How to Bold Text in InDesign
Ashlee Harrell Last updated Sep 5, 2022
If you are looking to learn how to bold text in InDesign, you’ve come to the right place! This tutorial will walk you through the process of bolding text in InDesign like a pro. Bolding text in InDesign is an easy way to emphasize a word or phrase. It’s also great for emphasizing heading or important points. I’ll show you how to do it with just a few clicks.
What You’ll Learn in This InDesign Bold Text Tutorial
- How to make letters bold in InDesign
- How to fake bold text in InDesign
What You’ll Need
1. How to Make Letters Bold in InDesign
Step 1
First, open the home magazine in InDesign and install the Olive Display fonts. File > Place the Egyptian hotel image. Grab the Type Tool (T) and type your text across the image. For this example, I’m using the quote «Not all who wander are lost.» Use Olive Display Regular, 100 pt, Paper swatch and C50 M0 Y0 K0 swatch.
Step 2
Highlight the ‘Wander Are Lost.‘ text with the Type Tool (T). In the Character panel, click the Weight dropdown and select Bold. If you’re having trouble finding the Character panel, go to Window > Types & Tables > Character.
2. How to Fake Bold Text in InDesign
Step 1
Another way you can make text bold in InDesign is by applying a stroke. This method is useful if the particular font you’re using doesn’t have a bold weight. Switch the Bold font back to Regular and highlight it again with the Type Tool (T). Select Stroke in the Swatches panel and fill the stroke with the color blue we used earlier (C50 M0 Y0 K0).
Step 2
With the text still highlighted, increase the Stroke Weight in the Stroke panel to your desired thickness. I’m using a 3 pt Weight.
Great Job! You Learned How to Make Text Bold in InDesign!
Now it’s time to put your InDesign bold text skill to good use. In this tutorial, you learned how to bold text in InDesign and how to fake bold text using a stroke.
Learn Even More InDesign Basics!
The first time starting out with InDesign can be a little intimidating. You might even feel like you have no idea where to start. Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered! Learn InDesign with this list of resources and tutorials that will make your experience a breeze.
How to Bold Text in InDesign 2023
When writing text you may want to emphasize a certain word, number, or phrase. You can do that by bolding the text. We use bold to grab the reader’s attention. Using InDesign bold text, you can make certain words or phrases stand out from the surrounding text.
How to Bold Text in InDesign Files with PDFelement
Before we talk about how to bold text in InDesign, let’s talk about what happens when you export the document to PDF to make some edits. If the recipient of the document does not have InDesign, he will not be able to make adjustments and edits. But by converting to PDF and using a valid PDF software, you can easily edit documents, add annotations, and much more. PDFelement is one of the leading PDF software products on the market.
With a price tag that is much more affordable than rival companies like Adobe, PDFelement offers robust and smart solutions for all of your PDF-related issues. You can use it on both Windows and Mac operating systems, giving you a universal product.
You can create PDF files, merge PDF files, convert files to PDF and vice versa, and then edit the documents. Do you need to create PDF forms? PDFelement allows you to seamlessly create forms with all types of interactive form controls. And in terms of editing, there are many options. Here are some of the key features:
- Edit text, change size, font, bold text, underline text, and much more.
- Add annotation tools like sticky notes, comments, stamps, page numbers, header, footer, and more.
- Protect your PDF document with password and permission restriction.
- Redact sensitive content.
- Add watermarks and backgrounds to your PDF document.
- Crop, insert, and merge PDF pages.
- Edit images by adding, removing, pasting, rotating, replacing, and more.
With that in mind, we want to show you how to bold text within an InDesign file in PDFelement. Here is a quick tutorial.
Step 1. Open the InDesign File
Open the InDesign file by clicking «Open Files», or just simply drag and drop it into the program.
Step 2. Bold Text in InDesign File
Go to the «Edit» tab and click on the «Edit» button located in the upper left corner.
With your mouse, select the text you want to bold. A new pop up window will appear over the selected text. Click on «Bold».
