Modifying Tab/Indent Settings [and more…]

[austinmdiamond]

Hi! I am creating an illustrated children's book in Photoshop. How can I change the distance/settings for when I press Tab? I know InDesign and Illustrator can do this...but I would really like to stick with Photoshop, as I do all the art/page creation there.

Thank you!

Austin 🙂

["and more...] added by moderator

[jane-e]

@austinmdiamond 

At its core, Photoshop is an image editor. It has limited support for text and you cannot set tab stops in Photoshop.

It is also not the best software to create a book. Both Illustrator and InDesign have support for tab stops, but InDesign is hands down the only one you want to use for creating books. You can place a link to your images (File > Place) so they will print at full resolution.

Jane

[austinmdiamond]

Hi Jane! Thank you for your response.

I was afraid of that. The trouble is, in my book there are a lot of hand-drawn illustrations, layers and paintings that are spread over the page, and would be very difficult and time-consuming to place one by one in InDesign. The text moves in and out of the illustrations as well, in many places -- it's not like there are just a couple "blocks" of text that would be easily placed in InDesign after the fact. It seems like doing all of this, or leaving blank spaces in Photoshop where I would theoretically place the text, would be incredibly time-consuming, confusing and difficult. What am I missing here? There must be an easier way to do this...:)

[jane-e]

@austinmdiamond 

You can load all of the images to your cursor at once, then click-click-click to place them on the pages. You can also apply an Object Style to the graphic frame as the default before you place the images.

• InDesign > File > Place > Select > Okay
• Bridge > Drag and drop
• Finder > Drag and drop

The properly linked files will show in the Links panel. Photoshop does not have a Links panel.

Can I move this thread to the InDesign forum where others can chime in?

If yes, then please:

• give an example of the text the moves in and out of the illustrations
• tell us the final output: print, PDF, ePub, other?
• does it need to be Section 508 compliant (read out loud by screen readers)?

I've been formatting books for over 30 years, and one thing to remember is that doing it right in the beginning saves countless hours when the changes start pouring in at the end.

Let me know if I can move your thread. 😊

~ Jane

[austinmdiamond]

Sure Jane, you can certainly move it! Thank you for all your help!

Final output would be for both print (a physical book) and digital versions.

Section 508 compliant? I suppose so!

I'm attaching an image to give an idea of the complexity of what I mean. This is not a final version, lol, but you will be able to see all the different moving parts!! It sure seems like it would be convoluted to plot out exactly where text would go and leave blank spaces for it for InDesign instead of doing it organically all at one in PS as the piece is created!

Jane, may I ask what kind of books you've been formatting? I might be able to use you in the future. 🙂

Best, Austin

[jane-e]

Hi Austin,

I've moved your thread to the InDesign forum so these folks can give you more thoughts on why InDesign is better for books than Photoshop and answer your other questions.

And to answer your first question, in InDesign, open the Tabs panel from the Type menu. You can select the text, but the best practice is to use Paragraph styles, especially looking ahead to accessibility.

Jane