Long Hours of Design

You don’t need to be an acrobat for this balancing act.

Here’s a useful InDesign feature I often forget about: “Balance Ragged Lines.”

Ragged lines come up in a block of right- or left-aligned text and depend on word lengths, column width and similar variables. Instead of a natural ebb and flow of line endings, ragged lines jut out unevenly like some sort of typographical flotsam and jetsam

“Balance Ragged Lines,” buried under the Paragraph panel flyout, does pretty much what it sounds like it does. ^{[ 1 ]} It adjusts each line in the paragraph so they’re all of approximately equal length—and so there aren’t lines sticking out every which way.

Example

Here are the ragged lines I want to tackle.

Ragged Lines, Oh My!

Ragged Lines, Oh My!

Now, this isn’t actually so bad; my lines flow pretty much as I’d expect them to.

But the bottom two lines—where the URL breaks onto the last line—that’s a problem. I want that URL on one line, not two.

I could shore this up with forced line breaks—but I can’t add just one (putting the URL on the bottom line) as then I’d REALLY have some ragged lines. No, in this case I’d have to add a break to the end of every line.

I’d get this:

A Chicken for Every Pot, and a Forced Break for Every Line

A Chicken for Every Pot, and a Forced Break for Every Line

Yikes! Too much.

So let’s use Balance Ragged Lines.

Balance Ragged Lines—My Hero!

Balance Ragged Lines—My Hero!

And Viola! Well-balanced lines.

The Pièce de résistance

The Pièce de résistance

Caveats

This is a great feature, but I’d caution against its overuse.

Applying “Balance Ragged Lines” can sometimes destroy the typographic-rhythm paragraph lines have, and make them look somehow “unnatural” or “just not right.”

I’d recommend steering clear of using this everywhere—but in those places where unwieldy lines have gotten away from you, “Balance Ragged Lines” is a real peach.

Or: How many rules could a paragraph rule if a paragraph rule could rule? ^{[ 1 ]}

As dull as they may seem, paragraph rules are actually amazingly versatile, and with a little ingenuity and “Thinking Outside the Rules” you can easily harness paragraph rules and make yourself a superstar.

Or at least semi-pro.

In addition to my own posts on the subject, here are some great resources on paragraph rules.

http://www.theindesigner.com/blog/episode-50-tab-topped-text-frames

http://www.theindesigner.com/blog/episode-49-paragraph-rules-rule

http://www.layersmagazine.com/indesign-paragraph-rules.html

http://typophile.com/node/29199

http://www.fontshop.be/details.php?entry=262

Stet is a Latin word (meaning “let it stand”) used by proofreaders to instruct the writer to disregard a change the editor had previously marked.

This convention is usually marked by writing and circling the word stet above or beside the unwanted edit and underscoring the selection with dashes or dots.

Stet is also sometimes used as a verb, e.g., “Stet that colon.” ^{[ 1 ]}

Stat is an abbreviate for “Statistic”

Statistic is a fact or piece of data from a study of a large quantity of numerical data. From German statistisch . ^{[ 2 ]}

Sometimes, you just need more space.

Like me, (6”4’) after being on an airplane for 6 hours—sometimes you just need to stretch out.

Well, there’s plenty of ways to do that, typography-wise, but here’s a nice little guy who can be easily overlooked.

The em space. (Or Señor em space-o)

What’s an em space? From Adobe: ^{[ 1 ]}

Em Space
Equal in width to the size of the type. In 12‑point type, an em space is 12 points wide.

En Space
One‑half the width of an em space.

An em space (or an en space) is great for spots where, otherwise, you might be tempted to use multiple spaces.

Here’s an example:

Multiple Spaces

Multiple Spaces

With Em Spaces

With Em Spaces

Using an em space follows “The Fewer the Better” Rule. As well, while multiple spaces can be adversely affected by tracking or kerning, an em space will give you a consistent width no matter where you use it.

So use the em space.

And be happy.[3. Em and En Spaces are located: In Adobe InDesign, Type:Insert White Space: and in Quark XPress, Utilities;Insert Character:Special Characters: