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Type How-To: A River Runs Through It
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on May 2, 2012
Rivers are eye-catching cracks in text formed by meandering trails of word spaces running from one line to the next. Here’s why they happen, how to avoid them, and how to fix them.
InDesign How-to: Balance Columns with Vertical Justification
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on February 27, 2012
You need to align type to a baseline grid but you don't want any orphans. Making columns of type line up in InDesign is the job of vertical justification. Here’s how to make it work for you.
The Merits of Uneven Leading
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on November 30, 2011
Just because your page-layout program says your leading is consistent doesn’t necessarily mean it looks that way. Here’s how to spot the problem and how to fix it.
Five Tips for Choosing the Best Webfonts
How-Tos: Written by Jason Cranford Teague on November 28, 2011
Learn how to evaluate typeface readability, legibility, optimization, character set, and weight and thickness variety when choosing fonts for a website. Plus, I'll throw in a bonus tip!
Get to Know InDesign's Glyphs Panel
How-Tos: Written by Sandee Cohen on November 16, 2011
Some people never even open InDesign's Glyphs panel, and that's a shame. It can reveal alternate characters in your typefaces; help you quickly select and enter unusual characters, such as currency or math symbols; and find and change glyphs instantly no matter how long your document is.
Spacing Out
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on November 2, 2011
Exaggerated spacing between characters may be eye-catching, but controlling it can be a tricky business. Here's how to do it in InDesign and QuarkXPress.
The Seven Lively Sins: Try These InDesign Type Effects
How-Tos: Written by Nigel French on October 24, 2011
Some people think it’s a sin to alter a typeface. But I say that, used with skill and discretion, InDesign's transparency effects can make your type more lively.
Type Effects: The Ins and Outs of Inlines and Outlines
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on September 29, 2011
Adding rules to normally invisible character outlines can add novel--and historical--effects to your type. Here's how to do it in InDesign, QuarkXPress, and Illustrator.
What You Need to Know About Webfonts: Part 1
How-Tos: Written by Jason Cranford Teague on August 31, 2011
Are you still limiting text in your websites to Arial, Georgia, Times New Roman, Trebuchet, and Verdana? (And no, fonts in images don't count.) Learn how to use webfonts and your Web design horizons will open to a beautiful new world. In Part 1 of this series, you'll get a little history and an introduction to writing the @font-face rule so that all browsers display your font choices correctly.
Five Healthy Habits in InDesign
How-Tos: Written by Sandee Cohen on August 18, 2011
Adopt these InDesign habits and you'll work smarter and faster. We've made it easy by providing five free downloads that give you a running start on each habit.
Track Down Obscure Glyphs in InDesign
How-Tos: Written by David Blatner on July 11, 2011
There are many characters that don't appear on standard keyboards. Here's how to enter those hard-to-reach glyphs in Adobe InDesign.
Kerning: A Master Class
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on June 29, 2011
Five tips from the trenches for the devotee of hand-kerning. Take this advice and you'll have a visually harmonious page that will please the designer's eyes and be easier for the reader to comprehend.
Centering Lines of Type? Don't Trust Page-Layout Software
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on June 2, 2011
A print ad shows that centered lines don’t always look that way. Learn the source of the problem and the fix.
QuarkXPress Tips for Type, Pages, & Paths
How-Tos: Written by Jay J. Nelson on April 18, 2011
Learn how to replace fonts across a QuarkXPress document; give editable text a fuzzy edge; flip a Bezier path from top to bottom; and start a file with a spread.
The Joy of Ornaments
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on April 5, 2011
Create your own typographic ornaments and decorative rules to use in many designs.
Photoshop How-To: Really Hot Type
How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on February 3, 2011
Through the magic of Photoshop, make any text so smokin' you can almost see the heat rising off its molten letters. Bonus: You can go back and edit the type without burning your fingers.
Take Advantage of InDesign's Nesting Instinct
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on January 31, 2011
Using InDesign's nested styles isn’t only time-saving, it’s habit-forming.
Turn Text to Ice in Photoshop
How-Tos: Written by Deke McClelland on January 10, 2011
Create your own typecicle with a combo of Photoshop's wind filter and some layer effects. Because it's done through smart objects, you can change the text at any point.
Shifty Behavior
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on November 1, 2010
Raising and lowering individual characters is the job of the baseline shift, an important part of your typographic toolbox with a thousand uses.
Dot Dot Dot . . .
How-Tos: Written by James Felici on September 2, 2010
Spellbinding . . . Subtle . . . Mind-Boggling! They're points of ellipsis, and here's how to make them pretty.
