The Eye Has It: Optical Alignment and Hanging Punctuation Sometimes Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

InType: Alignment By Nigel French The Eye Has It: Optical Alignment and Hanging Punctuation Sometimes little things can make a big difference. When it comes to typography this is especially true. One of the simplest enhancements you can make to your type— especially if you’re working with justified type—is to use Optical Margin Alignment. What is Optical Margin Alignment? But today, with InDesign’s Optical Have you ever noticed how punctuation Margin Alignment, we can easily ensure at the margin of a text frame can make the that punctuation, as well as the edges of left or right sides of a column appear mis- letters, hangs outside the text frame or aligned? When a line begins with punctua- column margins so that the column edge T tion, like an opening quotation mark, or remains flush (Figure 1). ends with a comma, period, or hyphen, you This makes Optical Margin Alignment get a visual hole. Once, this was regarded as especially beneficial when working with the price of progress. We could do so much justified text, but even with left-aligned more with our page layout programs—did text, the first character of the line will “hang” Figure 1: The text is the same; the margin alignment is not. it matter that we had to forgo a few niceties? outside the text frame. INDESIGN MAGAZINE 43 August | September 2011 CONTENTS PREVIOUS NEXT FULL SCREEN 30 InType: Alignment T Optical margin alignment isn’t to eve- tool, choose Story from the ryone’s taste. Some consider the look of Type menu, check the box optically aligned text too fussy, preferring and you’re good to go. The instead to have everything contained within only user-defined option the text frame. Perhaps they became accus- is the font size, which tomed to text columns that weren’t optically determines the amount of aligned during the early days of desktop overhang. publishing because it wasn’t possible, in the Theoretically, the amount same way as some people have become so of “hang” should be set to accustomed to the taste of instant coffee the same size as the text, that they prefer it to the real thing. but in practice you’ll prob- ably just want to eyeball it. How to Use It Optical Margin Alignment is technically Figure 3: Incorporating Optical Margin Alignment into an Optical margin alignment is controlled a story-wide attribute (not paragraph- or Object Style. through the Story panel, which is perhaps frame-based). That’s why it shows up in the the simplest panel in InDesign (Figure 2). Story panel, and you won’t find it in your your text frames (Figure 3). While you’re You select the story you want to align, Paragraph Style Options. If you want to defining an Object Style for your text either with the Selection tool or the Type apply it globally (and consistently), you’ll frame, you may also want to incorporate need to incorporate it into an Object Style additional specs, such as the number of definition, which you can then apply to columns in your text frame, a text wrap, or the Paragraph style that is applied to the Figure 2 (left): To apply Optical Margin Alignment, just content of the frame. If your text is very choose Type>Story and check the box. The point size structured, you can even specify the Next should correspond to the size of your type, but 12pt works well for Align Left Edge. style option, so that you apply a sequence INDESIGN MAGAZINE 43 August | September 2011 CONTENTS PREVIOUS NEXT FULL SCREEN 31 InType: Alignment T of styles to your text. But I’m getting a bit Ignore Optical Margin from the Control or off topic; that’s another story... Paragraph panel menu. When to Avoid Optical Margin Alignment Hanging Punctuation There are certain types of paragraph that A couple other InDesign features are closely won’t benefit from optical margin align- related to Optical Margin Alignment. The Figure 5: A hanging quotation, before and after. The Indent ment. The left edges of bullets and num- first is the Indent to Here character, which to Here character is inserted after the opening quote mark. bered lists, for example, should remain can be used to good effect on display text— flush. To do this, choose the Ignore Optical especially pull quotes and callouts that Here character: Cmd+\ (Ctrl+\). This special Margin Alignment option in your Paragraph begin with a quote mark—to create a hang- character indents all subsequent lines in the Style Options (Figure 4). Or, if you want to ing indent and thus maintain the flushed paragraph to the point where you add the turn it off manually—as a local override edge of the text (Figure 5). You can hang character, fixing the optical hole on the left to a particular paragraph—you can select an opening quote mark using the Indent to edge of the text. Figure 4: In both examples to the right, Optical Margin alignment is turned on for the story. But in the example on the far right, the numbered paragraphs ignore Optical Margin Alignment. Note how the “1”s align better. INDESIGN MAGAZINE 43 August | September 2011 CONTENTS PREVIOUS NEXT FULL SCREEN 32 InType: Alignment T The second related feature is the Align then kerning back over the space to achieve sophisticated look and, consequently, more Left Edge checkbox that’s part of the Drop an optically aligned look will appreciate the credibility with its readers. Cap and Nested Style options. This ensures convenience of this feature. that your opening character is flush with They’re small things, but Optical Margin ■ the left edge of the text frame, again avoid- Alignment, hanging punctuation, and its Nigel French is a graphic designer, photographer, author, ing the problem of a visual hole (Figure 6). related features are quick and easy ways to and teacher living in Brighton, UK. He is the author of InDesign Type and Photoshop Unmasked, both from Adobe Anyone who remembers the workaround of add panache to your type. Doing so shows Press, as well as several titles for the Lynda.com online adding a space before such characters and attention to detail and gives your text a training library. Figure 6: Click the Align Left Edge checkbox to keep opening characters flush with the left edge of the text frame. INDESIGN MAGAZINE 43 August | September 2011 CONTENTS PREVIOUS NEXT FULL SCREEN 33 .

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