Basic how-to information on three tools in your typographic toolbox.

If you use them right, you aren’t using them all the time, but when you need to use them, you ought to know how. Here’s the basic skinny on three well-known but somewhat taken-for-granted typographic filips.

Tab Leaders-what are they?

The illustration shows a table from an old textbook in the author’s collection. One way to lay out a table such as this in print is to left-justify the left hand column, either right-align or align figures at along the common decimal point. The result of this is a rectangular shape that lives rather comfortably in the column of text. In order to fill what would otherwise be an awkward trapped space in the middle and to form the visual connection between the detail and the number it is to be linked to, a line of dots can be made to extend from the one to the other.

This is just another of the myriad tools of type design that are now under the power of the desktop designer. In QuarkXPress and InDesign, these are linked to tabs and are called tab leaders. Tab leaders in these applications are not just limited to dots, however, and in both are relatively easy to do.

Tab Leaders in InDesign

To get the same effect in InDesign (this should work in both CS and CS2), first we have to start with a list. We’ve taken a few items from the list in the illustration here and typed them into a text frame in InDesign CS2 and made another list of them.

Tab Leader Central Control in InDesign is found on the Tabs palette. Bringing this up now (Mac: CMD-SHIFT-T, Win: CTRL-SHIFT-T, or Menu: Window>Type & Tables>Tabs) we duplicate the original look of the table by installing a decimal-align tab to the right of the list, and then inserting a tab in each line. The numbers all get in line along the decimal points, all nice and pretty.

There’s still the matter of the dots, however. This is simple: directly between the X-postion box and the Align On box is a box labeled “Leader:”. We put a period in this box and press Return or Tab, and we got this:

Wow! That gets us the dots, alright, but they’re waaaay to close together, and the dense black color arrests our attention. Bad mojo. What’s to be done? Well, the Leader input box accepts up to eight characters for input. Instead of just a period, put a period and space in:

There. Much better.

As mentioned, the Leader box can contain up to eight characters, opening artistic possibilities for constructing lists using other characters, dingbats, or whatever. Just remember to choose appropriately for the communication you’re trying to accomplish.

Tab Leaders in QuarkXPress

The procedure is much the same in QuarkXPress, though there are differences in procedure and terminology.

After setting up the list in XPress 6.5, placing the decimal-align tab and putting the tabs in, with the text box selected, we bring up the Tabs pane of Paragraph Attributes (Mac: CMD-SHIFT-T, Win: CTRL-SHIFT-T, or Menu: Style>Tabs…). Once up, click on the tab to select it and then put the period-space combination in the box labelled “Fill Character”, then strike the Tab key.

Quark Paragraph Attribute dialog with a period-space in the Fill Character input box that produces the same effect as the Leader input box in InDesign.

To find out about drop caps in InDesign and XPress, proceed to Page 2. Hanging punctuation is covered on Page 3

Drop Caps-What are they?

To almost everyone reading this, drop caps are a typographic decoration that need no introduction. It is worth saying, though, that these large, multiline majuscules, placed at the top of an introductory paragraph or at the top of a column of text, that arrests the attention and guides the eye to the proper entry spot. It can be styled and decorated in just about any way imaginable; today’s layout software makes it easy to do.

There are, of course, other graphical solutions to drop caps: placed illustrations with appropriate text wrap. But for those situations when simplicity is called for, the following typographic approach is best.

Drop Caps in InDesign

Drop caps are accessible via paragraph formatting functions. These are available through either the Paragraph palette (Mac: CMD-OPT-T, Win: CTRL-ALT-T or Menu: Window>Type & Tables>Paragraph) or via the Control Palette’s paragraph view. On the Paragraph palette, they are the bottom-most two boxes, on the Control Palette, on the lower edge in the middle. The pictorial icons should give them away plainly.

There are two parameters InDesign allows you to specify: number of lines (as counted from the first and including spaces), labeled with a large A standing out of a paragraph, and number of spaces (as counted from the first line down and labeled with a similar icon but with a large upper and lower case A standing out)

The InDesign Paragraph palette highlighting drop cap controls; right, number of lines; left, number of characters. Similar accesses can be found in the control palette.

Specifying this at 2 and 1, respectively, results in a single large cap, two lines deep:

If we want the first two words of that paragraph drop-capped, we specify 7 as the number of characters (six letters plus the space between):

Drop cap characters with lines set to two and characters set to seven.

Drop Caps in QuarkXPress

QuarkXPress’s drop cap control is found, again, in Paragraph Attributes, this time under the Format tab (Mac: CMD-SHIFT-F, Win: ALT-SHIFT-F, or Menu: Style>Formats). After selecting the paragraph, check the Drop Caps check box (which turns that section of the pane on) and specifying Character Count and Line Count as appropriate.

Quark Paragraph Attributes dialog with drop caps turned on in the Formats tab. A 2-line, 1-character drop is specified. Quark allows up to 127 characters and 16 lines designated for drop caps.

Find out about hanging punctuation on Page 3.

Hanging Punctuation - What is it, and why?

There are some situations in setting type – pull quotes, block quotes, for example – where a strong left margin is attractive. Simply aligning all type to the left doesn’t produce the desired effect; punctuation such as quotes or bullets give the impression of an indent. This is fine, if an indent is what is wanted.

It just so happens that if the punctuation is moved out beyond the strong edge of the type, and the letterform next to it optically aligns with the margin below. The eye sees the lineup of the letterforms further reinforced, and the impression of a clean margin is achieved.

Hanging Punctuation in InDesign

Automatically speaking, it’s a two-step procedure in InDesign, after selecting the text frame; Open the Story palette (Window>Type & Tables>Story) and check “Optical Margin Alignment”. It happens, just like that.

Hanging Punctuation in QuarkXPress

QuarkXPress has no automatic way, from a typesetting approach, to accomplish hanging punctuation; it’s a hands-on process and requires a bit of faith.

We’ve heard of a few ways to do this, but so far the best comes from fellow Designorati contrbitor Jeremy Schultz:

• Put a space before the mark (such as the open quote mark)
• Move your cursor between the space and mark
• Use negative kerning to move the mark and text back until the first text character lines up with the left edge of the rest of the text

The faith comes from the fact that when the punctuation is negatively-kerned out, as it crosses the edge of the text box it disappears. It does, however, print.

While more work than simply checking a box, it can be a method for those interested in precision control. And, since it depends on a function common to both applications (kerning), this method works in InDesign as well, the only difference being that in InDesign the punctuation can still be seen.

Did We Miss Anything?

Those are the basics; we’re certain that there are a few other ways to the goal. Did we leave anything out? Don’t keep it to yourself – feel free to use the comments to add your own favorite methods of making up these typographic tricks!