Step 3. Annotate Text
It also offers other annotation options, including adding comments, highlighting text, underlining text, or adding sticky notes. Text boxes, stamps, and personalized drawing tools allow you to easily edit your document in a number of ways. Just go to the «Comment» tab to access these features.
How to Bold Text in InDesign Directly
If you have access to InDesign, you can bold text directly in the app as well. You have to utilize the app’s keyboard shortcuts. They allow you to work quickly, and you do not have to rely on a mouse or touchpad. Here is a quick guide for bolding text in InDesign.
Как установить сочетание клавиш для Semibold в InDesign
InDesign определяет некоторые стандартные сочетания клавиш для начертаний: курсив (Ctrl / Cmd + Shift + I), полужирный (Ctrl / Cmd + Shift + B) и т.д.
Современные шрифты имеют гораздо больше начертаний, посмотрите например на семейство Opinion Pro (64 стиля):
64 начертания Opinion Pro. Designer: Oleh Lishchuk
К сожалению, полужирный (SemiBold) не является опцией в диалоге «шоткатов», поэтому вы не можете определить сочетание клавиш для его применения.
Эту задачу легко решить с помощью сценария
-
правой кнопкой мыши и выберите Save Link (Сохраните ссылку как…).
2. Сохраните semibold.jsx в папку…
Для быстрого перехода к папке Scripts Panel щелкните сценарий в палитре «Сценарии» правой кнопкой мыши (Windows) или удерживая клавишу «Control» (Mac OS), а затем выберите пункт «Показать в Проводнике» (Windows) или «Показать в программе Finder» (Mac OS).
Mac OS
Users/[имя пользователя]/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign/[версия]/[язык]/Scripts/Scripts Panel
Windows XP
Documents and Settings\[имя_пользователя]\Application Data\Adobe\InDesign\[версия]\[язык]\Scripts\Scripts Panel
Windows 7 и выше
Users\[имя_пользователя]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign\[версия]\[язык]\Scripts\Scripts Panel
3. Назначьте Ctrl / Cmd + Shift + B (или другую удобную комбинацию) для скрипта.
*Клавиши Ctrl (Windows) и Cmd (MacOS) соответственно.
Меню Редактирование -> Комибинации клавиш…
Теперь если вы нажмете сочетание Ctrl / Cmd + Shift + B и если у шрифта есть начертание SemiBold, оно немедленно применится к выделенному тексту.
Если в шрифте есть только жирный (Bold), то применится он. Если нет таких начертаний, то ничего не произойдет.
Как и в стандартном сочетании клавиш, скрипт переключает начертание выделенного текста:
Format characters
Use Baseline Shift to move a selected character up or down relative to the baseline of the surrounding text. This option is especially useful when you’re hand-setting fractions or adjusting the position of inline graphics.
In the Character panel or Control panel, type a numeric value for Baseline Shift . Positive values move the character’s baseline above the baseline of the rest of the line; negative values move it below the baseline.
To increase or decrease the value, click in the Baseline Shift box, and then press the Up or Down Arrow key. Hold down Shift while you press the Up or Down Arrow key to change the value in greater increments.
To change the default increment for baseline shift, specify a value for Baseline Shift in the Units & Increments section of the Preferences dialog box.
Make characters superscript or subscript in a non-OpenType font
When you choose Superscript or Subscript, a predefined baseline shift value and type size are applied to the selected text.
The values applied are percentages of the current font size and leading, and are based on settings in the Type Preferences dialog box. These values do not appear in the Baseline Shift or Size boxes of the Character panel when you select the text.
You can change the default size and position of superscripts and subscripts using Advanced Type preferences.
Apply underline or strikethrough
The default weight of an underline and strikethrough depends on the size of the type.
Jeff Witchel provides a video tutorial about underlining at Custom Underlines in InDesign.
Apply underline or strikethrough
Change underline or strikethrough options
Creating custom underlining is especially useful when you want to create an even underline below characters of different sizes, or for creating special effects, such as background highlighting.
Select Underline On or Strikethrough On to turn on underline or strikethrough for the current text.
