Adobe® InDesign® CS5 Bible

Chapter 20. Specifying Character Attributes

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Working with characters versus paragraphs

• Changing font families, font styles, and font sizes

• Applying other character formats

• Controlling horizontal and vertical spacing

• Working with character styles

Type is the visual representation of the spoken word. As a user of InDesign, chances are you'll be making lots of decisions about the appearance of the text in the publications you produce. Fortunately, InDesign provides an extensive arsenal of text-formatting tools that let you tweak and polish your type in a nearly infinite variety of ways.

Of all the decisions an InDesign user makes when designing a publication, decisions about type are arguably the most important. Why? Because a publication can't be effective if the text is hard to read. The difference between good typography and bad typography is the same as the difference between clear speaking and mumbling. The intent of a clear speaker and a mumbler may be the same, but the effect on the listener is quite different. In publishing, the printed words are the containers in which the writer's message is transported to the reader. As the caretaker of those words, you hold great power. Whether the message is successfully transported depends largely on your typographic decisions.

Note

This chapter focuses on modifying character-level typographic formats; Chapter 21 focuses on modifying paragraph-level formats.

Working with Character Formats

Before you begin looking at InDesign's character-formatting ...