Tricks with Text
In This Chapter
ᮣ Adding bullets and formatting lists
ᮣ Creating reverse type
ᮣ Specifying optical margin alignment
ᮣ Creating custom underlines and strikethroughs
ᮣ Adjusting text strokes
ᮣ Converting text to graphics
ᮣ Running text along a path
With the myriad of text-formatting techniques available in InDesign, you can create some snazzy and sophisticated effects. You can
stretch, skew, rotate, and color text. You can use a wide range of characters for bullets. You can add shadows and feathering effects to give words a dramatic flair. As with all good things, moderation in your use of text effects will keep your documents looking professional. This chapter shows you some InDesign features that can produce typographic special effects and gives suggestions on when to use them. (Chapters 14 and 15 cover more prosaic formatting controls.) You can also apply all sorts of transformations to text frames, which affect the text inside of them. Chapter 9 covers these capabilities.
Using Bulleted and Numbered Lists
Automatic bullets and numbering are available as a paragraph format in InDesign. You access these options (after selecting the paragraphs you want to make into automatic lists, of course) by choosing Bullets and Numbering Options from the Paragraph panel’s or Control panel’s flyout menus. Doing so displays the Bullets and Numbering dialog box, as shown in Figure 16-1.
266 Part IV: Text Essentials
The bulleted or numbered list you’re working with may have been first created in a word processor and then placed in InDesign. Perhaps the writer simply used an asterisk followed by a space to indicate a bullet or used the word processor’s automatic bullet or numbering feature. You can deal with imported bulleted and numbered lists as described in Chapter 11. Figure 16-1:
The Bullets
and Numbering dialog
box set
for bullets
(left) and
numbering
(right).
To set bullets or numbered lists in the Bullets and Numbering dialog box, first select either Bullets or Numbers from the List Type pop-up menu and then follow these steps:
1a. For bullets, choose a bullet character from the Bullet Character area.
This area shows bullet characters available for the current font; you can add to the available selections by clicking the Add button, which opens the Add Bullets dialog box in which you see a list of available glyphs for whatever font you choose from its Font family and Font Style pop-up menus. Choose the desired bullet and click OK to return to the Bullets and Numbering dialog box. The chosen bullet appears in the Bullet Character area.
1b. For numbered lists, set the desired formatting from the several other options that control how numbered lists display.
You use three most of the time:
• In the Format pop-up menu, choose a numbering style to format the numbers’ appearance, such as setting them to use Roman (i, ii, iii, iv) or Arabic (1, 2, 3, 4) numerals.
Chapter 16: Tricks with Text
267
•
In the Number field, you can insert all sorts of special spaces and characters, giving you broad control on how numbers display. You can also choose number placeholders, which tell InDesign what
numbers to insert in the list. For simple lists, choose Current Level from the Insert Number Placeholder pop-up submenu. The other
levels are used when you have sublists, an expert feature. You can also choose Chapter Number to insert the chapter’s number as the list item’s number.
• Use the Mode pop-up menu to choose whether the numbers continue or start anew at the current paragraph. (Your choices are Continue from Previous Number and Start At.)
2. Adjust the font settings for the bullets or numbers by using the Character Style pop-up menu to choose a character style.
The default setting ([None]) uses the paragraph’s current formatting.
3. In the Bullet or Number Position section of the dialog box, set the indentation for the list.
Using the Alignment pop-up menu, choose Left, Center, or Right to determine where the bullet or numeral is positioned within its tab. You can set the hanging indent amount and the bullet’s or number’s overhang by using the Left Indent, First Line Indent, and Tab Position fields.
Select the Preview check box to see the results of your choices before you finalize them.
4. When you finish formatting the bulleted or numbered list, click OK. InDesign gives you even more control over bulleted and numbered lists through the options you get by choosing Type➪Bulleted & Numbered Lists: ߜ
The Apply/Remove Bullets and Apply/Remove Numbers submenu
options quickly let you turn on or off the bullets or numbering for selected paragraphs. You can also use the iconic buttons for these controls on the Control panel.
ߜ
The Restart/Continue Numbering options are a handy way to control which paragraphs are numbered, such as when you have an unnumbered paragraph within a list. (These options are also available in the flyout menu of the Paragraph panel and Control panel.)
ߜ
The Convert Bullets to Text and Convert Numbering to Text options remove the automatic bullets or numerals in a paragraph but leave an actual bullet character or numeral at the beginning of the paragraph for you to do as you please.
