Tag Archives: Point (typography)

An InDesign default paragraph-character styles set

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Setting up an InDesign default paragraph-character styles set as you begin using InDesign THIS IS A PRACTICAL STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE FOR WHAT IS DESCRIBED IN ALL MY INDESIGN PRODUCTION BOOKS SINCE 1996. IT’S CURRENTLY CHAPTER 22 IN: Book Publishing With InDesign CC We are going to set up the styles shown in the book. This will give you actual experience in setting up styles. Plus you will begin developing your own personal set of styles—which will become the … Continue reading →

Careful of hyphens and eliminate widows and orphans

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Be careful with hyphens. Because typeset line endings are automatic, so is the hyphenation. You can turn it on or off. Hyphenation is done by dictionary. You can set up the hyphens when you add new words to the user dictionary (see InDesign’s help). Another problem is that automatic hyphenation can create hyphens for many consecutive lines. Here there is sharp debate. Most of us agree that two hyphens in a row should be the maximum (a … Continue reading →

Looking professional: Letterspacing, kerning, and tracking

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Letterspacing Here is another typesetting capability that cannot even be considered by word processors. We mentioned letterspacing earlier. Letterspacing is the built-in spacing between characters in a font. The basic idea is that the white space between letters should be identical for all letter pairs. Obviously, this is not simple or easy. AT, OOPS, and silly have very different spacing problems—especially the ill. The better the font, the better the letterspacing. In very cheap fonts, individual letters … Continue reading →

Control your spacing & alignments with tabs & fixed spaces

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Tabs and fixed spaces Spaces cause many other problems for people trained in typewriting. On a typewriter, the spacebar is a known quantity. This is because every character in monospaced type is the same width—even the space. This is definitely not true for type. In fact, in type, the space band is often a different size than it was the last time you hit the key. This is caused by several factors. First, the word space character … Continue reading →

Space, space and a half, double-space Horrors!

Skilled Workman Posted on by

Space, space and a half, or double space? None of the above! This is why we use leading instead of spacing. Spacing is old typewriter terminology. The three options listed above were the only ones available for typewriters. In almost every case (unless you are trying to mimic a typewriter) a single space is too close, a space and a half is too far, and a double space is ridiculous. Again, the focus has to be on … Continue reading →

Sizing your type

Skilled Workman Posted on by

The major point to remember is that all letters of a given typeface and a given size fit into rectangles that are the same height. We’re spending a lot of time on this because it is an important concept to understand. Often paragraphs or lines of type look very different in size, but in fact they are the same point size. This is primarily due to variations in x-height and built-in leading in the specific font chosen. … Continue reading →