5 Replies Latest reply: Sep 22, 2010 3:18 PM by PurplePlumUK RSS

    Working with percentage leading?

    PurplePlumUK Community Member

      Hi, hope you're well.

       

      I have three paragraphs. The first is 14pt, the other two 10pt. I want all three to be set to 170% leading (line spacing/height).

       

      If I select all the text (using the text tool) and click on the arrows against the 'auto' leading, it refuses to respond. (CS5). If I type in 170% and hit return/enter it promptly gives the text 0pt leading... so....

       

      How do I acheive this?

       

      Thank you.

        • 1. Re: Working with percentage leading?
          [Jongware] Community Member

          The Auto leading amount must be set in each of the paragraph's Justification settings. Apart from that, you are correct: if you change it to 170%, 14pt will get set on 23.8 pts, and 10 pt on 17.0 pts.

          • 2. Re: Working with percentage leading?
            PurplePlumUK Community Member

            As I kinda thought, there's no quick-and-dirty (or change-ones-mind-try-out-change-back) way to do it when up against a tight deadline.

             

            It's either manually select each paragraph and repetitively enter the setting or....

            devote time to setting up paragraph styles.. and if one is really awake, do so in a way that all other styles inherit the one setting...

             

            (I'm the biggest fan of styles.. however for a single or two, three pages with a few very individual but-proportional-leading paragraphs on it.)

             

            Ok. Thank you.

             

            Used to be able to do it, I'm sure. I'm not sure which application though.. PageMaker or Qua*cough*ack-xpress.

            • 3. Re: Working with percentage leading?
              [Jongware] Community Member

              Hmmm -- yeah, I guess for a quick-and-dirty job you don't need to set the Auto value to 170% and then use the "Auto" setting.

               

              Just for Q&D jobs, you can also enter this in the Leading box: 14*1.7 -- InDesign will calculate the sum for you and use the result as a fixed leading. Of course, this only works once; if you decide to change the font size to 15 points, the leading won't automatically be adjusted to 15 * 1.7, whereas with the Auto setting it does.

              • 4. Re: Working with percentage leading?
                P Spier CommunityMVP

                Hmmm...

                 

                Do you REALLY want autoleading of 170% for all sizes? That would strike me as verging on unreadable very quickly as the size of the type gets over, say 14 pts.

                • 5. Re: Working with percentage leading?
                  PurplePlumUK Community Member

                  Hi

                   

                  Ha-ha Peter, well spotted. I did exaggorate. The point was that I wanted something other than 'auto' (120%). So 100%, 121% or 250%... the number is a bit irrelevant.. the relevant fact is: not auto.

                   

                  What I've done is selected all the text within the frame (linked frames), set it all to auto.. which it copes with just fine and then used the keyboard shortcut (cmd+alt/option + up/down arrow) to adjust it by eye... and to change my mind about.. feels Q&D.

                   

                  I do have a liking for inputting a memorable round number... because.. well it's memorable - sometimes when you know you've another sheet to do.. which might want doing in some other application (ie: illustrator) if you've a memorable round number, it's handy - straight in - sorted - job done.

                   

                  Thank you for your interest. All the best.