268 Part IV: Text Essentials
A more expert option is the Define Lists option (available in two places: by choosing Type➪Bulleted & Numbered Lists➪Define Lists or by choosing Define Lists from the Paragraph panel’s flyout menu). Here, you create list styles with just two options: Continue Numbers Across Stories and Continue Numbers from Previous Document in a Book. These list styles are accessed when you create or edit paragraph styles using the style dialog boxes’ Bullets and Numbering pane, or when you apply bullets and numbering through the Paragraph panel’s or Control panel’s flyout menu. (Either way, choose the appropriate style in the List pop-up menu.)
When you choose the first option, InDesign continues numbering text based on the last number used in the previous story rather than restarting the numbering at each story (the normal behavior). When you choose the second option, InDesign continues numbering text based on the last number used in the previous chapter of a book (see Chapter 21) rather than starting over again with this document (the normal behavior).
For the bullets in a list, you’re not limited to using the small round bullet (•) included in most typefaces. You can use any character in the body text font, or you can switch to a symbol or pi font and choose a more decorative character. Zapf Dingbats and Wingdings are the most common symbol fonts, offering an array of boxes, arrows, crosses, stars, and check marks. Labeling Paragraphs
Along with using drop caps, which I cover in Chapter 14, changing the formatting of the first few words in a paragraph as a label can serve as a visual indicator that the reader has arrived at the beginning of a story, chapter, or new topic. To experiment with label formatting, use the attributes available via the Character panel or Control panel and their flyout menus, such as font changes, horizontal scale, or small caps. After you decide on the formatting for labels, you can apply it by using character styles after paragraph styles are applied — and after the text is final. You may also be able to use the nested styles feature if the label text follows a specific pattern, such as a specific number of words or characters or an entire sentence.
A real easy way to consistently apply the desired label formatting to text is to use a nested style, as explained in Chapter 13.
The following descriptions show frequently used label formatting: ߜ
Boldface: Bold type is often used for titles and subheads in magazines, newspapers, and reports. To apply boldface in InDesign, select the bold version of the typeface from the Font Style pop-up menu in the Character panel.
Chapter 16: Tricks with Text
269
ߜ
Italics: Italic text is a good choice for emphasizing specific words and for applying to tertiary heads. To apply italics in InDesign, select the oblique version of the typeface from the Font Style pop-up menu on the Character panel.
ߜ
Underlines: Underlined text isn’t used as frequently as it once was, simply because page-layout programs such as InDesign offer more sophisticated options for labeling text. Still, you may have occasion to use underlines, such as to emphasize a label. Use the Underline command in the menu on the Character panel or via the iconic button in the Control panel’s character (A) pane. Note that you have no control over the style, thickness, or placement of the underline if you use this option; for custom underlines, use the controls described in the
“Custom underline and strikethrough options” section, later in this chapter.
ߜ
SMALL CAPS: Small caps offer a subtle, classic look that blends well with the rest of the document. You have two choices for applying small
caps from the Character pane: Choose a small-caps variation of a typeface from the Font Style pop-up menu or choose the Small Caps command from the Character panel’s flyout menu, or via the iconic button in the Control panel’s character (A) pane.
ߜ
Typeface change: Rather than relying on different variations of a font, you can use a different font altogether, such as Futura Medium, for a label. To contrast with serif body text, you might choose a sans-serif typeface that complements the look of your publication. To apply a different typeface, use the Font Family pop-up menu in the Character panel or Control panel.
ߜ
Scaled text: Scaling text horizontally — up 10 or 20 percent — is a subtle effect that makes the section of text visually distinct. Scaling text vertically, however, can be too subtle unless combined with boldface or another style. Use the Horizontal Scale and Vertical Scale fields in the Character panel or Control panel to scale text.
ߜ
Size change: Bumping the size of a label up a point or two is another subtle design choice. To change the size of type, use the Font Size field in the Character panel or Control panel.
Adding Special Type Treatments
Skilled graphic designers make decisions based on what best serves the content. In doing so, they often rely on special typographic techniques. For example, the use of reverse type helps to break up pages and organize text, while careful formatting of fractions and hanging punctuation adds a professional touch.
270 Part IV: Text Essentials
Reversing type out of its background
Reversed type is white type on a black background rather than black type on a white background. Of course, reversed type doesn’t have to be white on black; it can be any lighter color on a darker color. You often find reversed type in table headings, kickers (explanatory blurbs following headlines), and decorative layout elements.
