing between paragraphs

To adjust space between paragraphs, you select the paragraphs and specify a space before and/or space after value. (The amount of space between paragraphs ends up being the sum of the space after one paragraph and the space before the next paragraph. Therefore, it’s generally best to use one or the other—space before or space after—to prevent confusion.) The space before/after values can be saved in paragraph styles and applied consistently across a document.

Image Tip

Specifying space before/after values for paragraphs is preferable to typing extra paragraph returns between paragraphs. A full paragraph return is often too much space, and it can end up at the top of a page or column, leaving undesirable space.

Here, you’ll add more space between paragraphs in the Chocolate-Covered Strawberries recipe at the bottom of the page.

  1. Using the Zoom tool (), zoom into the green box at the bottom of the page.

  2. Using the Type tool (), click immediately in front of the first line of the recipe, “1/2 lb strawberries with stems.”

  3. Drag to select all the recipe text from “1/2 lb strawberries with stems” to “Protein 0g.”

  4. In the Paragraph panel, click the up arrow once next to the Space After field ().

    This adds .0625 inches or 4.5 points of space between paragraphs. The text will overset the frame, but this will be resolved later with the addition of columns.

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  5. Choose Edit > Deselect All.

  6. Choose File > Save.

Working with fonts, type styles, and glyphs

Changing the fonts and type styles of text can make a dramatic difference in the appearance of your document. InDesign automatically installs a few fonts, and Creative Pro members have access to thousands of already licensed fonts at no extra charge through Adobe Fonts. Once a font is installed, you can apply it to text and change its size, select a style (such as bold or italic), and more. In addition, you can access all the glyphs (every form of each character) in the font.

Adding a font from Adobe Fonts

This exercise uses Adobe Caslon Pro, which is available for free from Adobe Fonts. If the font is already installed on your system, follow the steps to see how you can add another font.

Image Note

Activating fonts from the Adobe Fonts service requires access to the Internet.

  1. In the Character panel, click the arrow to the right of the Font field to display the Font menu.

  2. Click Find More at the top of the menu.

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  3. Scroll down in the list to locate Adobe Caslon Pro.

    Image Tip

    A font family is a collection of styles of the same font. For example, the Adobe Caslon Pro family includes the following fonts: Regular, Italic, Semibold, Semibold Italic, Bold, and Bold Italic. You can activate the entire family or an individual style within the font.

  4. Click the Activate button () to the right of the font family folder, and then click OK to confirm.

  5. Click Fonts to see the new font you just added.

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Applying a font, style, size, and leading

Here, you’ll apply a different font to the headline, and then the first character of the headline. Then, you’ll change the font family, style, size, and leading for the text in the quote on the left side of the page.

  1. Choose View > Fit Page In Window.

  2. Using the Type tool (), select the story headline, “Strawberries,” at the top of the page.

  3. Click the Font menu on the Character panel. Scroll through the list to see how “Strawberries” looks in various fonts.

    Image Tip

    For a little more control, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move up and down in the Font menu.

  4. In the list, find the font family you just activated: Adobe Caslon Pro.

  5. Click the arrow to the left of Adobe Caslon Pro to open the font family, and select Regular from the menu.

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  6. Using the Type tool, click immediately to the left of the “S” in the “Strawberries” headline. Drag to select the “S.”

  7. In the Character panel, select Bold Italic from the Style menu below the Font menu.

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    Now you will work on the quote on the left side of the page: “You stand out like a strawberry in a bowl of peas.”

  8. Using the Type tool (), click inside the quote’s text frame. To select the entire paragraph, quadruple-click (click four times rapidly).

    Image Tip

    To quickly select a font, you can type the first few letters in the Font Name field until it is recognized.

  9. In the Character panel, set the following options:

    • Font: Adobe Caslon Pro

    • Style: Bold Italic

    • Size: 24 pt

    • Leading: 35 pt

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  10. Click the Character panel menu and select OpenType. Notice that Swash is already selected, indicating that some glyphs have already been replaced with more ornate glyphs.

    Image Tip

    In the OpenType menu, the options in brackets are not available for the selected font.

  11. Select Swash to deactivate this feature and notice the changes (such as the Y vs. Y in Adobe Caslon Pro). Select Swash from the OpenType menu again to reactivate the feature.

  12. Click in the quote’s paragraph four times to reselect it and display the OpenType badge () somewhere on the paragraph.

