When InDesign Ignores Your Leading Values

We’ve received two emails this week regarding leading — or, more specifically, InDesign apparently ignoring or changing the leading values of paragraphs.

For example, G. wrote:

…The problem arises when we copy and then paste a text frame into a new document — some of the text blocks (not all) change their leading. But this is the thing: when highlighted, the text blocks display exactly the same leading as the original… same font, size, leading — but on the page they look like the space between the lines has been doubled… what’s going on!?

As Insp. Poirot would say, “Ah, we must use the little gray cells, I think.” (I always like to think of David Suchet at times like these) The clue to this mystery is that the leading value (what’s listed in the Control panel) doesn’t match the reality on the page. This can happen for at least two reasons. (I can actually only think of two right now, but I’m hedging my bets by saying “at least”.)

* Vertical Justification. The first instance in which InDesign can ignore leading is when the Align pop-up menu in the Vertical Justification section of the Text Frame Options dialog box (Command/Ctrl-B) is set to Justify. Vertical justification typically overrides your leading values. You can return to normal leading values by increasing the Paragraph Spacing Limit in the same area, which lets InDesign add space between paragraphs instead of between each line.
* Align to Grid. InDesign also throws your leading values out the window when the paragraphs have Align to Baseline Grid turned on (in the Control panel or the Paragraph panel). Align to Baseline Grid is a powerful force of nature, but as we have said in the past, it is not to be used lightly or by the faint of heart. This is the Number One source of “what the heck is InDesign doing to me now!?” comments by users worldwide, I’m convinced. When align to baseline grid is on, your leading is off. Period. Bye-bye leading values. It’s “snap to the grid or talk to the hand” time. The grid can, of course, be managed in the Grids pane of the Preferences dialog box, or the Baseline Options tab of the Text Frames Options dialog box.

Now here’s the problem: Sometimes align to grid is turned on for a paragraph style (say, for instance, the Basic Paragraph Style, if someone has been so foolish as to edit that style definition) in one document, but not in another. In that case, when someone copies text from document A to document B, the leading goes haywire!

Why Won’t My Text Move Up?

Here’s a bonus corollary to the leading value issue. A prominent and bright industry presenter asked me recently why some text would simply not move any further up on the page. He sent me the file, and it was true: You could drag the text frame all the way to the top of the page, but the first line of text — a headline — would not move any higher than about 2 inches from the top of the page. My little gray cells were baffling. But then it came to me: Yes! Align to baseline grid. The fiend. The menace. Yes, it was true, when I turned That Feature off, the text could move anywhere.

Why was it stopping so low on the page? Because the Start field of the Baseline Grid was set to 14p! The Start field determines where the first baseline grid appears. And if something is locked to one of those infernal baseline grids, then it ain’t moving higher!
Tags: adobe, indesign

Creating a "Light Sabre" in Photoshop

Create the object you wish to make the light sabre. Use the Pen tool to create a simple straight path. This will provide the structure for the "light" ...

Now, set a soft-edged brush to the appropriate size to be the thickness you need for the sabre.

Now, you'll use the Stroke Path command to paint the sabre. The Stroke Path command allows you to create a paint stroke (using the current settings for your painting tools) that follows any path.

Start a new layer. When you stroke a path, the color values appear on the active layer. Make sure the layer you want is active before beginning.

1. Select the path in the Paths palette (Cmd/click or Ctrl/click).
2. Click the Stroke Path button at the bottom of the Paths palette. Each click of the Stroke Path button builds up the opacity of the stroke and in some cases makes it look thicker.

To stroke a path and specify options:

1. Select the path in the Paths palette.
2. Select the painting or editing tool you want to use to stroke the path.
3. Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the Stroke Path button at the bottom of the Paths palette. (Or, Choose Stroke Path from the Paths palette menu.)

There's the sabre.

To create the aura surrounding the sabre, duplicate the layer. Now select the bottom most sabre

Ctrl/click (Mac: Cmd/click) the layer to select the sabre
Choose: Select > Modify > Expand Selection
... and expand it to approximate the amount of aura you desire.

Fill the new, thicker, sabre with the desired aura color.
Click Okay.

Drop the selection and choose: Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur

Adjust the slider until the aura is as you wish.

Presto... Light Sabre

And, may the force be with you.

Add Drama to your Photos with Motion Blurs

The Motion Blur Filter

Selection 1 Preparation:
Using Motion Blur effectively takes a little preparation. Used straight on an image, it creates a loss of detail, or merely replicates the effect of camera shake. In this image, we want to preserve detail while creating a feeling of rapid motion.

2 Selection:
To start, make a feathered selection of the rear half of the girl. A Feather setting of about 6 pixels should be sufficient for a lowresolution shot, but you need to use higher values for high-resolution images.

Finish a "quick and dirty" selection -- the blur effect means that accuracy isn't vital -- then press
Ctrl/Cmd + J to copy and paste it to a new layer.
Call the new layer "copied selection."

Selection Lifted

3 Now Blur Keep the copied selection layer active and go to
Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. Set the angle to 0 degrees and the distance to 90 pixels.

Motion Blur

Make sure the Move tool is selected, then press the right arrow key on the keyboard about 12 times
to move the selection to the right.
This gives the impression that the girl is leaving a blur of movement in her wake.

For a stronger effect, merely duplicate the copied selection layer.

Duplicate the layer

TIP Blurring with Blend Modes

After duplicating the copied selection layer, try changing the blend mode of the top version to Lighten.
This produces an almost ghostly effect.

Here are the results