To lighten the text, highlight it with the Type tool, click the Fill button on the Tools panel, and choose a light color from the Swatches panel (Window➪
Swatches [F5]). For the dark background, you have three options: filling the text frame with a darker color, making the text frame transparent and placing it on top of darker objects, or placing a thick, dark ruling line behind the text. For the first two options, select the text frame and then click the Fill iconic button on the Tools panel.
ߜ
To fill the text frame with a darker color, click a color from the Swatches panel.
ߜ
To make the text frame transparent, click the Apply None iconic button on the Tools panel. Then place the text frame in front of a darker object or graphic.
To create reversed type that isn’t in its own text frame, use a ruling line of the appropriate width (at least a couple points larger than the text size). If you use a Ruling Line Above, move the line down behind the text; if you use a Ruling Line Below, move it up. Figure 16-2 shows reversed type used as a heading, as well as the Paragraph Rules dialog box and the settings used to create the effect. (To access this dialog box, choose Paragraph Rules from the flyout menu of the Control panel’s ¶ pane or of the Paragraph panel
[Option+Ô+J or Ctrl+Alt+J].)
I explain how to create and adjust ruling lines in greater detail in Chapter 14. Figure 16-2:
This product
guide uses
reversedout text,
created via
ruling lines,
for its vendor titles.
Chapter 16: Tricks with Text
271
Creating sidebars and pull-quotes
A sidebar is supplemental text that is often formatted differently from the rest of the document and placed within a shaded or outlined box. Sidebars help break up text-heavy pages and call attention to information that is often interesting but not essential to the main story.
Particularly in text-heavy publications, pulling in-depth information or related text into sidebars can help provide visual relief. To create a sidebar, you usually place the text in its own frame, then stroke the frame, and optionally fill it with a tint. To inset the text from the edges of the frame, use the Text Frame Options dialog box (Object➪Text Frame Options [Ô+B or Ctrl+B]). A pull-quote is a catchy one-or two-line excerpt from a publication that is enlarged and reformatted to achieve both editorial and design objectives. Pull-quotes draw readers into articles with excerpts that do everything from summarize the content to provide shock value. From the design perspective, pull-quotes break up static columns and offer opportunities for typographic treatment that emphasizes the content, such as colors and typefaces that support the mood of an article.
To create a pull-quote, copy and paste the relevant text into its own text frame and then reformat the text and frame as you wish. Use the Text Wrap panel (Window➪Text Wrap [Option+Ô+W or Ctrl+Alt+W]) to control how text in columns wraps around the pull-quote.
To create sidebars, pull-quotes, or other such elements that stay close to the text that refers to them, use the anchored-object feature described in Chapter 10.
Formatting fractions
Creating fractions that are formatted correctly can be handy. Compare the leftmost fraction in Figure 16-3, which really isn’t formatted as a fraction, to the other three fractions, which are correctly formatted (each using a different technique). Although InDesign doesn’t provide an automatic fraction maker, you can use OpenType typefaces, expert typefaces, or character formats to achieve professional-looking fractions.
Applying a fraction typeface
Some expert typefaces include a variation, appropriately called Fractions, that includes a number of common fractions, such as 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, and 3/4. Adobe has Expert Collection variants for many of its popular Type 1 PostScript
272 Part IV: Text Essentials
fonts; these collections include true small caps, true fractions, and other typographic characters. You can also use a symbol font, though the numerals may not exactly match the appearance of numerals in the rest of your text because symbol fonts typically use plain fonts like Helvetica as their basis. To use a true fraction from an Expert Collection font, choose Type➪Glyph (Option+Shift+F11 or Alt+Shift+F11), select the font and face from the pop-up menus at the bottom of the dialog box shown in Figure 16-3, and then select the fraction you want to use.
If you have OpenType fonts, the process can be automated: Be sure that the Fraction option is enabled for the selected text, either as part of its character or paragraph style, or by highlighting the text and adjusting the OpenType options directly:
ߜ
For styles, go to the OpenType Features pane when creating or
modifying a paragraph or character style and checking Fractions. ߜ
For local formatting, highlight the text containing the fraction and then choose OpenType➪Fraction from the flyout menu of the Character panel or Control panel — be sure that Fraction is checked in the menu. Figure 16-3:
At left: Four
ways to
make a fraction (from
left to right):
unformatted,
via expert
fonts, via
OpenType
fonts, and
via manual
formatting.
At right:
The Glyphs
panel lets
you choose
special
characters
such as
fractions not
accessible
easily (or at
all) from the
keyboard.
Chapter 16: Tricks with Text
273
These OpenType options have no effect on non–OpenType fonts.
Formatting fractions manually
If you’re dealing with a wide range of fractions in something like a cookbook, you probably won’t find all the fractions you need in your Expert Collection or OpenType font. And regular Type 1 Postscript and TrueType fonts certainly won’t have the desired fractions. Because it would be difficult to format fractions such as 3/16 exactly the same as, say, an expert font’s 1/4, you may opt for formatting all the fractions manually.
The built-in fractions in expert and OpenType fonts are approximately the same size as a single character in that font, and this consistent size is your eventual goal in formatting a fraction manually. Usually, you achieve this size consistency between fractions and surrounding text by decreasing the size of the two numerals within the fraction, raising the numerator (the first, or top, number in the fraction) using the baseline shift feature, and kerning on either side of the slash as necessary. (Chapter 16 covers these controls.) Figure 16-3
shows examples of an unformatted fraction, an expert font’s fraction, an OpenType-generated fraction, and a manually created fraction.
Macintosh PostScript and TrueType fonts (as well as expert fonts and OpenType fonts for both Windows and Macintosh) provide another option for refining fractions: a special kind of slash called a virgule, which is smaller and at more of an angle than a regular slash. Press Option+Shift+1 to enter a virgule and then kern around it as you would a slash. (You can see how a virgule differs from a slash in Figure 16-3: The first and fourth fractions use slashes, while the second and third use virgules.)
Unless you rarely use fractions, by all means save your formatting as character styles. You can apply the formats with a keystroke or use Find/Change (Edit➪Find/Change [Ô+F or Ctrl+F]) to locate numbers and selectively apply the appropriate character style.
Optical margin alignment
When display type, such as a pull-quote or headline type in ads, is left-aligned or justified, the edges can look uneven due to the gaps above, below, or next to quotation marks, other punctuation, and some capital letters. Notice the text frame on the left in Figure 16-4, which doesn’t have hanging punctuation. To correct the unevenness, you can use a technique called hanging punctua- tion, or optical margin alignment, which extends the punctuation slightly beyond the edges of the rest of the text.
274 Part IV: Text Essentials
Figure 16-4:
Notice the
difference
between the
standard
alignment
on the left
and the
hanging
punctuation
on the right.
The
edge of text is defined by the edges of the text frame or any Inset Spacing specified in the Text Frame Options dialog box (Object➪Text Frame Options
[Ô+B or Ctrl+B]).
The optical margin alignment feature automates hanging punctuation, extending punctuation and the edges of some glyphs (such as the capital T) slightly outside the edges of the text. Unfortunately, you can’t control how much the characters “hang” outside the text boundaries — InDesign decides that for you. And optical margin alignment applies to all the text frames in a story, rather than to highlighted text. Therefore, you need to isolate any text for which you want hanging punctuation into its own story.
To specify optical margin alignment, select any text frame in a story and choose Type➪Story. In the Story panel, check the Optical Margin Alignment option, as shown in Figure 16-4.
Custom underline and
strikethrough options
You can use InDesign to create text with custom underlines and strikethroughs. Although you should use these effects sparingly, they can be effective for signs and other design-oriented text presentations, such as the examples shown in Figure 16-5.
You can find both the Underline Options and Strikethrough Options menu items in the flyout menu of the Character panel’s and of the Control panel’s A pane, and you can use these menu options to get just the look you’re interested in. The process for setting both Underline Options and Strikethrough Options is similar:
Chapter 16: Tricks with Text
275
1. Highlight the text to which you want to add the custom underline or strikethrough.
2. Specify the thickness, type, color, and other settings for the line that makes up the underline or the strikethrough line.
If you choose an underline or strikethrough line type that has gaps —
such as dashed, dotted, or striped lines — you can also choose a gap color. Figure 16-6 shows the Underline Options dialog box and the nearly identical Strikethrough Options dialog box.
3. Apply the underline or strikethrough style.
You apply the underline style via the Control panel, Character panel, or keyboard shortcut (Shift+Ô+U or Ctrl+Shift+U). Apply the strikethrough style via the Control panel, Character panel, or keyboard shortcut (Shift+Ô+/ or Ctrl+Shift+/).
Figure 16-5:
Examples
of custom
underlines
and strikethroughs.
Figure 16-6:
The Underline Options
dialog box
(left) and
Strikethrough
Options
dialog box
(right). The
Type pop-up
menu presents a list of
line types
available for
underlines.
23_388488-ch16.indd 275
9/23/08 7:34:34 PM
276 Part IV: Text Essentials
Note that a custom underline or strikethrough created and applied this way is in effect only for the first text to which an underline or strikethrough is applied. InDesign reverts to the standard settings the next time you apply an underline or strikethrough. If you want to use a custom underline or strikethrough setting repeatedly, you should define the setting as part of a character style.
