Section 39. Applying Optical Margin Alignment


#39. Applying Optical Margin Alignment

In typography, there is a difference between text that is actually aligned and text that is optically aligned. When text is left aligned or right aligned, the edges still look ragged sometimes due to the shape of the characters. For example, punctuation such as quotation marks, commas, and em dashes often cause this problem as do some letters such as "W" and "A." To fix this, InDesign provides optical margin alignmentalso known as hanging punctuationwhich "hangs" the edges of offending characters slightly outside the margins to produce a smoother looking edge (Figure 39a). This is a special effect that you will generally use sparingly for text such as pull quotes; it is not generally used for body text.

Figure 39a. At left, the text is left aligned, but the left edge looks ragged due to the opening quotation marks and the em dash. At right, the text has optical margin alignment, so the quotation marks and em dash hang slightly outside the margin.


Optical Margin Alignment is an attribute of a storywhich consists of all the text in a series of threaded text framesso you cannot apply it to selected paragraphs. As a result, you may need to place text that requires Optical Margin Alignment in separate text frames. To apply Optical Margin Alignment:

1.

Select a text frame with the Type tool or either selection tool.

2.

Choose Type > Story.

3.

Check Optical Margin Alignment in the Story palette (Figure 39b).

Figure 39b. Use the Story palette to create hanging punctuation for the selected text frame.


4.

Specify how much the text should hang outside the margins by entering a point size in the field. In general, select the point size of the text itself.



Adobe InDesign CS2 How-Tos(c) 100 Essential Techniques
Adobe InDesign CS2 How-Tos: 100 Essential Techniques
ISBN: 0321321901
EAN: 2147483647
Year: N/A
Pages: 142

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