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  13. Click the OpenType badge, which offers another way to access OpenType features available in the font.

  14. Check Discretionary Ligatures along with Swash and note how the two “st” glyph pairs are replaced with an “st” ligature: st.

    Image Tip

    Ligatures combine two or three glyphs into a single glyph to achieve a more harmonious look. Common ligatures include the “fi” and “fl” letter pairs.

  15. Choose Edit > Deselect All.

  16. Choose File > Save.

Adding a special character

Many types of special characters—such as bullets, check boxes, accented characters, and ornamental curlicues—are used in documents for useful and decorative purposes. Now you’ll add a decorative character in the lower-left corner of the page.

Image Tip

You can access some of the more commonly used glyphs, such as the copyright and trademark symbols, in the Type menu (Insert Special Character > Symbols) and the context menu. To access the context menu, right-click at the insertion point.

  1. If necessary, scroll down to see the text frame below the quote about peas.

  2. Using the Type tool (), click to place an insertion point in the text frame.

  3. Choose Type > Glyphs. You can use the Glyphs panel to view and insert OpenType attributes, such as ornaments, swashes, fractions, and ligatures.

  4. In the Glyphs panel, choose Ornaments from the Show menu.

  5. Locate the heart-shaped character (•), and double-click it.

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  6. Choose File > Save.

Applying a stroke and fill to text

Next, you’ll add a fill color and stroke to the drop-cap character you just created.

  1. With the Type tool () still selected, select the heart-shaped glyph.

  2. Type 122 pt in the Font Size field in the Character panel. Press Enter (Windows) or Return (macOS).

  3. In the Appearance area of the Properties panel, do the following:

    • Click the up arrow next to the Stroke Weight field to apply a 1 pt stroke.

    • Select the Stroke box () and click the Stem Green swatch.

    • Select the Fill box () and click the Strawberry Red swatch.

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  4. Press Shift+Ctrl+A (Windows) or Shift+Command+A (macOS) to deselect the text so that you can view the stroke effect.

  5. Choose File > Save.

Inserting fraction characters

The recipes in this article do not use actual fraction characters—rather, the 1/2 is built with a numeral 1, a slash, and a numeral 2. Most fonts contain individual characters for common fractions such as ½, ¼, and ¾. When available, these elegant fractions look much more professional than using numerals and slashes.

Image Tip

If you are working on a cookbook or other document that requires a variety of fractions, the fractions built into most fonts will not cover all the values you need. You will need to research numerator and denominator formatting options, which are available in some OpenType fonts, or purchase a specific fraction font.

  1. Using the Zoom tool (), drag a rectangle around the green box at the bottom of the page.

  2. Using the Type tool (), drag to select the “1/2” in the first line, “1/2 lb strawberries with stems.”

  3. If the Glyphs panel is not open, choose Type > Glyphs.

    Image Tip

    The Glyphs panel features many controls for filtering the options available within a font—such as Punctuation or Ornaments. Some fonts may have hundreds of alternates available, while others will have only a few.

  4. Choose Numbers from the Show menu.

  5. Locate the ½ fraction. If necessary, resize the panel and scroll to see more characters.

  6. Double-click the ½ fraction to replace the selected 1/2 in the text.

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    Notice that the ½ fraction is stored in the Recently Used boxes at the top of the Glyphs panel. Now you’ll replace the “1/2” in the second line of the recipe.

  7. Drag to select the “1/2” in “1/2 cup chocolate chips” in the next line of the recipe.

  8. Double-click the ½ fraction in the Recently Used box at the top of the Glyphs panel.

  9. Drag to select the “1/4” in “1/4 cup sprinkles” in the third line of the recipe.

    Image Note

    Only OpenType fonts will display glyph variations in this way.

  10. Point at the blue underline that displays under “1/4” and click the fraction to replace the 1/4 with ¼.

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  11. Close the Glyphs panel, and choose Edit > Deselect All.

  12. Choose File > Save.

Working with columns

You can specify the number of columns in a text frame, the width of the columns, and the space between them. Once a text frame is divided into columns, you can create a heading that spans multiple columns (also known as a “straddle head”). In this section, you will add columns and a straddle head to a text frame.

Specifying columns for a text frame

The recipe in the green text frame will look better and be more legible if it’s divided into two columns.