For Weight, choose a weight or type a value to determine the thickness of the underline or strikethrough line.
For Type, select one of the underline or strikethrough options.
For Offset, determine the vertical position of the line. The offset is measured from the baseline. Negative values move the underline above the baseline and the strikethrough below the baseline.
Select Overprint Stroke when you want to make sure that the stroke doesn’t knock out underlying inks on a printing press.
Choose a color and tint. If you specified any line type other than solid, choose a gap color or gap tint to change the appearance of the area between dashes, dots, or lines.
Select Overprint Stroke or Overprint Gap if the underline or strikethrough will be printed over another color, and you want to avoid errors that can occur with printing misregistration.
To change the underline or strikethrough options in a paragraph or character style, use the Underline Options or Strikethrough Options section of the dialog box that appears when you create or edit the style.
Apply ligatures to letter pairs
InDesign can automatically insert ligatures, which are typographic replacement characters for certain letter pairs, such as “fi” and “fl,” when they are available in a given font. The characters that InDesign uses when the Ligature option is selected appear and print as ligatures, but are fully editable, and do not cause the spell checker to flag a word erroneously.
With OpenType fonts, when you choose Ligatures from the Character panel menu, Control panel menu, or in-context menu, InDesign produces any standard ligature defined in the font, as determined by the font designer. However, some fonts include more ornate, optional ligatures, which can be produced when you choose the Discretionary Ligatures command.
Choose Ligatures from the pop-up. Alternatively, you can use Character panel menu or the Control panel menu to choose Ligatures.
Change the color, gradient, or stroke of text
You can apply colors, gradients, and strokes to characters and continue to edit the text. Use the Swatches panel and Stroke panel to apply colors, gradients, and strokes to text, or change Character Color settings when creating or editing a style.
A. Swatch affects fill or stroke B. Swatch affects container or text C. Tint percentage
To apply color changes to text inside a frame, use the Type tool to select text.
To apply color changes to all text in a frame, use the Selection tool to select the frame. When applying color to the text rather than the container, make sure that you select the Formatting Affects Text icon in the Tools panel or in the Swatches panel.
In the Swatches panel, click a color or gradient swatch.
In the Stroke panel, specify a weight or other stroke options. (See Stroke panel options.)
You can also apply a gradient to text by dragging across the selected text using either the Gradient Swatch tool or the Gradient Feather tool .
To create reverse type, you can change the text fill color to white or [Paper] and the frame’s fill color to a dark color. You can also create reverse type by using a paragraph rule behind text; however, if the rule is black, you’ll need to change the type to white.
Add transparency effects to text
Use the Effects panel to add transparency effects, such as drop shadows, to text.
Mike Rankin provides examples about transparency effects at InDesign Eye Candy, Part I.
Use the Selection tool to select the text frame.
You can choose Object if you want the effects you choose to apply to the text frame’s stroke and fill as well as the text inside it.
If you want to change the text’s blending mode or opacity settings, make these changes on the Effects panel.
Assign a language to text
Assigning a language to text determines which spelling and hyphenation dictionary is used. Assigning a language does not change the actual text.
To apply the language only to selected text, select the text.
To change the default dictionary used in InDesign, choose the language with no documents open.
To change the default dictionary for a specific document, open the document, choose Edit > Deselect All, and then choose the language.
InDesign uses Proximity (and WinSoft for some languages) dictionaries for both spelling and hyphenation. These dictionaries let you specify a different language for as little as a single character of text. Each dictionary contains hundreds of thousands of words with standard syllable breaks. Changing the default language does not affect existing text frames or documents.
You can customize language dictionaries to ensure that any unique vocabulary you use is recognized and treated correctly.
A. “Glockenspiel” in English B. “Glockenspiel” in Traditional German C. “Glockenspiel” in Reformed German
Change the case of type
The All Caps or Small Caps commands change the appearance of text, but not the text itself. Conversely, the Change Case command changes the case setting of selected text. This distinction is important when searching or spell-checking text. For example, suppose you type “spiders” in your document and apply All Caps to the word. Using Find/Change (with Case Sensitive selected) to search for “SPIDERS” will not find the instance of “spiders” to which All Caps was applied. To improve search and spell-check results, use the Change Case command rather than All Caps.
