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• • April 16, 2015 at 3:21 am #74709
    P. Ahmed

    Member

    Hello folks, novice here first time posting so bear with me.

    So I’m confused about baseline grids. It’s the first time I’m using them and here’s the scenario. I will be typsetting about 30 odd volumes of pure text, no graphics, a reference work basically, with no columns, just the one major text frame on each page, each volume about 4-500 pages long. I understand that I should use a basline grid, or that has been the feeling I’m getting from reading around about them. So I watched a few videos on Lynda.com and set one up, my question is that when I snap to grid it obviously snaps the lines to the grid but then the ‘space after’ for each paragraph which I had set seems to be overridden and as a result the gap between each paragraph is too big for my liking. It doesn’t look good. I preferred a space after of about 4 mm, but this is bigger than that.

    So my first question is: is there any way around this? How can you use a baseline grid while maintaining a space after setting that you have in place?

    Do I actually have to use a baseline grid? I can understand it would make things look more consistent and do feel like using it, if it is best practice but not at the cost of communication. Do I have to use it for every paragraph? Or do you think it would be an idea to maybe just use it for the first paragraph on each page? But then even that doesn’t seem necessary to me since all paragraphs already line up at the same height at the start of each page without the baseline grid on!

    Anyway, any feedback would be greatly appreciated and if you do respond please do so as though you are talking to a total novice.

    Thank you.

  • April 16, 2015 at 5:07 am #74715
    Dwayne Harris

    Member

    I personally never “align to baseline grid.”

    Though I do set up baseline grids, I never use that align feature, and it’s exactly for that reason.

    The secret is keeping everything on even lines. Let’s say your leading is 14 point leading. You want spacing to equal 14.

    For example, my main head needs space above and below. I might add 10 points above and 4 points below. That equals 14. That way the text following is on even lines. The head itself won’t be, but the text following will be.

    When you have align to baseline grid turned on, any spacing is overridden, so it’s best to keep it off.

    And that’s how I do things. If it’s a simple novel or something, there’s no problem with using it. But I make it a habit to never align to baseline grid.

  • April 16, 2015 at 5:28 am #74718
    P. Ahmed

    Member

    So that was basically the answer I was looking for, that it’s not a necessity to align to the baseline grid. Thank you for that. I looked at David’s Real World InDesign and came across this statement of his, “When you have more than one column of text on a page, it’s important that the baselines of the text line up across the columns,” the key part of that for me being, ‘when you have more than one column,’ I don’t, just one text frame.

    “The secret is keeping everything on even lines. Let’s say your leading is 14 point leading. You want spacing to equal 14.
    For example, my main head needs space above and below. I might add 10 points above and 4 points below. That equals 14. That way the text following is on even lines. The head itself won’t be, but the text following will be.” I ‘kind of’ understand what you mean here, but being a novice this is all kind of confusing. When you say your main head, what do you mean exactly? Sorry for my ignorance.

    • April 16, 2015 at 5:42 am #74719
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      Concerning the head.

      Let’s say I have text paragraphs and above some of them I have a head (let’s say it’s an ingredients for a cookbook):

      FOR THE CAKE
      This is an ingredient
      This is another ingredient
      And another.

      FOR THE FROSTING
      This is an ingredient
      This is another ingredient
      etc.

      If I want space above or below those capitalized heads, I would need to add space above/below in the paragraph style sheet.

      If the whole thing is on 14 leading, and I only want space above the heads, I would add 14 points space above.

      If I wanted only a half line above and a half line below, I would add 7 points above and 7 points below.

      Does that make sense?

  • April 16, 2015 at 5:44 am #74720
    P. Ahmed

    Member

    Totally! Thank you for that and sorry for asking such basic questions, I appreciate your help.

    • April 16, 2015 at 6:27 am #74721
      Dwayne Harris

      Member

      Any time, and I’m glad I was able to help.

      And don’t worry about asking basic questions. It’s how you learn :)

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