Let baseline shift be expressed as a percentage of the font size
If I've created a paragraph style, sometimes I add a character style with a different size for specific purposes, usually either a bullet point or a quote mark (to highlight a pullquote, for example).
In practice, this means a bullet point is usually smaller, and the quote mark is larger than the rest of the paragraph text. I alter this size as a horizontal and vertical scale, NOT a specific size in points, as this lets the characters scale in proportion when I alter the type size of the paragraph style.
However, I usually also include a baseline shift in the character style for aesthetic reasons, and as this is an absolute value it doesn't scale.
It would be great if I could express it as a percentage, as then it would scale perfectly - a 10pt character with a 20% baseline shift applied would have the equivalent of a 2pt baseline shift; but if I changed the character size to 15pt, the 20% would equate to 3pt, and everything would remain in proportion and consistent.
Justin
shared this idea
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Creative Overlord
commented
YES I often do sale designs and the brand font has a terrible baseline shift, ie, when you resize the text box to fit the font without adding a significant baseline shift, you need a text box waaaay bigger than the actual type area. Now of course I could outline the font and design that way but if anyone makes text changes that's extra work.
I'd love to be able to tell InDesign to tweak the baseline when I resize a box proportionally (I usually use command + shift + click & drag corner but sometimes use object > scale menu). I end up having to go in and painstakingly ensure the font is centred and edit the baseline shift for scaled type, it drive me bonkers! But if I want things to align perfectly it's the only way.
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Sam
commented
This is missing, extremely important, and easy to implement.
Not only for baseline shift, but for all kinds of type manipulation like GREP substitutions.For instance, if the commas, periods and quote marks are just too large for the font (I'm lookin at you, Cooper) and those characters need to be 75% of the size of the rest of the type.
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David T. Macpherson
commented
I agree; this is an automatic behaviour of QuarkXPress (without using a percentage—a baseline shift is just scaled willy-nilly with the point size) that I miss; using a percentage would be even better, allowing the option for either a relative or an absolute shift.
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Uwe Laubender
commented
Very good idea. Voiced often in the last years in the forums.
Has my vote now…Regards,
Uwe -
Anonymous
commented
Good idea! I have switched from Calamus SL to InDesign over a year ago and there's no way I would regret it. But there are some things I miss in InDesign and that's one of them.