LEARN@IGP IGP:Writer
7
Paragraph Tracking
Typography
Topic Overview
This topic explains how to use the Paragraph Tracking Controls to over-ride the default template flow.
This is an instructional topic which discusses:
Typography Overview
Paragraph Tracking and Flow Tools
Relating the Print PDF to the Writer editing text
How to Adjust Paragraph Tracking
The Spacing Numbers
Flow Considerations
Typography Overview
Typography is the art, science, and technique of arranging type. The arrangement of type involves the selection of typefaces, point size, line length, leading (line height), adjusting the spaces between groups of letters (tracking), and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning).
Typography particularly applies to print documents, but is also becoming relevant for Online and format documents as advanced CSS properties become available. Because IGP:Digital Publisher is a controlled template system, your options are deliberately limited to those defined in template components and controls.
Your typography properties are controlled in the following ways:
- Automatically by the default template configuration settings
- Automatically by the application of a specific Content Block which carries its own typographical instructions
- Manually by the Document Flow Control override controls for the document, section, or a paragraph
- Manually by the custom Title and Header (TAH) CSS controls for document specific "art" styling
Use IGP:Document Designer to customize all typographic settings for a template or document.
Paragraph Tracking and Flow Tools
Paragraph tracking and flow control works only for the print PDF output (Online, package and Format on Demand e-books are not affected).
You can use the Paragraph Tracking and Flow feature to adjust the word and character spacing in any individual paragraph in your Print document. This gives the compositor subtle control over the final document flow and allows quality presentation to the highest typography standards quickly and easily.
To allow spot changes to be made for bad turns it is necessary to adjust paragraphs. Desktop typesetting systems allow the changes to be made to a line because their presentation engines have a line context.
Writer and the print PDF renderer only have a paragraph context during editing and lines are formed only at PDF generation time so there are no lines available for modification.
The Paragraph Tracking Interface
Figure 7-1 Setup Paragraph Tracking Dialog
View. Generates a PDF view of the paragraph in the interface with your settings applied. You can change the settings and click View as many times as you need to get the exact paragraph tracking effect you need.
Apply. The settings will be applied to the paragraph in the main text body and the dialog will close. Next time the full section is rendered to a PDF you will see the changes applied.
Reset. The setting will be removed from the paragraph and the dialog will close.
Indent. This is checked by default and sets the global document indent setting. If your paragraph is a "first paragraph", or a not indented paragraph in the page context, deselect this option when you render your paragraph PDF.
Block. If the paragraph is in a block such as an extract, click this checkbox so the rendered view uses the document block left and right margins.
Words: Select. Apply word spacing to the paragraph. This can be positive or negative from -2pts to +2pts.
Letters: Select. Apply letter spacing to the paragraph. This can be positive or negative from -2pts to +2pts.
Relating the Print PDF to the Writer Editing Text
The application makes long flowing document sections that are many print pages long. When inspecting the PDF it can be difficult to find the paragraph in the Writer context.
To make it easy for you to correlate paragraphs, paragraph numbers are applied to the Writer interface when you are in edit mode.
If you generate a section PDF using the Composition PDF button, it will have the same paragraph numbers applied. When you find a paragraph that needs adjusting in the PDF, you can use the paragraph number to quickly scroll to the same paragraph in Writer.
If you don't want to see the paragraph numbers in your PDF, use the standard PDF button. The PDF will be generated without paragraph numbers.
Where to use paragraph tracking
You can use paragraph tracking to adjust paragraph typographical presentation for the following:
- Pull back or push out an unsightly short paragraph turn.
- Adjust a long paragraph length to pick up a line on a page, or push out to an extra line to adjust a page turn.
- Adjust paragraph line counts to shorten or lengthen a chapter to get the target number of lines on the last page.
To adjust paragraph tracking
- You must be in edit mode. You will be able to see the numbered paragraphs in Writer.
- Generate the section PDF while in edit mode using the Section PDF button in the Live Preview pane.
- From the generated PDF identify the paragraph to which you want to apply tracking control.
- In Writer, click once in the paragraph to insert your cursor in the target paragraph.
- Click the Setup Paragraph Tracking and Flow button. The Paragraph Tracking dialog will open. You will see your paragraph text with inline styles if they are applied.
- Click the View button to Render a Paragraph PDF. The request will be sent to the server and the paragraph will be rendered alone on a page. This will take just a couple of seconds.
- Make your required adjustments using the Word and Letters space selectors. Regenerate the Paragraph PDF by clicking View. You can do this as often as required to get the effect you need.
- Make sure you have the correct settings for Indent and Block.
- Click the Apply button to close the dialog and apply the selected tracking settings to the paragraph in the document.
- Click the Reset button to close the dialog and set the paragraph tracking settings to the default template tracking.
- Your paragraph in Writer will be marked with the Tracking Icon
. This highlights any paragraph that has tracking applied when you are in edit mode.
- You can repeat this process for any number of paragraphs.
- To remove tracking. Put your cursor in the paragraph, Click the Paragraph Tracking button and from the dialog interface click Reset.
- The interface window will close and the tracking settings will be removed from the paragraph.
The Spacing Numbers
Word spacing
Word spacing is adjusted in one-tenth point steps positively or negatively.
A postive number will move words further apart. Therefore +20 on the selector means word spacing is increased by 2pt
A negative number will move words closer together reducing the space between words. Therefore -20 on the selector means word spacing is decreased by 2pt.
Letter spacing
Letter spacing is adjusted in one-tenth point steps positively or negatively.
A postive number will move words further apart.Therefore +20 on the selector means letter spacing is increased by 2pt.
A negative number will move words closer together reducing the space between words. Therefore -20 on the selector means letter spacing is decreased by 2pt.
Flow Considerations
When you are making paragraph tracking changes, the following attributes of a paragraph will have an effect on the result.
- Number of words in the paragraph
- Length of words (IE. how many word spaces are there)
- Hyphenation stack settings
- The length of a last word if you are trying to pull a paragraph back
Using the tool requires a little practice. Generally a long paragraph is easy to adjust with very conservative settings like =/-1 and 2. A mid-length or short paragraph of four or five lines may take a considerably higher setting.
When you have justification and hyphenation applied the adjustment number is an instruction to the flow machine to use the settings in combination with its internal hyphenation rules. In many cases the paragraph will reflow with no visual difference in word spacing because the flow engine still has to space words out for justification. The changes only take effect when a significant line-end change can be made by the rendering engine.