Aldus-Guide-to-Basic-Design

Hanging Indents

Treat quotation marks differently when they are used in headings and pull-quotes. By their nature, quotation marks allow white space to become more pronounced at the beginning of paragraphs. This will consequently lead to undesired emphasis and awkward text alignment.

“Pull-quotes lend themselves as highly effective graphic and literary devices for conveying and supporting the central themes in documents.”

—Anonymous

This pull-quote requires adjustments to its formatting— note the awkward left alignment and weak quotation marks.

“ Pull-quotes lend themselves as highly effective graphic and literary devices for conveying and supporting the central themes in documents. ” —Anonymous The text was then formatted using a hanging indent— the first line of type overhangs the balance of the paragraph’s left alignment. Note the pleasing and consistent left alignment which results—nicely contrasted against the emphasized quotation marks.

ADD THE FINISHING TOUCHES

61