Adhering to an appropriately adjusted baseline grid irons out small mistakes and makes the large ones you really should know about much more evident. Here’s a text frame with some bobbles in the vertical spacing, and the same text frame aligned to the document’s baseline grid. Note how when the leading or line spacing is slightly under the set increment of our grid, the line of copy is still forced to the next spot down. Near the bottom of the text frame, the leading is greater than the baseline grid’s increment, so again, the line is kicked down to the next indicated spot for a baseline on the baseline grid. If you’re wondering how to make it align, here’s how: Select the text frame, then ‘Align to baseline grid’ at the bottom right corner of the Paragraph panel.

• Above: On the right, lines of copy are kicked down to the next marked baseline on the grid.

To turn the grid on and off, either use View > Grids & Guides > Show/Hide Baseline Grid, or I’d suggest using a keyboard shortcut. You can assign your own if the default doesn’t make sense to you. While you’re at it, assign a similar shortcut to access the baseline grid settings. The dialog you’re looking for is at Edit > Preferences > Grids (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Grids (Mac OS).

• Tip: Open this dialog without any documents open, put in some values. Close. It’s now your default baseline grid setting.

Finally, a few general design concerns: Baseline grids should relate to the overall composition of the piece you produce. If it’s a print piece especially, find a measure and grid increment that relates well to the physical size of the medium. This may be, but isn’t necessarily a dimension derived from the larger document. Don’t be too dogmatic about it though, use your eyes and adjust as needed.

InDesign is quite capable of rendering baseline grids set to increment in fractional units. There’s nothing special about the 6 pt setting above. If 5.718 pt works better, use that.

Letting your body text land on every other or every third grid increment is advisable. When testing your grid, make sure to account for cases such as multi-line bulleted list items.

That’s all for now. Using Type continues here Thursday. Our supporting typeface is Thomas Gabriel’s Premiéra.