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ayumi_m
ayumi_m
Participant
July 4, 2019
Question

Vertical text inside a text box

  • July 4, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 6505 views

Hi there

I used to be able to set vertical text inside a text box in InDesign however the 2018 version only allows me to do that by tying on a line.

My Indesign is in English as I live and work in Australia but I need an option available for vertical text in a text box as I am Japanese and sometimes need to create a multipage document for my Japanese client.

Is there a way to do this?

It use to be as simple as drawing a text box and set text to vertical.

Thank you so much for your support and knowledge in advance.

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    3 replies

    L
    Community Expert
    LaubenderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 4, 2019

    ayumi_m  wrote

    …Is there a way to do this?

    It use to be as simple as drawing a text box and set text to vertical. …

    Hi ayumi_m ,

    you could try a script that is rotating any character to 90° and then rotate the text frame.

    Such a script has to use one of the two Japanese Paragraph Composers that can be applied in all versions of InDesign.

    Here the ExtendScript ( JavaScript ) script code that will work if you selected some characters:

    /*
        Rotate selected characters.
        WARNING: Japanese Single Line Paragraph Composer applied
       
        Select some characters before running the script.
       
    */
    var rotationValue = 90 ;
    var newTextProperties =
    {
        characterRotation : rotationValue ,
        composer : "$ID/HL Single J"
    };
    app.selection[0].properties = newTextProperties ;

    A screenshot where you can see three steps for faked Japanese text in my German InDesign CC 2019:

    1. Before running the script on the selected text of frame one.

    2. After running the script on the selected text. All characters are rotated.

    3. After rotating the text frame. Story Editor is showing the unrotated text.

    Don't know any Japanese, but I guess some glyphs are a problem like the comma and the full stop at the end of the text.

    How to save code, install script files and run ExtendScript script files in InDesign:

    Indiscripts :: Indiscripts for Dummies

    Regards,
    Uwe

      ayumi_m
      ayumi_mAuthor
      Participant
      July 5, 2019

      Hi Laubender

      Thank you for your help.

      This sounds very complicated!! You must be tech genius!

      As I am creating multi page documents with all text set vertical, this might be hard for me to execute.

      Also the detailing of typography needs to be manually adjusted as I can see Japanese version of comma isn't in the right place.

      I never had to deal with this when I was using the old version of InDesign though.

      It's making my designer life hard when I am a Japanese designer who need to create work with both Japanese and English..

      Anyway, thank you so much for your help.

      Very appreciated.

      Ayumi

      Rafael5C40
      Rafael5C40
      Participant
      March 25, 2021

      I should have looked it up before. With vertical Japanese text reading direction is from top to down, from right to left.

      Ok. We can change that with the columns of a text frame as well. With a non-MENA version of InDesign like my German one, this requires a little script to get a result like this:

      Script code:

      /*
          First select a text frame, then run this code to
          change storyDirection to:
          RIGHT_TO_LEFT_DIRECTION
      */
      app.selection[0].
      parentStory.
      storyPreferences.
      storyDirection =
      StoryDirectionOptions.RIGHT_TO_LEFT_DIRECTION ;

      Regards,
      Uwe


      Dear Laubender,

      thank you so much for sharing this.

      It helped me a lot (there were a few haiku japanese poems I needed to set vertically, so your script was really useful!!!).

      cheers,

      Rafael

        Barb Binder
        Community Expert
        Barb BinderCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        July 4, 2019

        Hi ayumi_m:

        I used to be able to set vertical text inside a text box in InDesign however the 2018 version only allows me to do that by tying on a line.

        Photoshop and Illustrator both have a Vertical Type tool—so maybe that's what you are remembering. And Photoshop has the Toggle Text Orientation in the Options Bar.

        InDesign does not have this feature, but this article might be helpful: https://indesignsecrets.com/setting-vertical-text-in-indesign.php

        ~Barb

        ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
        Steve Werner
        Community Expert
        Steve WernerCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        July 4, 2019

        InDesign has no vertical text feature in the non-CJK versions.

        You could (1) create vertical text in Illustrator which supports a vertical text tool in non-CJK versions, save the text as an AI file and place into InDesign;

        Or (2) install a Japanese version of InDesign on a different InDesign version, and set the type there. You can have InDesign CC 2018 and CC 2019, for example, installed concurrently. One can be set up for one language, the other for another language.

        ayumi_m
        ayumi_mAuthor
        Participant
        July 5, 2019

        Hi Steve

        Thank you for your help.

        I am interested in trying this out. How do I go about doing this when I already have InDesign CC2018 in English version??

        If you could help me a bit more on this that would be very much appreciated it!

        Thank you

        Ayumi

        Steve Werner
        Community Expert
        Steve WernerCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        July 5, 2019

        Here's a link to a thread about downloading a second version of InDesign (in this case so someone can use Arabic and English). It should work the same for English and Japanese:

        Mixing Arabic and English Text

        Here's another reference I found by Google searching:

        Adobe InDesign Tips: Japanese/CJK Functionality + English UI

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