TechShop:Typography in inDesign
Still Draft
This guide is designed for those that have attended a one hour lecture based session on using type within InDesign and concentrates on font adjustments. For more details on using type in general within InDesign see links at the bottom.
Related Preferences
Some options to adjust type can only be found within preference
InDesign > Preferences - Type, Advanced Type and the Unit and Increments section
The main settings to look for are : Apply Leading to entire paragraph, adjustments for Subscript SuperScript and Lower CAPS when letting InDesign adjust fonts that do not have these options within the font family.
Font Selection
Cmd + 6 - select the font choosing drop down list
start to type name of font to choose it
Scale (increase point size of text)
Cmd + Shift and either < > (these keys are called less than and greater than)
(to adjust the amount of scaling/kerning or leading this does see Preferences > Units and Increments)
Visual scaling of text (this increases point size - thus does not mess up the font)
Select frame (black arrow)
Cmd + option + C - fit frame to content (or via context menu - right or ctrl click on frame)
Using black arrow tool drag out frame size whilst pressing Cmd + option + shift
Always use real italic/condensed/small caps - where possible
Select from the drop down list for the font family
All caps, small caps - Open type better
underline - prefs from right side
Leading
By default Indesign works with auto leading which is generally not good.
change to fixed leading by selecting you text ( Cmd + A = select all including overset text) and adjust the leading value to a whole figure a good place to begin is 2 points larger than your type point size - text is 10pt leading is 12pt.
A keyboard short cut to adjust leading is option + up or down cursor keys
kerning (between character)
option + left and right cursor key
Select more than 1 character is tracking the close cousin to Kerning
text area tips
File > Place
snap to guides
manual flow
auto flow (hold shift when placing) - auto adds pages
semi auto (alt when placing)
auto flow without adding pages - alt + shift
Tips
To adjust preferences globally within InDesign make sure you have no documents open.
FAQ's
Links
lynda.com Training - link to video on using typography - chapter 2 is free and should be viewed by all