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3 Easy Ways to Refine Your Typography

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When it comes to design, there is a fine line between the ordinary and extraordinary and that line is defined by the details.

Often times, the layout, color scheme, and imagery are all given great attention.

But one thing that is often overlooked in document creation is the text.

Back in the early days of the printing press, professional typographers were dedicated to creating a true work of art from their typeset.

Literally making sure every “i” was dotted and every “t” was crossed.

And although typographers may not be as commonly found in the print shop scene, typographers at digital foundries still craft highly functional pieces of digital type.

But unless you know where to find the hidden tools, your own digital documents may be missing their finery.

QuarkXpress 8 makes it easy to bring out the best of typography.

Special Characters

Look down at your keyboard.

What you may not know is that you’re looking at just the start of what lays hidden within fonts.

Bullets, accented characters, monetary symbols, and so much more lurk just beneath the surface.

There are even special characters that include a multitude of shapes for you to choose from.

You can find these special characters by going to the Glyphs pallet of the Windows Menu.

Adobe programs such as InDesign and Illustrator also have a Glyphs pallet under the Type Tab.

To add a special character, open up the Glyphs pallet and scroll to locate the character you would like to use.

Double-click the glyph to place it in your document.

You can also save your most commonly used glyphs to the Favorite Glyphs by dragging and dropping them into the open boxes area at the bottom of the Glyph Pallet.

Fractions

Sure, it’s easy to create a fraction using a simple slash.

But the results can lack the refinement that an actual fraction lends to a document.

For a more polished look, you can utilize a built-in functionality to give your fractions a little more detail.

To create your fraction, highlight your text, and chose Style > Type Style > Make Fraction.

This will convert those unsightly displays into more elegant fractions.

This tool enables you to refine even the more complex fractions with just a few quick clicks.

Ligatures

Depending on the typeface, certain combinations of letters can cause your type to look awkward.

Notoriously, “fl”s and “fi”s can become crowded.

Ligatures are special glyphs that represent a character pair.

Using ligatures can help remove that awkwardness to those type combinations.

Click on Enable Ligatures in the Character tab of the Measurements pallet in QuarkXpress to easily substitute your fonts with ligatures automatically.

Typography may not be the first thing you think of in document creation.

But thanks to software like QuarkXpress 8, your documents can still have that craftsmanship like that of the typesetters of old.

With a little attention to detail and a little knowledge of available type tools, you can bring back the fine art of typography to your documents.

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