The purpose of this project is to explore the effects of changing font size, leading, and word spacing in unjustified texts: a poem or song lyric of your choice.
The project will systematically explore variations in font size, leading, and word spacing, and you will at the end display the material formatted in a way you find harmonious.
A poem or song lyric is an example of unjustified text: the left edges are aligned flush left, but the right edges are allowed to differ, forming a ragged right edge. With flush left text, all the word spaces are the same size.
The preferred method for indenting a line in Quark is by using paragraph formatting commands, not by using multiple spaces or tabs. I'll show you how to use the "First Line Indent" or "Left Indent" feature if you need to do this.
The most complicated part of this project is understanding H&Js, the settings that Quark uses to control Hyphenation and Justification of paragraphs. To change the word spacing, you will create and apply different H&J settings in the Paragraph Format dialog box.
Create a text file with your poem or lyric. You can use Microsoft Word or BBEdit or any other simple text processing program. Proofread this original text carefully.
If you want to use a Shakespeare sonnet, you will find five in the file called 02-sonnets.txt on the Faculty server.
Before starting Quark, choose a font different from what you used in project 1. Activate the font you'd like to experiment with and also Humanist 777, by making sure these fonts are in your Library / Fonts folder. Then open Quark.
Create a new document, using a page width of less than 5.5" and a page height of less than 8.5". Deselect (uncheck) the "Facing Pages" option before you create the new document. Deselect (uncheck) the "Automatic Text Box" option.
With the item tool selected, draw a text box on page 1. Then, with the content tool selected, import the text of your poem using the File/Get Text feature (Command-E). If the "curly quotes" option is selected during this import process, straight quotes and apostrophes will be converted automatically. (Note: If you type your material directly into Quark, "curly quotes" will be active. If you cut and paste your material from the web into Quark, the quotes may be straight. Use find-and-replace to change them.)
Set your material at 10 point font size with 12 point leading, using a font you would like to experiment with. Please use a roman font, not an italic font, so word spacing issues will be easier to see.
Under your poem, include the following information in Humanist 777 typeface at 8 point size with 12 point leading. The "10/12" indication below means 10 point type with 12 point leading.
Font: Fontname 10/12
Word spacing: 100%
Typography: Your Name
When you have printed out your poem and proofread it, copy and paste another copy underneath if it will fit, so you can have two copies of the poem on one page.
Drag several copies of the small page icon into the Document Layout palette. You will need at least six pages to start. Rearrange the pages by dragging them, so that page 1 and page 2 are next to each other, and page 3 and page 4 are next to each other, etc.
With the item tool selected, copy and paste your text box onto the blank pages, so that you have many pages to experiment with.
On your first group of pages, change just the font size of each poem. Keep the leading at 12 points. Change the font size information under each poem to record the value. Please try at least four different font sizes.
On your middle group of pages, change just the leading of each poem. Keep the font size at 10 points. Try some leading values smaller than 12 points and some values larger than 12 points. Change the leading information under each poem to record the value. Please try at least four different leading values.
On your last group of pages, use the font size and leading that you think is best based on your past work. Then use the Format/Paragraph... feature to change the H&J value. Change the word spacing info under each poem to record the value. Please try at least four different word spacing values.
Notice that in each group of pages, only one variable changes while the other variables remain the same. This will help you see the effects more clearly.
The H&J settings you will create and use in this project may be named u1, u2, u3, u4, and u5 if you wish. The "u" stands for unhyphenated. The numbers are helpful so that your H&Js will be listed in order in the drop-down menu.
The table below shows the values for word spacing for five possible H&J settings. The H&Js differ only in their settings for "Optimum" word spacing. All have "Auto Hyphenation" turned off.
| u1 | 80% | tighter | about M/5 |
| u2 | 90% | tight | about M/4.5 |
| u3 | 100% | normal | about M/4 |
| u4 | 115% | loose | about M/3.5 |
| u5 | 133% | looser | about M/3 |
For flush left, center-aligned, or flush right text, Quark ignores the "Minimum" and "Maximum" values for word spacing and always uses the "Optimum" word space. So when you build your H&Js it is only the "Optimum" value you need to fix. See my separate web page about word spacing for more information.
Save your work showing your font size, leading, and word spacing experimentations as lastname-2a.qxd.
You can print this document on letter size paper in horizontal format with spreads selected to fit two pages on one piece of paper.
The second part of this project is to use what you have learned in the study and make a new document with page size and margins of your own choice. For example, you could use measurements appropriate for a book of poetry (such as 28p by 42p) or CD liner notes (such as 28p6 by 28p).
Position your material on the new design and format it using what you think is the best combination of font size, leading, and word spacing, based on your experimentation. If you want to set other poems or lyrics using these same settings, add other pages and do so. Save this second document as lastname-2b.qxd.
Weinmann and Lourekas. QuarkXPress 6 for Windows & Macintosh.
Chapter 3: Get Around
Chapter 4: Text Input
Bringhurst. Elements of Typographic Style.
Foreword
Chapter 1: The Grand Design
Chapter 2: Rhythm & Proportion