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• • April 19, 2015 at 1:32 pm #74825
    P. Ahmed

    Member

    Hello folks,

    I read that you’re never supposed to make tracking a part of a paragraph style so I set the tracking in a character style I created.

    If I have a GREP style as part of a paragraph style, a GREP style which, for example, makes a specific word appear in bold and red if said word occurs at the start of a paragraph, this works fine when I import/type text, the GREP style is applied.

    But then when I select all my text because I want to apply tracking to it by applying a character style I set up beforehand, the GREP rule is nullified. How do I get around this? It’s as though because I applied the character style which changed the tracking, the GREP style was nullified, and the only reason I’m applying this character style to the entire document is because you’re not supposed to apply tracking to paragraph styles, is it a cardinal sin to do so?

    I hope that makes sense.

  • April 19, 2015 at 2:34 pm #74826
    P. Ahmed

    Member

    If I make the tracking part of my paragraph style, I don’t have this problem, since I don’t have to select everything and then apply a charatcer style which will apply that tracking to my entire text. Doesn’t make much sense to me to be honest.

  • April 19, 2015 at 6:02 pm #74829
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    How much tracking are we talking about? I’ve worked on jobs where the font was crappy, and the text paragraph was tracked a little bit. I never heard that it’s a no-no to apply tracking in a paragraph style.

  • April 19, 2015 at 8:13 pm #74830
    P. Ahmed

    Member

    Yeah, in this book recommended by David, ‘Adobe InDesign CS4 Styles, How to Create Better, Faster Text and Layouts,’ which seems excellent by the way, the author mentions that, ‘tracking should never be a built-in attribute of a paragraph style.’ But for this project I’m using an Arabic font and applying tracking at 50, otherwise the font looks too tight. But I’m applying that to the whole document, it doesn’t make sense not to apply it to the paragraph style, and when I do, the GREP style works fine. I think I’m gonna have to break convention? What do you think?

    Second question: is it not normal to apply such tracking? I do that with Latin fonts too, I mean I normally apply tracking at 50, it looks better I thought in long documents, easier on the eye, or am I being silly?

    Thanks.

    • April 20, 2015 at 4:12 am #74832
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      I say to break convention. In a situation like yours, I see no reason not to build it into your paragraph style.

      So far as your second questions–if it looks better tracked, do it. I had a book once where the font was really horrible and tight. We ended up tracking 10 in the paragraph styles.

      While it’s not always “normal” to track paragraphs, there are always exceptions.

  • April 20, 2015 at 5:41 am #74833
    P. Ahmed

    Member

    Cool, that’s how I feel with this convention at the moment for this particular project. It doesn’t feel like it’s something which will go and mess up my entire document as could be the case if I based everything on a faulty paragraph style or bad master page setup etc.

    But this has got me thinking regarding typesetting English; with Arabic I have to apply that tracking, it just doesn’t work for me without it, but with English, do you guys not automatically go for a tracking setting immediately for books/long documents? I always felt the text looked better with a tracking of 50 lol! That’s my default setting. But after what you said I’m thinking maybe I’m wrong, maybe fonts like Hoefler are ok just the way they are in books without the need for such tracking?

    What say you?

    • April 20, 2015 at 5:44 am #74834
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      99.9 percent of the time, I do not track text. Heads and chapter titles are a different story, however.

      But regular text, I don’t track or kern unless I have to make or a lose a line for a bad page break. And then I do it by hand, not a character style.

      Sometimes, I will changing the kerning from metric to optical depending on the font.

  • April 20, 2015 at 5:48 am #74835
    P. Ahmed

    Member

    Hmm, that’s very interesting. I’ll look into my faulty practices more then lol, boy do I have a whole load of catching up to do. That’s the problem when you’re learning how to typeset at home and are basically an armchair ‘typesetter’, would’ve been nice to work in the area so I could see all the different way people do things. Anyway, I’m currently living on Lynda.com and David’s books and some others too, we’ll see how things turn out.

    Thanks for your responses.

  • April 20, 2015 at 6:08 am #74836
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Rules are meant to be broken. If the text looks better with a tighter letterspace, then go for it. However, I usually do not use tracking to do this for an entire paragraph or story. Instead, I adjust the Justification settings:
    https://creativepro.com/adjust-word-spacing-in-paragraph-styles.php
    and
    https://creativepro.com/what-are-your-favorite-word-and-character-space-settings-for-hjs.php

    If it is just some text inside a paragraph (a word or phrase), then applying a character style that changes tracking is the way to go.

    Great that you’re exploring this!

  • April 20, 2015 at 6:14 am #74837
    P. Ahmed

    Member

    My word, Mr. Blatner himself! Bloody marvelous.

    I was hoping you would provide some input on this, this has put me at ease, “Rules are meant to be broken. If the text looks better with a tighter letterspace, then go for it.”

    And you won’t believe it but the reason I came back here was to post about the fact that maybe I should be using justification settings since that way I wouldn’t have to apply so much tracking – and the only reason I was going to post that was because I just finished watching you explain it in the Adjusting Text Hyphenation and Justification section on the Beyond the Essentials Course!

    Thank you for your input and all the excellent materials you have put out there for us.

  • April 20, 2015 at 6:37 am #74839
    P. Ahmed

    Member

    Just went through those two links you posted, I had already come across the first one but the second was new to me, excellent stuff, those comments are really helpful too, once again, the last comment you made in the second post has sealed the deal for me, “It all depends on the font and the look and your design. There is no correct answer.” Makes things much easier.

  • April 20, 2015 at 6:59 am #74840
    David Blatner

    Keymaster

    Thank you for your kind words! Glad it’s helpful for you. Happy InDesigning!

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