How to make body feel more balanced with hyphenation justified

[Mateomono]

Hi, 

I am working on my first book layout. Based on some research, I need to set up hyphenation and justification so that my body text feels balanced.

1. Is there a recommended starting point for setting up justification or a standard that works well ?
2. When applying justification, should I do it across my entire body text or create a new style and apply it only to areas that need improvement?
3. Are there any suggested settings for hyphenation that are standard?
   4. Are there any other good practies or things to avoid?
   
   Thank you very much!

[jmlevy]

Hi @Mateomono 

When applying justification, should I do it across my entire body text or create a new style and apply it only to areas that need improvement?

You MUST do it through the entire body text by setting up properly the body text style

Is there a recommended starting point for setting up justification or a standard that works well ?

Are there any suggested settings for hyphenation that are standard?

Justification and hyphenation settings depend on numerous criterias, including language. You must know that the InDesign default settings work well only for English, but certainly not for german because german words are longer. Since I don't speak german, I can't help you, but I am sure that Willi Adelberger can.

[Mateomono]

@jmlevyThank you! But does it need to be 100% perfect, or is it okay if, in some places, it's a bit looser or tighter? Maybe it's not possible to make it 100% accurate anyway.

[jmlevy]

Maybe it's not possible to make it 100% accurate anyway.

I would not say that it is impossible, but it can be very long to find the accurate settings. You need to make a lot of fine tuning. Eventually, your eyes will be the final judge.

I can give you an old trick: choose a sample text and repeat it on different pages, with different justification settings. Print the file, take the paper upside down and squint. If you see an uniformous grey rectangle, it is OK. If you see rivers (white irregular lines), it is not.

[Mateomono]

@jmlevy

But if I don't see any H&J violations anymore, would that be sufficient?

[jmlevy]

But if I don't see any H&J violations anymore, would that be sufficient?

No, it helps. But the best judge is you: do you like what you see?

[Mike Witherell]

Try this for body text. You will be surprised how much you like it.

Hyphenation: 9, 3, 4, 1, off, off, off

Justification:

80/100/120

-5/0/5

95/100/105

Optional: Kerning method set to Optical, unless you believe Metrics looks better or works better.