Type Basics

Creating a Text Box

Using the Text tool , drag to define the width and height of a new text frame. Hold down as you drag to constrain the frame to a square. When you release the mouse button, a text insertion point appears in the frame.

Changing the type

The Character palette will be your primary tool when altering text. With the Text tool selected (in the Tools palette), the Control palette will display the controls for changing attributes of type such as font face, font size, etc. You may also type in a specific value into the dialog boxes. The changes take place immediately after you enter the values.

Below the Font Face control are buttons that control the style, case, and other special states of the font. To the right of the Font Face control are the Font Size and Leading (vertical space between lines of type) controls. To the middle right are the Tracking (space between letters or words) and width (as a percentage of what is normal for the font) controls. Finally, to the far right are the controls for Kerning (spacing between a few letters or words, applied on a smaller scale than tracking) and baseline shifting (vertical position of text relative to the baseline of the text box).

As you may imagine, many of these tools are not used by those wanting a simple layout.

Most often, casual users of InDesign will have no need to adjust any of these features. But skillful use of these features divides the amateur from the graphic design professional. Fonts generally have a set value that looks acceptable to a broad audience, but those who need text to do more than communicate words must have the option of changing the defaults.

• Leading: Leading is the space between lines of text. Be warned that text can be incredibly unreadable if the leading is too much or too little.
• Kerning: Kerning is the space between two letters in a word (or between two words). When fonts reach sizes larger than normal body text (10, 12 point), letters begin to spread too far apart from each other to be asthetically pleasing or very readable, so kerning can be adjusted to control the problem.
• Tracking: Tracking is the space between letters and words in a paragraph. It affects the look of the entire paragraph, unlike kerning.