  1. Using the Selection tool (), click the text frame containing the recipe to select it.

  2. Choose Object > Text Frame Options, and then click the General tab.

  3. In the Columns area, enter 2 in the Number field.

  4. Press Tab to select the Gutter field. If necessary, type .25 in.

  5. Check Preview to review the changes.

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  6. Click OK, and choose File > Save.

Creating a straddle head

The heading for the recipe needs to span the two columns. You can do this with a paragraph format rather than by placing the heading in its own text frame.

  1. Using the Type tool (), click in the “Chocolate-Covered Strawberries” heading. This selects the paragraph for formatting.

  2. Select Span Columns from the Paragraph panel menu.

    Image Tip

    You can also access the Span Columns controls in the Control panel.

  3. In the Span Columns dialog box, select Span Columns from the Paragraph Layout menu.

  4. Select All from the Span menu.

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  5. Select Preview to confirm the change, and then click OK.

  6. Choose File > Save.

Adjusting columns

Now that the heading is positioned, you can complete the fine-tuning of the sidebar by balancing the amount of text in each column. You can do this automatically by selecting Balance Columns in the General tab of the Text Frame Options dialog box (Object menu) or by inserting a “break character” that shifts text to the next column, frame, or page.

Image Tip

Designers often use the Insert Break Character because it’s quick. However, if text reflows due to edits, the character remains and can force text to the wrong column or into overflow. Therefore, you should use this technique when editing and design are close to final.

  1. Using the Type tool (), click immediately before “Nutritional Facts” in the recipe.

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  2. Choose Type > Insert Break Character > Column Break.

  3. Choose File > Save.

Changing paragraph alignment

You can easily manipulate how a paragraph fits within its text frame by changing the horizontal alignment. You can align text with one or both edges of a text frame, or you can apply inset spacing. In this exercise, you’ll use different methods to apply paragraph alignments.

  1. Choose View > Fit Page In Window to view the entire page.

  2. Using the Type tool (), click to place an insertion point in the tagline at the top of the page: “A BITE OF DELIGHT.”

  3. In the Paragraph panel, click Align Center ().

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  4. Click in the first paragraph of the story below the “Strawberries” headline (starting with “Heart-shaped fruit”).

  5. Choose Edit > Select All, and then click Justify With Last Line Aligned Left () on the Properties panel.

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  6. Click in the “Chocolate-Covered Strawberries” recipe heading. Press Shift+Ctrl+C (Windows) or Shift+Command+C (macOS) to center the one-line paragraph.

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  7. Click in the pea quote at left to select the paragraph. Click Align Center () on the Properties panel.

  8. Choose Edit > Deselect All.

  9. Choose File > Save.

Hanging punctuation outside the margin

Sometimes, particularly with punctuation at the beginning and end of lines, margins that are in fact even may appear uneven. To fix this visual discrepancy, designers use optical margin alignment to “hang” punctuation and swashes on characters slightly outside the text frame. In this exercise, you will apply optical margin alignment to the main story.

Image Note

When you select Optical Margin Alignment, it applies to all of the text in a story—defined as all the text in a frame or a series of threaded text frames.

  1. Using the Selection tool (), click to select the text frame containing the main story, starting with “Heart-shaped fruit that’s good for your heart?”

  2. Choose Type > Story to open the Story panel.

  3. Select Optical Margin Alignment. Enter 14 pt in the field and press Enter (Windows) or Return (macOS).

    Image Tip

    When using Optical Margin Alignment, specifying an Align Based On Size setting that matches the point size of the text in the frame produces the best results.

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    Without (left) and with (right) optical margin alignment. Notice the alignment of the hyphens. The text looks more visually aligned on the right.

  4. Choose File > Save.

Creating a drop cap

You can add creative touches to your document using InDesign typographic features. For example, you can make the first character or word in a paragraph a drop cap, and then apply additional formatting to the drop cap character. Here, you’ll create a drop cap out of the first character in the first paragraph of the story.

Image Tip

Drop caps can be saved with paragraph styles so you can apply them quickly and consistently.

  1. Using the Type tool (), click to place an insertion point anywhere in the paragraph of the story starting with “Heart-shaped fruit that’s good for your heart?”

  2. In the Paragraph panel, type 2 in the Drop Cap Number Of Lines box () to make the letter drop down two lines. Press Enter or Return.

  3. Note the 1 in the Drop Cap One Or More Characters box () to see how you would increase the number of characters that drop.

