Page 8
QuarkXPress 8: A Suite Response

The design-grid feature is analogous to the baseline-grid feature in earlier versions of QuarkXPress, but the premise is the same. Page grids enable you to set up a series of grid lines running horizontally across the page at the specified distance (increment) to enable easy alignment between text and items, text and text, and consistent spacing within text boxes.

Quark has expanded upon the baseline grid feature, and now allows you to define different page grids for different master pages or apply a special grid to a text box (known as a text box grid). You can control the attributes for each of the four types of grid lines: topline, centerline, baseline, and bottomline (the distance from the topline to the bottomline is equal to a font's em height). You can also position each based on font size and line spacing. When the page grid is displayed, you can align text visually, lock text to the grid, and even snap items to the grid — just as you could with the baseline grid.

Page grids in QuarkXPress 8 function at the master-page level. This means that every page in your document could adhere to a different grid, as long as that grid is defined on the master page on which you based that page. As for text box grids, every text box could adhere to its own grid as well.

To create a custom grid for a page, choose PAGE > MASTER GUIDES & GRID. Notice that the master guides dialogue box has undergone substantial changes. There are now many options for defining the attributes of a grid. There are two tabs here: text settings and display settings.

Figure 13 The master guides dialogue box has been expanded to include the options for page grids. Additionally there are now two options in the view menu for showing and hiding grids: page grids and text box grids.

In the text settings tab, you can choose to create a grid that is based upon a particular typeface, setting each option manually; or grids can inherit the attributes from any item in QuarkXPress that understands page grids. Do this by using the LOAD SETTINGS command. This could be master pages, other grids, or even style sheets.

When you link grid-style settings to a style sheet with the link option it can have far-reaching effects. If, for instance, you have created a grid style based on a style sheet that has 12-point leading and at some point in your production cycle, you modify the style sheet to 13.5 point leading, the grid styles based on this style sheet will also change. Caution: for text that is locked to this grid, the new spacing is applied and overflow may occur.

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