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Dan Rodney/4 min read

More Text Styling

Multi-Page Layout Workflow

1

Set the Grid

Layout → Margins and Columns. Baseline grid for vertical alignment.

2

Create Master Pages

A-Master with template, additional masters for chapter openers.

3

Style Sheets

Build paragraph and character styles before placing copy.

4

Place Copy

File → Place. Auto-flow with shift-click to fill multiple pages.

Master InDesign at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Graphic Design Certificate covers InDesign alongside Photoshop and Illustrator.

Master the intricacies of text formatting with our InDesign tutorial, delving into topics like baseline shift, small caps, the line tool, and OpenType formatting.

Topics Covered in This InDesign Tutorial:

Baseline Shift, Small Caps, the Line Tool, OpenType Formatting (like Styling Proper Fractions

Exercise Preview

uninspirational poster done

Exercise Overview

This exercise gets you pointed in the right direction… with text formatting such as all caps and small caps, OpenType formatting (like styling proper fractions), and other typesetting techniques.

  1. From the InDesign Class folder, open the file uninspirational poster.indd.

    If you get a message about modified links, click Update Links. The exercise file was created on a different computer and since the images are in the same folder, InDesign will just find and update them for you.

  2. We’ve already typed in the text and done some basic styling such as font and font size. You will perfect the layout. Zoom in on the text so you can see it better.

Styling the “Exploration” Title

  1. With the Type tool type tool, select the word exploration.

  2. In the Control panel, click the All Caps button all caps.

    Don’t see it? Switch to the Character options controlpanel characterformatting via the button on the left.

  3. That looks better, but we can make the Exploration title more interesting. Select the middle letters XPLORATIO (everything except the E and N).

  4. Make those middle letters (XPLORATIO) smaller, 70 pts.

  5. With the middle letters still selected, let’s Baseline Shift them to align with the top of the E and N. The fastest way is to use the following keystrokes:

    Mac: Option–Shift–Up or Down Arrow
    Windows: ALT–Shift–Up or Down Arrow

    Try it. Press the keyboard shortcut until the text lines up at the top.

    NOTE: To see how much your Baseline Shift is (or if you don’t like keystrokes), look in the Control panel. You’ll probably need to be viewing the Character options controlpanel characterformatting. Baseline Shift baseline shift is near the middle of the panel.

  6. To fill out that space we just created, we’ll add a line. Select the Line tool line tool.

  7. Hold Shift (to make sure the line is perfectly horizontal) and draw a line that aligns with the bottom of the E and N and fills in that space.

    NOTE: The line should already be the right color (orange), as we chose that ahead of time for you. If you needed to apply a color yourself, you would open the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) and click on the color to apply it.

  8. With the line still selected, in the Control panel, make the Stroke weight 3 pt as shown below:

    3pt stroke

Styling the 2-Line Subtitle

  1. Using the Type tool type tool, select the two lines of text under Exploration.

  2. In the Control panel, click the Small Caps button small caps.

    If you don’t see it, switch to the Character options controlpanel characterformatting via the button on the left.

The Disclaimer

  1. We need to add a footnote number to line 2 of the subtitle. Put the cursor at the end of the second line, after “…Wrong Way”.

  2. Type in a 1 (that’s a number one).

  3. Select the 1 and in the Control panel, click the Superscript button superscript.

  4. Type another 1 at the beginning of the disclaimer text at the bottom of the page, which starts with “Not responsible…”

  5. Select it and make it Superscript superscript as well.

    NOTE: Another way of applying options such as All Caps, Superscript, etc. is by using the Character panel (Type > Character) and going to its menu panel menu. The keystrokes for those options are also shown in this menu.

Making Proper Fractions

  1. In the middle of that line is a fraction that isn’t properly styled (99/100). Select it.

  2. On the far right of the Control panel, go into the panel menu control panel menu and select OpenType > Fractions.

    Proper Fractions Without OpenType

    While OpenType fraction styling is ideal, it won’t work with TrueType or Postscript fonts. It also won’t work with all OpenType fonts! If the menu has square brackets around the [Fractions] option, that particular font lacks the special fraction characters. One of our instructors, Dan Rodney, wrote a script called Proper Fraction that formats fractions regardless of font. You can download a free version on his website at: danrodney.com/scripts

  3. You’ll work with this file again in a later exercise, so save it as yourname-uninspirational poster.indd into the InDesign Class folder.