What caused the confusion between optical alignment and hanging punctuation?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
May 5, 2024
2 replies
692 views

I sometimes think that hanging punctuation was an attempt to do optical alignment, but after that the signs started being taken out completely. How did hanging punctuation come about? And why doesn't "..." align in indesign when optical alignment is enabled?

How to

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Steve Werner

Community Expert

You're using the terminology incorrectly.

InDesign has a feature called Optical Margin Alignment which can be activated in the Story panel (Type > Story)

InDesign does not have a "hanging punctuation" feature but Illustrator does, and it works differently that InDesign's Optical Margin Alignment.

Please describe what you are trying to do more clearly. Are you using Optical Margin Alignment?

Y

ya36865873ejxcAuthor

Participant

Yes, I realize that InDesign has Optical Margin Alignment, not Hanging Punctuation. InDesign does not align “...” when I have Optical Alignment enabled. And if it does, it treats it as a dot and aligns it as much as it should align a dot. I originally just wanted to know why hanging punctuation was created and why somewhere in Adobe programs is hanging punctuation and somewhere is optical alignment.

Steve Werner

Community Expert

The two features — Optical Margin Alignment in InDesign and hanging punctuation in Illustrator were developed by two different application engineering teams at different times.

As to why the feature was created, I'm attaching a handout I use for my InDesign class in the Graphic Design program at UC Berkeley Extension every semester. My information on Optical Margin Alignment is largely derived from an excellent on-line class on LinkedIn Learning by Nigel French, "InDesign: Typography, Part 2". Nigel's typography classes are the most insightful I've found.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

I don't know if I follow (or discern) the question. InDesign offers optical alignment, yes, which (mainly) enables hanging punctuation and a shift for extended serifs. All elements of more or less the same feature, to the same end.

Can you clarify what's confusing you?

Y

ya36865873ejxcAuthor

Participant

InDesign does not align “...” when I have Optical Alignment enabled. And if it does, it treats it as a dot and aligns it as much as it should align a dot. I originally just wanted to know why hanging punctuation was created and why somewhere in Adobe programs is hanging punctuation and somewhere is optical alignment.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

I suspect the answer lies somewhere at the intersection of formal typography and the development of the optical alignment feature. My guess is that an ellipsis is not punctuation that is properly 'hung outside' the text block, in lead type or any other medium.

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