In this example I have a very large heading set in Neutraface Display Titling, and as you can see the capital H is indented compared to the capital S. This kind of thing seems to happen with a variety of fonts, does anyone know why InDesign won't align the left sides correctly? Is there anything as a typesetter / graphic designer I can do about it?
Image can be viewed
here.
Comments
However, I do agree that the default alignment and even InDesign's adjusted optical alignment don't work perfectly for headlines. At text sizes, the alignment is great, but at larger sizes, further manual adjustments are sometimes necessary. I've noticed this being especially problematic when a headline needs to align with a column of text immediately beneath it. In those cases, I've often needed to move the text frame containing the headline a few points to the left.
The issue is the left sidebearing, as Cory Maylett pointed out. Even if Adobe were to adopt a fix for it, it would never cover all of the circumstances you might encounter, any more than even the most refined kerning table can accommodate every need. Here is the way you can adjust it: add a space before the first character in the line(s) you wish to adjust at the left, select the space, then add negative tracking until the letter is where you wish to see it. You can also use this method to place the character outside the text box, if you so desire. We call this "professional typesetting."
I've used both Scott-Martin's and John's methods before in ID. But ID's story/frame-wide setting is crude.
QXP has a "better" method. One can create hanging character sets, adding any character and an amount to make them hang. These hanging sets are then attached to p.styles. Affinity Publisher uses a similar method.
If one just fully hangs the /H to the frame edge, it looks far worse than the slight inset of the /H to the upper curve of the /S as it now does. The /H still needs to line up where it does naturally or just a tad closer to the frame edge.
Better still, the /S needs to hang out of the frame a bit with the left side of the /H near the frame edge...again, depending on what follows and its point size.
Technically, that text string cannot line up. Well, it can, but does one line up the /H to the /S's tail or the upper left side?
I think of those choice as aesthetic choices. ID ought to allow such choices.
There is at least one article with a script in its comment section that supposedly align the first letter against the frame edge. The article itself has a "trick" to also do it. With multi-line headings, each line would need to be a separate paragraph...however, with using the main article's dropcap method, it would just happen. Though I haven't tried it.
https://creativepro.com/removing-space-along-left-edge/
Of course the real problem is that the appearance of being aligned isn’t a matter of simply doing the math right—it is partly size-specific (which Adobe offers the option to try to compensate for), and also partly a matter of individual perception.
The example below shows your preferred alignment on the left. On the right is InDesign's optically adjusted vertical alignment. Although not perfect, Adobe's adjustments, at least to me, are clearly better at making the alignment appear even and balanced.
Would you also prefer the removal of vertical overshoots from headlines, as in making an S or an O the exact same height as an E or an H?
Regarding "I don't recall encountering someone with a preference for lining up the extremities in lines of stacked type" the link Mike shared shows someone wanting it, as does the existence of the techniques Scott and John shared earlier. There are times when a designer will want it, and I feel a lot more designers want it but don't share it on forums etc, they just compensate manually or complain to co-workers. Obviously I hav Eno hard evidence for this, just a perception.
Affinity Publisher has the feature you request, it is possible to remove left sidebearing, but the results are not always good as mentioned above.
Regarding Affinity Publisher, I own it but had not used it yet as I am so familiar with InDesign. Taking a quick look, do you mean this setting (image below), if yes, it seems to be for specific kerning of certain glyphs, not something that detects the edges/outlines of the glyphs. But interesting to see, I wonder if Adobe will put something similar in InDesign eventually.
I just realised that the drop cap settings already detect the edge or ignore the side bearing, so that exactly the feature I want, but applied to the first letter of each line without the need for breaking each line. But, now I know about this, I will absolutely try it out. It is still introducing extra manual work and complexity in creating the extra paragraph styles etc, but could still be handy. Sorry it took me so long to see from your post.
Make a font with all left sidebearings zero, and adjust the rest of the spacing via kerning.
There could be an app for that, which would work in a font editor, or a layout application.
Another font fix:
An OpenType feature which substitutes alternate zero-left-sidebearing glyphs for the first character of a line, using the <ignore> method. (This is how the <swash> feature may be used for swash caps.)
The individual setting of Optical Alignment in Pubisher is actually very helpful and could solve this problem as well (but you’d have to define % for each glyph).
This kind of problem especially bothers me with glyphs that have negative sidebearings on the left, such as a J or j. In such cases, you even run the risk of part of the letter being cut off by accident (something I have also seen happening in printed materials a couple of times).