Align text

Text can be aligned with one or both edges (or insets) of a text frame. Text is said to be justified when it is aligned with both edges. You can choose to justify all text in a paragraph excluding the last line (Justify Left or Justify Right), or you can justify text in a paragraph including the last line (Justify All). When you have only a few characters on the last line, you may want to use a special end-of-story character and create a flush space.

When you set center or justify for text in a frame grid, the text will no longer align exactly with the grid. You can also specify paragraph alignment for all the paragraphs in the frame grid.

Align paragraphs to a baseline grid

The baseline grid represents the leading for body text in a document. You can use multiples of this leading value for all elements of the page to ensure that text always lines up between columns and from page to page. For example, if the body text in your document has 12‑point leading, you could give your heading text 18‑point leading and add 6 points of space before the paragraphs that follow the headings.

Using a baseline grid ensures consistency in the location of text elements on a page. You can adjust the leading for the paragraph to ensure that its baselines align to the page’s underlying grid. This is useful if you want the baselines of text in multiple columns or adjacent text frames to align. Change settings for the baseline grid by using the Grids section of the Preferences dialog box.

You can also align only the first line of a paragraph to the baseline grid, allowing the rest of the lines to follow the specified leading values.

To view the baseline grid, choose View > Grids & Guides > Show Baseline Grid.

Align paragraphs to the baseline grid

Align only the first line to the baseline grid

Create balanced headline text

You can balance ragged aligned text across multiple lines. This feature is especially useful for multiline headings, pull-quotes, and centered paragraphs.

This feature takes effect only when the Adobe Paragraph Composer is selected.

Create paragraphs that span or split columns

You can make a paragraph span across multiple columns in a text frame to create a straddle head effect. You can choose whether a paragraph spans all columns or a specified number of columns. When a paragraph is set to span across columns in a multicolumn text frame, any text before the spanning paragraph becomes balanced as a result.

You can also split a paragraph into multiple columns within the same text frame.

Span a paragraph across columns

Split a paragraph into columns

Align or justify text vertically within a text frame

You can align or distribute lines of text in a frame along its vertical axis to help keep type vertically consistent among frames and their columns.

You can align text to the top, center, or bottom of the frame using each paragraph’s leading and paragraph spacing values. You can also justify text vertically, which evenly spaces lines regardless of their leading and paragraph spacing values.

Vertical text alignment and justification is calculated from the baseline positions of each line of text in the frame. Keep the following in mind as you adjust vertical alignment:

• The top of the frame is defined as the baseline of the first line of top-aligned text. The First Baseline Offset option in the Text Frame Options dialog box affects this value.

• The bottom of the frame is defined as the baseline of the last line of bottom-aligned text. Footnote text is not justified.

• When the Align to Baseline Grid option is applied to paragraphs with Top, Center, or Bottom alignment, all lines will be aligned to the baseline grid. With the Justified option, only the first and last lines will be aligned to the baseline grid.

• If you adjust a text frame’s Top or Bottom Inset values in the Text Frame Options dialog box, you change the location of the first or last baseline, respectively.