Anne-Marie Concepcion provides an article about small caps at Small Caps vs OpenType All Small Caps.
Change text to All Caps or Small Caps
InDesign can automatically change the case of selected text. When you format text as small caps, InDesign automatically uses the small-cap characters designed as part of the font, if available. Otherwise, InDesign synthesizes the small caps using scaled-down versions of the regular capital letters. The size of synthesized small caps is set in the Type Preferences dialog box.
If you select All Caps or Small Caps in an OpenType font, InDesign creates more elegant type. If you’re using an OpenType font, you can also choose All Small Caps from the Character panel menu or the Control panel. (See Apply OpenType font attributes.)
Specify the size for small caps
Change capitalization
To change all characters to lowercase, choose Lowercase.
To capitalize the first letter of each word, choose Title Case.
To change all characters to uppercase, choose Uppercase.
To capitalize the first letter of each sentence, choose Sentence Case.
The Sentence Case command assumes that the period (.), exclamation point (!), and question mark (?) characters mark the ends of sentences. Applying Sentence Case may cause unexpected case changes when these characters are used in other ways, as in abbreviations, file names, or Internet URLs. In addition, proper names may become lowercase when they should be uppercase.
Scale type
You can specify the proportion between the height and width of the type, relative to the original width and height of the characters. Unscaled characters have a value of 100%. Some type families include a true expanded font, which is designed with a larger horizontal spread than the plain type style. Scaling distorts the type, so it is generally preferable to use a font that is designed as condensed or expanded, if one is available.
A. Unscaled type B. Unscaled type in condensed font C. Scaled type in condensed font
Adjust vertical or horizontal scaling
In the Character panel or Control panel, type a numeric value to change the percentage of Vertical Scaling or Horizontal Scaling .
Scale text by resizing the text frame in InDesign
Using the Selection tool, hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac OS), and then drag a corner of the text frame to resize it.
Using the Scale tool , resize the frame.
Determine the appearance of scaled text values
When you change the scale of a frame, the text inside the frame is also scaled. For example, when you double the size of a text frame, the text also doubles in size; 20-point text increases to 40 points.
David Blatner provides an article about scaled text frames at Making a Magnifying Glass Text Frame in InDesign.
You can change a preferences option to indicate how scaled text appears in panels:
By default, with Apply To Content selected, the Font Size boxes in the Control panel and Character panel list the new size of text (such as 40 pt). If you select the Adjust Scaling Percentage option, the Font Size boxes display both the original and the scaled size of the text, such as “20 pt (40).”
The scaling values in the Transform panel tell you the horizontal and vertical percentage by which the frame was scaled. By default, with Apply To Content selected, scaling values display at 100% after a text is scaled. If you select the Adjust Scaling Percentage option, the scaling values reflect the scaled frame, so doubling the scale of a frame displays as 200%.
Tracking scale changes to frames is useful if you have to revert a frame and the text inside it to their original size. It’s useful as well for finding out by how much you changed the size of a frame. To track scale changes to frames and the text inside these frames:
Choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > General (Mac OS).
Select Adjust Scaling Percentage, and then click OK.
Note the following:
The Adjust Scaling Percentage preference applies to frames that you scale after the preference is turned on, not to existing frames.
The Adjust Scaling Percentage preference stays with the text. The scaled point size continues to appear in parentheses even if you turn off the Adjust Scaling Percentage preference and scale the frame again.
To remove the scaled point size from the Transform panel, choose Redefine Scaling as 100% in the Transform panel. Choosing this option doesn’t change the appearance of the scaled frame.
If you edit the text or scale a frame within threaded frames when the Adjust Scaling Percentage preference is selected, the text is scaled, even if it moves to a different frame. However, if Apply To Content is selected, any text that flows to a different frame as a result of editing is no longer scaled.