Optical Margin Alignment


One of the most sophisticated text effects in InDesign is the ability to apply hanging punctuation to justified text in which a slight adjustment of the margin creates a more uniform appearance for the edge of the text. Hanging punctuation is applied by setting the optical margin alignment. This moves punctuation characters slightly outside the text margin . In addition, optical margin alignment moves the serifs of letters outside the margin .

To create the effect of a straight edge, optical margin alignment moves punctuation outside the margin edges.

The Optical Margin Alignment setting also moves the serifs of letters slightly outside the margin.

Optical margin alignment is set using the Story palette.

To set optical margin adjustment:

1.

Select the text.

2.

Choose Type > Story. This opens the Story palette .

The Story palette lets you set the Optical Margin Alignment to hang punctuation in the margin.

3.

Check Optical Margin Alignment. The text reflows so that the punctuation and serifs lie outside the margin edges.

4.

Enter a size for the amount of overhang.

Tip

As a general rule, set the overhang the same size as the text.

When to Use Paragraph Composition?

Why would anyone want to turn off the miracle of paragraph composition? Well there are times when the paragraph composer insists on breaking a paragraph where you don't want it to break. If that happens, you can turn off the Paragraph Composer.

You may also want to turn off the Paragraph Composer if you have converted a QuarkXPress document into InDesign and you want to keep the text from reflowing.

Also, some statistical data may be easier to work with if you turn off the Paragraph Composer.




InDesign CS2 for Macintosh and Windows(c) Visual QuickStart Guide
InDesign CS4 for Macintosh and Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide
ISBN: 0321573579
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 309
Authors: Sandee Cohen

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net