Type popping out of text frame

I can tell you that whether this is a bug or not, it's a MAJOR PAIN. Recently, Amazon KPD has apparently made their gutter restrictions more stringent, or updated their software to catch little things like this, and it has totally ruined my carefully planned layout. It's a 500+ page book with graphics and illustrations, very tedious with everything having a very specific place. And the font is serifed and some of the serifs go into the gutter no matter what I do, and KDP then flags it when I upload my manuscript.

I don't care if some people want it like this, there should be an option to absolutely make it NOT like this if other people want that. Just make an absolute option to keep all characters inside the margins no matter what.

• Changing the Margins is not an option, because it throws my entire layout off, causing everything to jump down, creating more pages, which will essentially force me to redo the entire layout.
• Changing fonts is not an option for the same reasons.
• Changing the Optical is not an option, because it might fix the serifs, but it forces the quotes to dangle instead, and then there's no way to fix that.

This file was perfectly laid out using the requirements I was given, and it took a week to get it done. Now, I have to redo the whole thing because of one little software quirk. I don't know whether KDP is being too sensitive or not, but Adobe InDesign should definitely have a fix for this.

Hi @Pickory, I've put together a hacky script that shows (using blue rectangles) where each line of text protrudes from the selected text frame. I know this is probably not much use to you (because it doesn't fix anything), but because I've just written a very similar to a script I may as well share it. As I said, it's a quick hack—it literally duplicates the text frame and outlines it—so if you can use the SDK, then that would be much preferable.

- Mark

/*
 * Reveal protruding lines of text frame.
 * Known limitation: because it duplicates the text frame,
 * this will sometimes cause a reflow if a paragraph using
 * a multi-line composer spans multiple text frames.
 * @author m1b
 * @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/type-popping-out-of-text-frame/m-p/13711048
 */
function main() {

    var doc = app.activeDocument,
        textFrame = doc.selection[0];

    if (
        textFrame == undefined
        || !textFrame.isValid
        || textFrame.constructor.name !== 'TextFrame'
    ) {
        alert('Please select a text frame and try again.');
        return;
    }

    var results = getProtrudingCharacterBounds(textFrame, layer);

    if (!results) return;

    // put the rectangles on this layer
    var layerName = 'Protruding';
    var layer = doc.layers.itemByName(layerName)
    if (!layer.isValid)
        layer = doc.layers.add({ name: layerName, printable: false });
    doc.activeLayer = layer;

    for (var i = 0; i < results.length; i++) {

        // draw a rectangle just for showing the results
        var rect = textFrame.parentPage.rectangles.add({
            geometricBounds: results[i],
            fillColor: doc.swatches[4],
        });
        rect.transparencySettings.blendingSettings.opacity = 30;

    }

    alert('Found ' + results.length + ' protruding glyphs.');

};

app.doScript(main, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'Mark Protruding Text');


/**
 * Returns bounds of the protruding
 * parts of lines of text frame.
 * @param {TextFrame} tf - an Indesign TextFrame.
 * @returns {Array<Array>} - array of [T, L, B, R] arrays.
 */
function getProtrudingCharacterBounds(tf) {

    app.scriptPreferences.measurementUnit = MeasurementUnits.POINTS;

    // get the outermost textframe
    while (tf.parent.constructor.name == 'Character')
        tf = tf.parent.parentTextFrames[0];

    var bounds = tf.geometricBounds;

    // duplicate text frame
    var dup = tf.duplicate();
    outlines = dup.createOutlines();

    // add outlines of anchored text frames
    while (outlines[outlines.length - 1].textFrames.length > 0)
        outlines.push(outlines[outlines.length - 1].textFrames[0].createOutlines()[0]);

    // find the protruding outlines
    var found = [];

    outlinesLoop:
    for (var i = 0; i < outlines.length; i++) {

        var polygons;
        if (outlines[i].constructor.name == 'Polygon')
            // we get a Polygon if there is only one character in text frame
            polygons = [outlines[i]];
        else if (outlines[i].hasOwnProperty('polygons'))
            // a Group with polygons
            polygons = outlines[i].polygons;
        else
            continue;

        for (var j = 0; j < polygons.length; j++) {
            var r = getProtrudingRect(bounds, polygons[j].visibleBounds, 3);
            if (r)
                found = found.concat(r);
        }

    }

    // delete all the outlines
    for (var i = outlines.length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
        outlines[i].remove();

    if (dup.isValid)
        // sometimes the duplicate is left behind
        // eg. when there is a table in the text frame
        dup.remove();

    if (found)
        return found;

};


/**
 * Returns the protruding part of a rectangle.
 * @param {Array<Number>} r1 - [T,L,B,R].
 * @param {Array<Number>} r2 - [T,L,B,R].
 * @param {Number} [offset] - the amount to expand resulting rectangle (default: 0).
 * @returns {Array<Number>} [T,L,B,R].
 */
function getProtrudingRect(r1, r2, offset) {

    offset = offset || 0;

    var results = [];

    var top1 = r1[0], top2 = r2[0],
        left1 = r1[1], left2 = r2[1],
        bottom1 = r1[2], bottom2 = r2[2],
        right1 = r1[3], right2 = r2[3];

    if (
        bottom1 <= top2 || top1 >= bottom2 || right1 <= left2 || left1 >= right2
        || (left2 >= left1 && right2 <= right1 && top2 >= top1 && bottom2 <= bottom1)
    ) {
        // No overlap between the rectangles, or second
        // rectangle is completely within the first.
        return;
    }

    // handle cases where protrudes from both sides
    if (top1 > top2 && bottom1 < bottom2) {
        results = results.concat(getProtrudingRect([top1, left1, bottom2, right1], r2, offset));
        results = results.concat(getProtrudingRect([top2, left1, bottom1, right1], r2, offset));
        return results;
    }

    if (left1 > left2 && right1 < right2) {
        results = results.concat(getProtrudingRect([top1, left1, bottom1, right2], r2, offset));
        results = results.concat(getProtrudingRect([top1, left2, bottom1, right1], r2, offset));
        return results;
    }

    // Define the outside rectangle.
    var outside = [top2, left2, bottom2, right2];

    // Check for overlap on each side and adjust the outside rectangle accordingly.
    if (left1 > left2) {
        outside[1] = left2;
        outside[3] = left1;
    }
    if (right1 < right2) {
        outside[1] = right1;
        outside[3] = right2;
    }
    if (top1 > top2) {
        outside[0] = top2;
        outside[2] = top1;
    }
    if (bottom1 < bottom2) {
        outside[0] = bottom1;
        outside[2] = bottom2;
    }

    // expand by offset (just for better
    // visibility of tiny protrusions)
    outside[0] -= offset;
    outside[1] -= offset;
    outside[2] += offset;
    outside[3] += offset;

    return [outside];

};

Edit 2023-04-11: now puts indicators on a new, non-printing layer, to keep them separate from artwork. @Eugene Tyson. 

Rob's answer goes into plenty of detail, but let me add this: it doesn't usually matter that edges and points of type extend past text frame edges. Frames are invisible and can be put anywhere needed within a layout. No end user is ever going to see or know that type is outside the layout frames like this.

The type control Optical/Metrics and others can help align fonts that have glyphs that stray outside neat character boxes, if that's the issue. But such alignment is usually invisible at readable type sizes, and micro-adjusting large, display or art type is just a given.

Hi @Pickory , The Story panel’s Optical Margin Alignment affects the amount of overhang, but even with it off there could be some:

The text fame can have an Inset Spacing of any amount set in textFramePreferences:

PNG Export: