How to Type Fractions in InDesign
Many publishers use Adobe InDesign to lay out books and magazines. This application provides numerous features to facilitate production and layout of printed documents. However, producing fractions in text using InDesign is more difficult than many other desktop publishing applications. Although many publishers simply use a slash between a numerator and denominator to write the fraction, creating a fraction the width of three characters, some prefer the fraction to be approximately the width of one character in a text. If you use an OpenType font for your publication, the "Character" panel provides an option to create fractions.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Open an Adobe InDesign document containing text with fractions. Select the fractions in the text by highlighting them. To select multiple fractions, hold down the "Control" key on Microsoft Windows computers or the "Command" key on Apple Macintosh computers as you highlight the fraction text.
-
2
Go to the "Character" panel and click the down arrow in the upper right hand corner to open the "Show Options" menu.
-
-
3
Highlight "OpenType" in the "Show Options" menu, then click "Fractions" in the flyout menu that appears. The OpenType font fraction text will turn into a fraction.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
This feature only works for OpenType fonts. If you would like to produce fractions in other fonts, such as TrueType, you will need to use a script. InDesign fraction scripts are available online.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/liquidlibrary/Getty Images