Adjusting character strokes
InDesign CS4 lets you adjust the strokes that make up characters, as Figure 16-7 shows. You’ll rarely use this design effect. To change the stroke, select the text you want to adjust and then go to the Stroke panel (Window➪Stroke
[Ô+F10 or Ctrl+F10]) and adjust any of the following settings: Join, Miter Limit (if Miter Join is the selected Join), and Align Stroke. Note that for text, you only get the Center and Outside options for Align Stroke, not Inside. (Chapter 7 covers strokes in more detail.)
Figure 16-7:
Compare
the adjusted
stroke at
left (it aligns
the stroke
to center) to
the regular
stroke at
right (it
aligns the
stroke to
the outside).
You can
see this
difference
by comparing the e’s
and r’s.
Converting Text into Shapes
If you want to use the shape of a letter or the combined shapes of several letters as a frame for text or a graphic, you could test your skill with the Pen tool and create the letter shape(s) yourself. But getting hand-drawn characters to 23_388488-ch16.indd 276
9/23/08 7:34:34 PM
Chapter 16: Tricks with Text
277
look just the way you want them to can take lots of time. A quicker solution is to use the Create Outlines command to convert text characters into editable outlines. The Create Outlines command is particularly useful if you want to hand-tweak the shapes of characters, particularly at display font sizes, or place text or a graphic within character shapes.
If all you need to do is apply a stroke or fill to characters within text, you don’t have to convert the characters into outlines. Instead, simply highlight the characters and use the Stroke panel (Window➪Stroke [Ô+F10 or Ctrl+F10]) and Swatches panel (Window➪Swatches [F5]) to change their appearance. This way, you can still edit the text. (See Chapter 7 for more details.) When you use the Create Outlines command, you have the choice of creating an inline compound path that replaces the original text or an independent compound path that’s placed directly on top of the original letters in its own frame. If you want the text outlines to flow with the surrounding text, create an inline compound path. If you want to use the outlines elsewhere, create an independent compound path.
To convert text into outlines:
1. Use the Type tool to highlight the characters you want to convert into outlines.
Generally, this feature works best with large font sizes.
2.
Choose
Type➪Create Outlines (Shift+Ô+O or Ctrl+Shift+O — that’s the letter O, not a zero).
If you hold down the Option or Alt key when you choose Create Outlines (or if you press Shift+Option+Ô+O or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+O), a compound path is created and placed in front of the text. In this case, you can use either of the selection tools to move the resulting compound path. If you don’t hold down Option or Alt when you choose Create Outlines, an inline compound path is created. This object replaces the original text and flows with the surrounding text.
After you create text outlines, you can modify the paths the same as you can modify hand-drawn paths. You can also use the transformation tools, the Control panel (Window➪Control [Option+Ô+6 or Ctrl+Alt+6]), and the Transform panel (Window➪Transform) to change the appearance of text outlines. You can’t, however, edit text after converting it to outlines. Additionally, you can use the Place command (File➪Place [Ô+D or Ctrl+D]) or the Paste Into command (Edit➪Paste Into [Option+Ô+V or Ctrl+Alt+V]) to import text or a graphic into the frames created by converting text to graphics.
278 Part IV: Text Essentials
Making Text Follow a Path
InDesign lets you have text follow any open or closed path, such as a line or frame. Simply select the path or shape with the Type on a Path tool, which is available from the Type tool’s pop-up menu. Now start typing (or paste or place) your text.
After you enter the text and format it with font, size, color, and so on, you can apply special effects to it using the Type on a Path Options dialog box, accessed by choosing Type➪Type on a Path➪Options.
You can also double-click the Type on a Path tool to open the Type on a Path Options dialog box.
Figure 16-8 shows the dialog box and several examples of its formatting. In the dialog box:
ߜ
Use the Effect pop-up menu to choose a visual effect.
ߜ
Use the Align pop-up menu to choose what part of the text is aligned (baseline, center, ascender, or descender).
ߜ
Use the To Path pop-up menu to choose whether to align to the center, bottom, or top of the path.
ߜ
Flip the text by selecting the Flip option.
ߜ
Change the text’s spacing by entering a value in the Spacing field (positive numbers space out the text, while negative ones contract it). Figure 16-8:
The Type
on a Path
Options dialog box lets
you apply
special
effects,
alignment,
and flip to
text following a path.