PDF (adobe.com)

Change Justification settings



Use the Justification panel to precisely control how word spacing, letterspacing, and glyph scaling. Adjusting spacing is especially useful with justified type, although you can also adjust spacing for unjustified type.

Adjust word and letterspacing in justified text

  1. Insert the cursor in the paragraph you want to change, or select a type object or frame to change all of its paragraphs.
  2. Choose Justification from the Paragraph panel menu.
  3. Enter values for Word Spacing, Letter Spacing, and Glyph Spacing. The Minimum and Maximum values define a range of acceptable spacing for justified paragraphs only. The Desired value defines the desired spacing for both justified and unjustified paragraphs:
    Word Spacing
    The space between words that results from pressing the spacebar. Word Spacing values can range from 0% to 1000%; at 100%, no additional space is added between words.

    Letter Spacing
    The distance between letters, including kerning or tracking values. Letter Spacing values can range from ‑100% to 500%: at 0%, no space is added between letters; at 100%, an entire space width is added between letters.

    Glyph Scaling
    The width of characters (a glyph is any font character). Glyph Spacing values can range from 50% to 200%.
    Spacing options are always applied to an entire paragraph. To adjust the spacing in a few characters, but not an entire paragraph, use the Tracking option.

  4. Set the Single Word Justification option to specify how you want to justify single-word paragraphs.

    In narrow columns, a single word can occasionally appear by itself on a line. If the paragraph is set to full justification, a single word on a line may appear to be too stretched out. Instead of leaving such words fully justified, you can center them or align them to the left or right margins.

Set glyph scaling in justified text

  1. Click an insertion point in a paragraph or select the paragraphs you want to affect.
  2. Choose Justification from the Paragraph panel menu.
  3. Type values for Glyph Scaling Minimum, Desired, and Maximum. Then click OK.
Before (top) and after (bottom) glyph scaling in justified text

Glyph scaling can help in achieving even justification; however, values more than 3% from the 100% default value may result in distorted letter shapes. Unless you’re striving for a special effect, it’s best to keep glyph scaling to subtle values, such as 97–100–103.

Use a flush space with justified text

Using a flush space character adds a variable amount of space to the last line of a fully justified paragraph—between the last word and an end-of-story character from a decorative font. Used with nonjustified text, the flush space appears as a normal word space. In justified text, it expands to absorb all available extra space on the last line. Using a flush space can make a dramatic difference in the way the entire paragraph is formatted by the Adobe Paragraph Composer.

Before and after adding a flush space character

  1. Using the Type tool , click directly in front of the end-of-story character.
  2. Choose Type > Insert White Space > Flush Space.
Note: The effect of a flush space isn’t apparent until you apply the Justify All Lines option to the paragraph.

Highlight lines that are too loose or tight

Because composing a line of type involves factors in addition to word spacing and letterspacing (hyphenation preferences, for example), InDesign cannot always honor your settings for word spacing and letterspacing. However, compositional problems in lines of text can be highlighted in yellow; the darkest of three shades indicates the most serious problems.

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Composition (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Composition (Mac OS).
  2. Select H&J Violations and click OK.