Non-Designer’s Type Book, The, Second Edition

Be Consistent

Whatever you’re doing with your captions, be consistent. Don’t confuse your reader; be thoughtful. Use the same alignment, typeface and style, size and leading. Be consistent about the placement —such as how far below the bottom edge of the photograph you place it, or aligning it with a baseline. Use a style sheet for the captions. (If you don’t know how to use the style sheets in your application, you must learn! Style sheets are one of the most important features you can master.)

There are little tricks in every application for ensuring that the placement of captions is consistent—ask other people who use the same page layout application what tricks they use.