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Navigation: Appendices > InDesign > Native Formatting

Native Text Formatting in QuarkXPress and InDesign

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The features below, if available in InDesign, work with all supported versions of InDesign, but some of the features below may require a minimal version of QuarkXPress. These requirements are noted near each such feature.

 

Q++Studio Text Formatting is made-up of a string of comma-delimited attributes settings of attributes from the list below, and apart from being used internally by Q++Studio to communicate with QuarkXPress and InDesign, it can be used as the sFormat variable of the macro function FormatText.

 

The options below can also be set in the text attributes editor which is used to customize the font attributes of text in minicalendar options, grid options and in moon and sun options.

 

Each specifier is separated from the next by a comma (no space). Any value which can be specified in decimal form must use a period as decimal separator, regardless of the workstation's Windows settings. Sample formatting may look as follows (the additional non-highlighted text is part of the formatted text replacement sent by Q++Studio to QuarkXPress and InDesign which can be inspected by viewing p-code):

 

{[1d]}={B+,I+,COLOR(Pantone 231U),f Times New Roman|28}

 

Formatting will fail if the text formatting string contains the same attributes repeated with a different values (eg. f Arial and f Garamond) or with inherently conflicting different attributes (eg: hs 90,vs 75).

 

Keyword

Sample Use

Attribute Description

 

B

 

B+ or B-

 

Add/remove Bold

(faux bold is not available in InDesign)

I

I+ or I-

Add/remove Italic

(faux italic is not available in InDesign, use skewing instead)

UL

UL+ or UL-

Add/remove Underline

(plain underline is not available in InDesign, use a character style instead)

O

O+ or O-

Add/remove Outline

(not available in InDesign, use stroking instead)

SHD

SHD+ or SHD-

Add/remove Shadow (not available in InDesign)

SUP

SUP+ or SUP-

Add/remove Superscript

SUB

SUB+ or SUB-

Add/remove Subscript

NONB

NONB+ or NONB-

Add/remove Non Breaking

SPR

SPR+ or SPR-

Add/remove Superior

STRK

STRK+ or STRK-

Add/remove Strike Thru

ALLC

ALLC+ or ALLC-

Add/remove All Caps

SCAP

SCAP+ or SCAP-

Add/remove Small Caps

WUL

WUL+ or WUL-

Add/remove Word Underline (not available in InDesign)

f

f Arial

Font Name

 

If you wish to refer to a font that is part of a font family with multiple styles, as supported by QuarkXPress 2018-2024, or InDesign, then you must combine the font name with the font's Postscript name, separated by an equal sign, as shown here.

s

s 8.5

Font Size

COLOR

COLOR(Pantone 231U)

Text color name (spelled exactly as obtained from scanning).

sh

sh 30

Text Shade (decimal 0 to 100)

op

op 30

Text Opacity (decimal 0 to 100)

(not available in InDesign where opacity is an object attribute)

k

k -5.0

Kerning (-326 to +326 for QuarkXPress and -1000 to +10000 for InDesign).

If you are using InDesign, then you can use the value 0.01 for metrics kerning and 0.02 for optical kerning.

t

t 12.5

Tracking (-326 to +326 for QuarkXPress and -1000 to +10000 for InDesign)

bs

bs 10.5

Baseline Shift (-27 to +27 for QuarkXPress and -5000 to +5000 for InDesign)

vs

vs 90

Vertical Scale (25 to 300 for QuarkXPress and 1 to 1000 for InDesign)

Cannot be combined with Horizontal Scale

hs

hs 100

Horizontal Scale (25 to 300 for QuarkXPress and 1 to 1000 for InDesign)
Cannot be combined with Vertical Scale

skw

skw 15

Text skewing (-82 to 82 degrees)

(not available in QuarkXPress)

lead

lead 8.5

Text leading is specific to InDesign (when using QuarkXPress, use paragraph leading instead).

 

Leading in InDesign is a tricky attribute, and we usually recommend using space before or space after paragraph attributes, instead.

 

As per the Adobe documentation, "By default, leading is a character attribute, which means that you can apply more than one leading value within the same paragraph. The largest leading value in a line of type determines the leading for that line.").

 

Finally, the text to which this leading is applied cannot contain any return characters.

ovrprt

ovrprt 1

Text overprinting (1=overprint, 0=knock-out)

(not available in QuarkXPress)

 

 

Text Background Shading

 

Background Text Shading attributes below require QuarkXPress 2017-2024

(they exist as a paragraph attribute in InDesign)

 

BKCOLOR

 

BKCOLOR(Pantone 231U)

 

Text Background color name (spelled exactly as obtained from scanning).

BKSH

BKSH 35.5

Text Background Shade (decimal 0 to 100)

BKOP

BKOP 80.5

Text Background Opacity (decimal 0 to 100)

BKTOP

BKTOP 3.55

Text Background Extent Top (decimal -2 to 99)

BKBOTTOM

BKBOTTOM 3.55

Text Background Extent Bottom (decimal -2 to 99)

BKLEFT

BKLEFT 3.55

Text Background Extent Left (decimal -2 to 99)

BKRIGHT

BKRIGHT  3.55

Text Background Extent Right (decimal -2 to 99)

 

Text Framing

 

Text Framing attributes below require QuarkXPress 2017-2024

(they exist as a paragraph attribute in InDesign)

FRCOLOR

FRCOLOR(Pantone 231U)

Text Frame color name (spelled exactly as obtained from scanning).

FRSH

FRSH 35.5

Text Frame Shade (decimal 0 to 100)

FROP

FROP 80.5

Text Frame Opacity (decimal 0 to 100)

FRWID

FRWID 0.25

Text Frame Thickness (decimal 0.1 to 44)

FRTT

FRTT 0

Text Frame Top Present (0 or 1=present)

FRBB

FRBB 0

Text Frame Bottom Present (0 or 1=present)

FRLL

FRLL 1

Text Frame Left Present (0 or 1=present)

FRRR

FRRR 1

Text Frame Right Present (0 or 1=present)

FRTOP

FRTOP 0.0

Text Frame Extent Top (decimal -2 to 99)

FRBOTTOM

FRBOTTOM 0.0

Text Frame Extent Bottom (decimal -2 to 99)

FRLEFT

FRLEFT 1.5

Text Frame Extent Left (decimal -2 to 99)

FRRIGHT

FRRIGHT 1.5

Text Frame Extent Right (decimal -2 to 99)

 

Text Stroking

 

Text Stroking attributes below require QuarkXPress 2017-2024 or InDesign

STRCOLOR

STRCOLOR(Pantone 231U)

Text Stroke color name (spelled exactly as obtained from scanning).

STRSH

STRSH 35.5

Text Stroke Shade (decimal 0 to 100)

STROP

STROP 80.5

Text Stroke Opacity (decimal 0 to 100)

STRWID

STRWID 0.25

Text Stroke Thickness (decimal 0.1 to 44)

STRNOFILL

STRNOFILL

Text Stroke NoFill (0=filled or 1=hollow)

STRJOIN

STRJOIN

Text Stroke Join Style (0, 1 or 2)

STRMITRLIM

STRMITRLIM

Text Stroke Mitre Limit (decimal 1 to 36). Only applies if Join Style is 0.

 

Text Style

 

The application of text styles requires InDesign

Keyword

Example use

Attribute Description

 

STYCHAR

 

STYCHAR(aTextStyleName)

 

Applies the text style or style sheet of aTextStyleName to the currently selected text.

 

 

See also: native paragraph formatting, native textbox formatting,xpress tags formatting and the macro function FormatText.

 


Topic 183085, last updated on 27-Mar-2024