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Shlomit Heymann
Shlomit Heymann
Inspiring
May 5, 2019
Answered

Non Breaking Space is smaller than regular space when text is full justified

  • May 5, 2019
  • 5 replies
  • 4084 views

Dear all,

I thought Non breaking space is getting the width of the paragraph values and should be the same width as a normal space but this is not the case. It's becoming a huge problem in French where there are non braking spaces before punctuation marks and it doesn't look good.

This only happens when the text is in full justify (also on full justified lines in the middle of a paragraph defined with left justification).

A screenshot is attached.

Thank you,

Shlomit

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Laubender

Hi Shlomit,

another cause could be the used paragraph composer perhaps.

Do you see this with the World Ready Paragraph Composer as well with the Adobe Paragraph Composer?

Sample with:

Top frame is using the Adobe Paragraph Composer

Bottom frame is using the World Ready Paragraph Composer

Regards,
Uwe

5 replies

L
LaubenderCorrect answer
Community Expert
May 5, 2019

Hi Shlomit,

another cause could be the used paragraph composer perhaps.

Do you see this with the World Ready Paragraph Composer as well with the Adobe Paragraph Composer?

Sample with:

Top frame is using the Adobe Paragraph Composer

Bottom frame is using the World Ready Paragraph Composer

Regards,
Uwe

    Shlomit Heymann
    Shlomit HeymannAuthor
    Inspiring
    May 6, 2019

    Oh yes. I just figured it out myself.

    I feel furious because I'm sure this bug was submitted ages ago, and while we pay like everybody else there are so many unfixed bugs.

    (which is why I hardly submit anymore bugs - what is the point if nothing is fixed?)

    (do you know that until today we need to import word 97-2003 documents? And they should be done on windows otherwise there is a mixture with language definitions which is a problem with bi-lingual text).

    So yes,

    I feel furious and so so frustrated. And sad for not enjoying some features.

    Thank you everybody,

    I'm sorry I forgot to check this option before posting this.

    Shlomit

    Shlomit Heymann
    Shlomit HeymannAuthor
    Inspiring
    May 7, 2019

    https://forums.adobe.com/people/Shlomit+Heymann  wrote

    …I feel furious because I'm sure this bug was submitted ages ago, and while we pay like everybody else there are so many unfixed bugs. (which is why I hardly submit anymore bugs - what is the point if nothing is fixed?)
    …

    Hi Shlomit,

    don't hesitate to submit bug reports at: Adobe InDesign Feedback

    Even if you think they were already reported years ago.

    Just make the reports public here in InDesign Forum and post links to the reports so that we can vote for fixing them.

    Regards,
    Uwe


    Der Uwe,

    I have reported this bug but I can tell you they will not fix it.

    The Adobe World Ready was written back than by Winsoft who were in charge of developing the Hebrew technology. I think whatever was done there is too complicated for Adobe to deal with so they do nothing about it.

    I just went into my reported bus since the latest pre-release (It changed and I can't find the old ones I reported). The bugs are still open and I promise you that they will do nothing about it.

    I once open a discussion about not fixing the Hebrew bugs, no one answered or cared.

    We will forever pay like everybody else but our version will continue to be with same bugs and worse forever.

    Shlomit

    Barb Binder
    Barb Binder
    Community Expert
    May 5, 2019

    Hi Shlomit Heymann:

    Two more thoughts:

    1. It is typical to set em dashes with either no spaces on either side, or thin spaces on both sides. I personally prefer thin spaces, but whatever you pick, consistency is the key.
    2. You can define a GREP style to locate a word followed by an em dash (with or without spaces) and automatically assign a No Break character style to it.

    ~Barb

    ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    jmlevy
    jmlevy
    Community Expert
    May 5, 2019
    It is typical to set em dashes with either no spaces on either side

    Hi Barb,

    not in French!

      Frans v.d. Geest
      Frans v.d. Geest
      Community Expert
      May 5, 2019

      jmlevy  schreef

      It is typical to set em dashes with either no spaces on either side

      Hi Barb,

      not in French!

      Neither in Dutch! And we use en-dashes: “This is an – although simple – example how we use it.”

      Jongware
      Jongware
      Community Expert
      May 5, 2019

      It may be because InDesign is sometimes too smart ...

      According to the official documentation, all a non-breaking space does is to prohibit breaking on it, but for the rest it should act as a regular space. However, what if there is a glyph (which could be an image) provided for the non-breaking space in your current font? Then it must use this character, and its associated width!

      See https://indesignsecrets.com/topic/fixed-width-vs-regular-nonbreak-spaces for the same problem.

      Editing the font and removing the non-breaking space from it is quite a radical solution, but without doing this you can't use that code. Instead, I suggest using No Break over the words that you want to keep together.

      rob day
      rob day
      Community Expert
      May 5, 2019

      The width of a space and non breaking space would be defined in the font, not the application, but I’m not seeing the problem. What’s the font? Could you share your example?

      jmlevy
      jmlevy
      Community Expert
      May 5, 2019

      Yes Rob, but Schlomit seems to use Garamond (which version) and the nonbreaking space in Adobe Garamond Pro is the same as the regular one (I just checked before answering), and as most of the (well designed) fonts.

      jmlevy
      jmlevy
      Community Expert
      May 5, 2019

      Hi Schlomit,

      it's very strange: the nonbreaking space should effectively have the same width as the regular space except if you use a fixed with nonbreaking space. What version of Garamond do you use?

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