Skip to Main Content
Today's Hours

Polished Posters: Indesign Formatting Essentials

A step by step guide in using Adobe InDesign to format research posters. Learn how to prepare your file, insert text and images, and export your design. With introductions into Typographic terminology and useful tips and keyboard shortcuts for use within

Formatting Text



In this section of the InDesign guide, we will explore the essential tools and techniques for formatting text to create
visually appealing and professionally structured documents. Text formatting in InDesign offers a wide range of options,
from adjusting fonts, sizes, and styles to managing spacing, alignment, and paragraph styles. 

 

Typography Terminology

  • Leading 
    Its original meaning is increasing the vertical space between lines of metal type by literally inserting lead strips. In the digital age it now means the vertical space between lines of text, from baseline to baseline. Also known as line spacing.
     
  • Tracking
    Adding space between sequences of characters, as opposed to kerning, which only adds space between a pair of characters.
     
  • Kerning
    The built-in spacing of a typeface is intended to produce an even texture in any letter combination. Certain combinations, like LT, VA or To tend to look loose with the default built-in spacing. Kerning is an additional adjustment to those problem pairs that corrects the excess or inadequate space. Fonts that are properly kerned appear evenly spaced without large open gaps of white space between any two characters.

 

Setting Character Styles

Character Styles allow parameters to be set to format text consistently throughout the document. Multiple character styles can be created to set the parameters for Title, Heading, Body text, Citations, etc. Once set these parameters can be changed and the changes will be reflected on the document to any text boxes set to the character style being edited.

 

To create a new character style in Adobe InDesign, follow these steps:

  1. Open the "Character Styles" panel (Window > Styles > Character Styles).
  2. Click the "New Style" button at the bottom of the panel.
  3. In the dialog box, name your style.
  4. Click "Basic Character Formats" to set font, size, and other properties.
  5. Adjust additional settings (e.g., color, tracking) under other categories if needed.
  6. Click "OK" to save the style. Apply the style by selecting text box and clicking the style name.

Recommended Character Styles for different kinds of text are depicted below

 

Title Text 
Font Family: Arial 
Font Style: Bold 
Font Size: 60 pt
Leading: 72 pt 		 Author(s)
Font Family: Arial 
Font Style: Bold 
Font Size: 40 pt
Leading: 55 pt 


 

Headings
Font Family: Arial 
Font Style: Bold 
Font Size: 48 pt
Leading: 52 pt 		 Body Text
Font Family: Arial 
Font Style: Regular
Font Size: 28 pt
Leading: 40 pt 

Setting Paragraph Styles

Paragraph styles in Adobe InDesign are used to apply consistent formatting to text across a document. They allow you to define attributes like font, size, alignment, spacing, and Hyphenation. Then quickly apply those settings to multiple paragraphs with just one click.

1. Open the Paragraph Styles Panel: Go to Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles.

2. Format Your Text: Select a paragraph and apply the desired formatting (font, size, alignment, hyphenation etc.).

3. Create a New Style: In the Paragraph Styles panel, click the New Style button and name your style in the dialog box that appears.

4. Adjust Style Settings: In the Style Options window, customize settings like font, spacing, and alignment. Click OK when done.

5. Apply the Style: To apply the style, select a paragraph and click the style name in the panel.

 

Creating Text Boxes





 

  • Select the Text Tool (T) from the toolbar or press T on your keyboard.
  • Click and drag to create a text box, or click once to create a text box that you can later adjust in size.
    (Tip Text boxes should snap to guides to turn this off or on by Going to View > Grids & Guides and
    make sure Snap to Guides is checked. This will allow your text boxes to snap into place along the guides.)
  • You can start typing immediately or paste text into the box.
     

Text Boxes can also be linked together to allow text to flow from one text box into another. 

  • Select the Selection Tool (V) in the toolbar (or press V on your keyboard).
  • Click on the first text box (the starting point).
  • You'll see a small square with a plus sign (+) appear on the lower-right corner of the text box (this is the outport).
  • Click on the outport, and your cursor will change to a text thread icon.
  • Click inside the next text box where you want the text to flow into.
  • The text will now flow from the first box to the second. You’ll see a visible line connecting the text boxes, indicating that they are linked.