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  4. Using the Type tool, select the drop-cap character.

    Now, you can apply any character formatting you want.

    Image Tip

    You can create a drop cap and apply a character style in one step using the Drop Caps And Nested Styles dialog box (Paragraph panel menu). You can then save that formatting in a paragraph style.

  5. Select Stem Green from the Fill menu in the Properties panel.

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  6. Click the pasteboard to deselect the text and view the drop cap.

  7. Choose File > Save.

Adjusting letter and word spacing

You can change the spacing between letters and words using kerning and tracking. You can also control the overall spacing of text in a paragraph by using the Adobe Single-Line Composer and the Adobe Paragraph Composer.

Adjusting the tracking and kerning

Tracking increases or decreases spacing across a range of selected letters. By adjusting kerning, you can add or subtract space between specific letter pairs. You can use both kerning and tracking on the same text.

Here, you’ll track out the “A BITE OF DELIGHT” heading for effect, and then track in the “Strawberries” heading. Finally, you will manually kern the space between the swash “S” and the remainder of the “Strawberries” headline.

  1. To see the results of the tracking and kerning more clearly, select the Zoom tool () in the Tools panel, and drag a marquee around the top quarter of the page.

  2. Using the Type tool (), click in the “A BITE OF DELIGHT” heading and click three times to select the entire heading.

  3. In the Character panel, choose 100 from the Tracking menu ().

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  4. Click in the “Strawberries” heading and click two times to select the entire heading.

    Image Tip

    When you kern text, the right arrow key adds space and the left arrow key removes space when combined with the Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) key. To change the amount of kerning applied using the shortcuts, you can edit the Keyboard Increments value in Preferences (Units & Increments).

  5. Type –20 in the Tracking field on the Control panel.

  6. Click to place an insertion point between the “S” and the “t” in “Strawberries.”

  7. Press Alt+left arrow (Windows) or Option+left arrow (macOS) on the keyboard three times to decrease the amount of space between the two characters.

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    The Kerning field () on the Character panel and the Control panel lets you see and adjust the amount of space between characters.

  8. Click the pasteboard to deselect the text.

  9. Choose File > Save.

Adjusting line breaks

Hyphenation and line breaks at the end of each line affect readability and impact. For example, when paragraphs are aligned left, the right edge remains ragged. Too much “rag” can make the text easier or harder to read based on many factors, including the font, size, leading, column width, and more. Three other paragraph formats affect the readability of the text:

Image Tip

For justified text, Justification settings combine with the Paragraph Composer and hyphenation settings to control how dense paragraphs look. To adjust these settings for a selected paragraph, choose Justification from the Paragraph panel menu.

  • The Adobe Single-Line Composer and Adobe Paragraph Composer, which automatically determine line breaks

  • Hyphenation settings, such as whether to hyphenate capitalized words

  • The Balance Ragged Lines feature

Typically, a graphic designer will experiment with a combination of settings until a few paragraphs of sample text look just right. Then, all these options can be saved in paragraph styles and applied with one click.

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Note the difference in line breaks with successive applications of line break methods. The first column shows a paragraph with the Adobe Single-Line Composer applied. The middle column shows the same paragraph with the Adobe Paragraph Composer applied. As you can see, the right edge is much less ragged. The column on the right shows the paragraph with both Adobe Paragraph Composer and Balance Ragged Lines applied, which helps balance the length of the last line of the paragraph.

Hyphenation settings

Whether and how words are hyphenated at the ends of lines is a paragraph format. In general, hyphenation settings are editorial decisions, not design decisions. A publication’s style guide, for example, may specify that capitalized words should not be hyphenated.

Image Tip

When you’re editing text, you can use the Hyphenate option on the Control panel or the Paragraph panel to quickly enable and disable hyphenation for selected paragraphs.

  1. Using the Type tool (), click to place an insertion point in the main story, starting with “Heart-shaped fruit that’s good for your heart?”

  2. Choose Edit > Select All to select all the paragraphs in the story.

  3. From the Paragraph panel menu, select Hyphenation. Make sure Preview is selected so you can see the changes.

  4. Deselect Hyphenate to see how the text looks with no hyphenation.

  5. Select Hyphenate again, and then type 2 in the Hyphen Limit field to prevent more than two lines in a row ending with a hyphen.

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  6. Click OK to close the dialog box, and then choose File > Save.

Inserting a manual line break

Once the text and design of a layout is nearly complete, you may find a need to add manual line breaks. Here, you will add a line break to the quote on the left side of the page.

Image Tip

Another way to control how text flows is to use a nonbreaking space between two words. To do this, delete the existing space and choose Type > Insert White Space > Nonbreaking Space.

  1. Using the Type tool (), click in the fourth line of the quote, immediately before the word “of.”

  2. Press Shift+Enter (Windows) or Shift+Return (macOS) to enter a forced line break character.

  3. Choose Edit > Deselect All.

  4. Choose File > Save.

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Setting tabs

You can use tabs to position text in specific horizontal locations in a column or frame. In the Tabs panel, you can organize text and create tab leaders, indents, and hanging indents.

When working with tabs, it helps to view the tab characters by choosing Type > Show Hidden Characters. It is common to receive word-processing files in which the writer or editor has entered multiple tabs to align the text onscreen—or worse, entered spaces rather than tabs. The only way to see what you’re dealing with (and fix it) is to view hidden characters. The Tabs panel provides all the controls for adding and changing tabs.

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Aligning text to tabs and adding tab leaders

Here, you’ll format the tabbed Nutritional Facts list in the Chocolate-Covered Strawberries recipe. The tab markers have already been entered in the text, so you will specify the final location of the text. In addition, you will enter a leader character to fill the space between the text and the tab stop.

  1. Scroll and zoom as necessary to view the recipe.

  2. To view the tab markers in the text, make sure that hidden characters are showing (Type > Show Hidden Characters) and that Normal Mode () is selected in the Tools panel.

  3. Using the Type tool (), click immediately before “Serving Size” after the “Nutritional Facts” heading. Drag to select the text through the last line, “Protein 0g.”

  4. Choose Type > Tabs to open the Tabs panel.

    When a text frame has an insertion point and enough space at the top, the Tabs panel snaps to the top of the frame so that the measurements in the panel’s ruler exactly match the text. Regardless of the position of the Tabs panel, you can enter values to set tabs with precision.

  5. In the Tabs panel, click Right-Justified Tab (). This specifies that text aligns to the left of the tab stop.

  6. Type 2 in in the X (tab stop) box, and press Tab to jump to the Leader field.

    You will now create a tab leader, such as the periods that lead your eye across the page in a table of contents. In this case, you will use a space between periods to create a more open dot sequence in the tab leader.

  7. Type a period (.) and a space in the Leader box, then press Enter (Windows) or Return (macOS).

    The information following each tab marker in the selected text now aligns to the new tab stop, and a dotted line (of periods and spaces) helps lead the eye across the line.

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  8. Choose Type > Tabs to close the Tabs panel, and then choose Edit > Deselect All.

  9. Choose File > Save.

Creating a numbered list with a hanging indent

InDesign makes it easy to create bulleted lists and numbered lists to clearly delineate information. Lists generally feature a “hanging indent” so that the text hangs to the right of the tab. Here, you will add step numbers to the recipe instructions.

  1. Using the Type tool (), click immediately before the first step in the recipe, “Wash the strawberries.” Drag to select all three paragraphs through the word “sprinkles.”

  2. Click the Numbered List button on the Properties panel.

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  3. Deselect the text, and view the numbered list with the hanging indent.

  4. Choose File > Save.

Working with paragraph shading and rules

To call attention to text within a story, you can apply shading to a paragraph. InDesign provides many options for fine-tuning the shading, including the tint of the shading and its offset from the paragraph. To allow enough space above or below a paragraph for shading, apply a space before or space after setting for the paragraph.

You can add a horizontal rule (line) above or below a paragraph. The advantage of using rules rather than simply drawing a line is that rules can be applied with a paragraph style, and they travel with the paragraph when text reflows. For example, you might use both a rule above and rule below in a paragraph style for pull quotes. Or, you might use a rule above a subhead.

To quickly and consistently apply rules and shading, you can include these formats in a paragraph style.

Applying shading to a paragraph

The final touch in this layout is using shading to create a reverse type effect for the recipe heading.

Image Tip

The paragraph-shading controls are available in the Control panel as well. To fine-tune the shading, choose Paragraph Borders And Shading from the Paragraph panel menu, and click the Shading tab at the top. You can also open the Paragraph Shading dialog box by Alt-clicking (Windows) or Option-clicking (macOS) the Shading Color button on the Control panel or the Paragraph panel.

