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Good design is within everyone’s reach. Even though you may never have attended an art class, you can still create layouts that are compelling and easy to read. If you can memorize four easy principles, you’ve got what it takes to create an interesting and pleasing poster, brochure, party invite, business card, or any other composition. Last time we talked about proximity and the importance of using space to group related items together within a layout. In this second part of the Design Basics series, we’ll look at another design rule: alignment.

Alignment—Line it up

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Alignment gives readers a hard edge for their eyes to follow when scanning or reading a piece. This edge forms an invisible line that connects items on a page. Robin Williams (author of the Non-Designers Design Book, Peachpit Press) wisely notes that the stronger the alignment, the stronger, cleaner, and more dramatic your layout will be.

The basic alignments are left, center, and right; but which one do you use when? For large blocks of text, use left alignment because it’s the easiest to read (think newspapers, books, and magazines). Right alignment is more difficult to read so use it on smaller chunks of text. Centered alignment conveys a feeling of formality and elegance, so reserve it for graduation announcements and wedding invitations.

Another alignment pitfall to avoid is wrapping text around an irregularly shaped object—very few designers can pull this off. Because the text edges become jagged and erratic, the piece becomes difficult to read, as shown below.

Here’s how to find alignment tools in some popular programs:

Microsoft Word: In the Formatting toolbar (View --> Toolbars > Formatting), Formatting palette (View -> Formatting Palette), and in the Paragraph dialog box (choose Format -> Paragraph).

TextEdit: In the toolbar at the top of an open document.

Tex-Edit Plus: In the Tools palette (Tools -> Show Tools) and in the Format menu (choose -> Justification).

Apple Pages and Keynote: In the Text Inspector (choose View -> Show Inspector and click the big T).

However, if you’re aligning text (or other objects) in a program that support layers—such as Photoshop, Illustrator or InDesign—there’s a bit more you need to know.

Aligning text on a single layer

To change the alignment on one Text layer in Photoshop (), Illustrator (), and InDesign (), press T to grab the Type tool and make sure you’re on the layer you want to change. Double-click the layer thumbnail to select all the text, or click and drag to select a portion of text (you can have different alignments on a single text layer, provided the lines of text are separated by a return). Once the text is selected, click an alignment button in the Options bar (the same buttons live in the Paragraph panel).

Aligning text or objects on multiple layers

In Photoshop and InDesign, activate the Move tool and Shift- or Command-click to the right of each layer’s thumbnail (near the name) to select the layers you want to change. In the Options bar, you’ll see a slew of alignment tools that appear only when the Move tool is active and more than one layer is selected. Click the appropriate button and the selected layers will pop into place. In Illustrator, choose Window -> Align to summon the same set of tools.

As you can see from the above examples, proper alignment makes a huge difference in your layout. See you here next time for design secret number three: Repetition.

Lesa Snider, founder of GraphicReporter.com, is the chief evangelist of iStockphoto.com, author of Photoshop CS4: The Missing Manual (Pogue Press/O’Reilly, 2009), and several video training titles from both KelbyTraining.com and Lynda.com.

You usethe Align panel (Window > Object & Layout >Align) to align or distribute objects horizontally or verticallyalong the selection, margins, page, or spread. Consider the followingwhen working with the Align panel:

• The Align panel doesn’t affect objects to which you’veapplied the Lock Position command, and doesn’t change the alignmentof text paragraphs within their frames.

• Text alignment is not affected by the Align Objects options.(See Alignor justify text.)

• You can use the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog box (Edit >Keyboard Shortcuts) to create custom align and distribute shortcuts.(Under Product Area, select Object Editing.)

Youcan use the Align panel to align or space selected objects horizontallyor vertically to the selection, margins, page, or spread.

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Choose Window > Object & Layout >Align to display the Align panel.
Note:
To show or hide additional panel options,choose Show Options or Hide Options from the panel menu.
From the menu at the bottom of the panel, specify whetheryou want to align or distribute objects based on the selection,margins, page, or spread.
• To align objects, click the button for the type of alignment you want.
• To distribute objects, click the button for the type of distribution you want. For example, if you click the Distribute Left Edges button when Align To Selection is turned on, InDesign makes sure that there is an equal amount of space from left edge to left edge of each selected object.
Using the Distribute Horizontal Centers option for even spacing

A. Creates even spacing between the centers of each object B. Keeps the overall width the same as before the transformation
• To set the space between objects, either center to center or edge to matching edge, select Use Spacing under Distribute Objects, and then type the amount of space you want to apply. Click a button to distribute the selected objects along their horizontal or vertical axes.
Using the Distribute Horizontal Centers option and adding a value for Use Spacing

A. Spaces the objects evenly from their centers by a specified value B. Changes the overall width of the objects as a whole
• To set the space between objects (facing edge to facing edge), under Distribute Spacing, select Use Spacing and type the amount of space you want between the objects. (If Distribute Spacing is not visible, choose Show Options in the Align Panel menu.) Then, click the Distribute Spacing button to distribute the objects along their horizontal or vertical axes.
Using the Distribute Horizontal Space option and adding a value for Use Spacing

A. Creates spaces of a specified value between each object B. Changes the overall width of the objects as a whole

When you use spacing with vertical distribution, selectedobjects are spaced from top to bottom, starting with the top-mostobject. When you use spacing with horizontal distribution, selectedobjects are spaced from left to right, starting from the left-mostobject.

Note:

You can also use the Smart Spacingfeature to align or distribute objects while moving them. For example,if two vertical objects are 12 points apart, moving a third object12 points below the second object causes temporary guides to appear, allowingyou to snap the object into alignment.

The Gap tool provides a quick way to adjust the size of a gap between two or more objects. It also lets you resize several objects that have commonly aligned edges simultaneously, while keeping the gaps between them fixed. It’s a one-step way to adjust your layout by directly manipulating the space between objects.

The Gap tool ignores locked objects and master page items.

Move the pointer between two objects, and do any of the followingactions:

• Drag to move the gap and resize all objectsaligned along the gap.

• Shift-drag to move the gap between only the two nearest objects.

• Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) to resize thegap instead of moving it. Adding the Shift key resizes the gap betweenonly the two nearest objects.

• Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) to move the gapand objects in the same direction. Adding the Shift key moves onlythe two nearest objects.

• Ctrl+Alt-drag (Windows) or Command+Option-drag (Mac OS) toresize the gap and move the objects. Adding the Shift key to resizethe gap and move only the two nearest objects.

Note:

To view hints on using the Gap tool, select theGap tool and open the Tool Hints panel (Window > Utilities >Tool Hints).

When transforming multiple selected objects, you can resize the space between the selected objects proportionally instead of resizing the actual objects. For example, if you want to change the spacing between five aligned rectangles, you can do so without using any Distribute commands.

Start dragging a selection handle and hold down the Spacebarwhile dragging. Continue dragging to change the spacing betweenthe objects.

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