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A
Anonymous
April 13, 2017
Question

Baseline unit

  • April 13, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 1008 views

Because the baseline is a fundamental element underlying the majority of my work, in terms of composition as well, I would like to propose the addition of the baseline as a unit throughout InDesign. In that we will be able to express, for example, a title’s line spacing (leading) in a certain number of baselines. This number would correspond (be multiplied) with the defined baseline for that particular document. Another example would be to give paragraphs their space after and/or before expressed in baselines. Or the document grid could relate to the baseline.

I hope you will consider this.

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2 replies

A
Anonymous
April 14, 2017

Thank you Aman, for your interest and reply. I submitted it as a feature request a while ago, before I discovered this forum.

One reason, for myself in particular, is that I often work with a distributed baseline grid, which results in unrounded, decimal figures. Together with my colleague, we developed a script (currently in beta) to achieve this: fitbaseline.com

However, in general, for designs that rely on a baseline grid, most textual elements use a certain factor of the baseline grid.

Rather than a specific use case, I think it is a general approach and could simplify the process of working with baseline grids, in particular with unrounded or decimal numbers.

The image below illustrates the general principle and how I would like to see it implemented:

What do you think?

    amaarora
    amaarora
    Inspiring
    April 15, 2017

    Hey,

    Yes your method looks interesting and reasonable.

    But holds true only when a person used baseline grids itself. Most people do not really bother using them and instead apply properties like leading (paragraph space after, before etc..) as it is right now using decimals.

    I would instead have a preference that can enable specifying leading as number of baseline or infact document grid. Another question, why base document grid on baseline grid? and not vice versa?

    Also, What do you mean by distributed baseline? Out of curiosity, can you mail me you "fitbaseline" ? I would love you try it and explore

    -Aman

    A
    Anonymous
    April 18, 2017

    Hi Aman,

    It’s correct that it only holds true when the baseline grid is applied by the user, but I'm sure a lot of users do (or should ) make use of it, and in that case the principle of a ‘baseline unit’ would be an enriching functionality with a positive effect on the workflow. What you propose, a preference that can enable leading to be a multiplication or division of the baseline grid sounds interesting, but I would like it to go even further and be able to apply it throughout the application (margins, frames, ...).

    To base the document grid on the baseline is a matter of principle: create an optimal layout for the text first and then build upon and in relation to that. Through this approach, the baseline grid is the first grid that is applied and creates a value for the document grid to be based upon. An ‘common’ example would be a vertical document grid that is half the baseline so that images will align somewhere between the capital or x-height of the font. Here’s an example that illustrates this:

    You should really try and explore Fitbaseline which includes an option to distribute the grid based on the baseline grid and other ratio’s  as well. If you provide your e-mailaddres on www.fitbaseline.com, a beta version of the script will be sent to you. If you provide me with your e-mailaddress I can send it to you directly; I don't think I can send it through the forum.

    amaarora
    amaarora
    Inspiring
    April 13, 2017

    Hi,

    Looks like a nice idea. However to make it count a little more do also submit a feature request at Feature Request/Bug Report Form​

    Also, do you have any "Use Case" of this approach? Adding some screenshots would help justifying how it may be better than present approaches and help people understand and discuss your idea.

    Thanks,

    -Aman

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