  1. Using the Type tool (), click in the “Chocolate-Covered Strawberries” recipe heading. This targets the paragraph for formatting.

  2. Check Shading in the lower-left corner of the Paragraph panel.

  3. To select the color of the shading, click the Shading Color menu to the right of the Shading box. Select the Strawberry Red swatch.

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  4. Choose File > Save.

Applying a rule to a paragraph

Here you’ll add a rule below “A BITE OF DELIGHT” at the top of the page.

  1. Choose View > Fit Page In Window.

  2. Using the Type tool (), click to place an insertion point in the “A BITE OF DELIGHT” tagline.

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  3. Choose Paragraph Rules from the Paragraph panel menu.

  4. At the top of the Paragraph Rules dialog box, choose Rule Below from the menu, and select Rule On to activate the rule.

  5. Select the Preview option. Move the dialog box so that you can see the paragraph.

  6. In the Paragraph Rules dialog box, set these options:

    • Weight: 8 pt

    • Color: Stem Green

    • Width: Text

    • Type: White Diamond

    • Offset: .0625 in (one click of the up arrow)

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  7. Click OK to apply the changes. A rule now appears below the tagline.

  8. Choose File > Save.

  9. To view your results at full screen, choose View > Screen Mode > Presentation.

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  10. When you’re finished viewing the document, press Esc.

Congratulations, you have finished the lesson. To finalize this article, you would likely spend time with an editor or proofreader to fix any tight or loose lines, awkward line breaks, widows, and orphans.

Exploring on your own

Now that you have learned the basics of formatting text in an InDesign document, you’re ready to apply these skills on your own. Try the following tasks to improve your typographic skills.

  • Place an insertion point in various paragraphs and experiment with turning hyphenation on and off in the Paragraph panel. Select a hyphenated word and choose No Break from the Character panel menu to stop an individual word from hyphenating.

  • Experiment with different hyphenation settings. First, select all the text in the main story. Then, choose Hyphenation from the Paragraph panel menu. In the Hyphenation Settings dialog box, select Preview, and then experiment with the settings. For example, drag the Better Spacing/Fewer Hyphens slider to see how it affects the text.

  • Experiment with different justification settings. First, select all the text, and then choose Justification from the Paragraph panel menu. In the Justification dialog box, select Preview and experiment with the settings. For example, look at the difference that the Adobe Single-Line Composer and the Adobe Paragraph Composer make when applied to justified (rather than left-aligned) text.

  • Choose Type > Insert Special Character and view all the options available, such as Symbols > Bullet Character and Hyphens And Dashes > Em Dash. Using these characters rather than hyphens significantly enhances how professional the typography looks. Choose Type > Insert White Space and notice the Nonbreaking Space. Use this to “glue” two words together so they cannot split at the end of a line (such as “et al.”).

Review questions

1. What is the advantage of specifying a space before/after value for paragraphs rather than entering extra paragraph returns to add space?

2. What are glyphs and how do you insert them into text?

3. A drop cap affects a character, so why is it specified as a paragraph format?

4. What is a tab leader?

5. What is the difference between kerning and tracking?

6. What is the difference between the Adobe Paragraph Composer and the Adobe Single-Line Composer?

Review answers

1. Space before/after a paragraph allows for precision spacing that can be applied consistently through paragraph styles. Paragraph returns often result in too much space between paragraphs, and they can end up in undesirable locations, such as the top of a column.

2. A glyph is a representation of a character within a single font. For example, a font may provide two different options for a dollar sign (such as $ and $ in the font in use now, Warnock Pro). The Glyph panel (Type menu) provides access to all the glyphs in a font.

3. Drop caps are paragraph formats because they are not specific to selected text—rather, they can be applied to any paragraph. In addition, drop cap formatting can be applied consistently through paragraph styles.

4. A tab leader is a character (or multiple characters) that fill the space between text and a tab marker.

5. Kerning adjusts the space between two characters; tracking adjusts the space between a range of selected characters. Kerning controls are available when the text insertion point is flashing; tracking controls are available when a range of text is selected. The controls are available on the Control panel and the Character panel.

6. The Paragraph Composer evaluates all lines in a paragraph when determining the best possible line breaks. The Single-Line Composer evaluates only one line at a time when determining line breaks.

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