Select Window > Type & Tables > Character to open the Character panel.
Last updated on
Jun 2, 2026
Learn how to apply character and paragraph formatting to text selections or insertion points in Adobe InDesign.
InDesign provides multiple ways to format text, each suited to different workflows. Text formatting applies at two levels: character formatting (font, size, color) and paragraph formatting (alignment, indents, spacing). You can apply formatting through the Control panel or the dedicated Character and Paragraph panels. For consistent formatting across multiple text instances, use character and paragraph styles instead of manual formatting.
Access dedicated formatting panels
Select Window > Type & Tables > Paragraph to open the Paragraph panel.
Use the panel menu icons to access additional formatting options that aren't visible in the default view.
Format text using the Control panel
Select the Type tool.
Place the insertion point in the text or drag to select specific characters or paragraphs you want to format.
In the Control panel (Window > Control), select the Character Formatting Controls icon or the Paragraph Formatting Controls icon to access the appropriate formatting options.
Set your formatting options using the controls displayed.
Formatting scope is based on your selection. Inserting or selecting text or selecting a text frame produces different results. To format all text in an unthreaded frame without selecting it, use the Selection tool to select the frame itself, then apply formatting.
Apply a character style to a drop cap
Drop caps enlarge the first character or characters of a paragraph. Apply a character style to a drop cap to customize its appearance and ensure consistent formatting across paragraphs, either directly or through a paragraph style.
Select the paragraphs where you want to apply the formatted drop cap or place the cursor in a single paragraph.
Select Type > Paragraph.
Select the panel menu icon and then select Drop Caps and Nested Styles.
In the Lines field, set how many lines tall the drop cap should be.
In the Characters field, set how many characters to format as drop caps.
Select your character style from the Character Style dropdown menu. If the required character style does not exist, select New Character Style to create one.
If the drop cap appears too far from the left edge, select Align Left Edge to use the character's original side bearing.
If the drop cap overlaps text below it, select Scale for Descenders to adjust spacing.
Select OK.
Create hanging punctuation
Punctuation and angled letters can make text edges appear uneven. Optical Margin Alignment allows these characters to hang outside the margins, creating a cleaner visual edge. This setting applies to the entire story across all threaded frames. For best results, match the setting to your body text size, with optional paragraph-level overrides.
Select a text frame or select anywhere in the story.
Select Type > Story.
Select Optical Margin Alignment in the Story panel.
Enter a value that matches the size of your body text in the font size field.
To turn off Optical Margin Alignment for a specific paragraph, select Ignore Optical Margin from the Paragraph panel menu or the Control panel menu.
Formatting scope
InDesign applies formatting based on what you select:
- No selection, no active insertion point: Formatting becomes the default for all new text frames created in the current document.
- Insertion point placed in text: Formatting applies to text typed after the insertion point.
- Text selected: Formatting applies only to the selected characters or paragraphs.
- Frame selected with Selection tool: Formatting applies to all text within that frame (unthreaded frames only).
For paragraph formatting, you don't need to select the entire paragraph. Selecting anywhere within the paragraph or selecting any portion applies the formatting to the whole paragraph.
Formatting hierarchy
When multiple formatting methods apply to the same text, InDesign uses this precedence order (highest to lowest):
- Character attribute overrides (manual formatting applied directly to text)
- Character style
- Paragraph attribute overrides
- Paragraph style
- CJK grid attributes (frame grid or named grid settings)
- Application default settings
This hierarchy means manually applied formatting always takes precedence over styles. To see which styles apply to text and identify overrides, check the Character Styles and Paragraph Styles panels.
Note
For setting default formatting for all future documents, close all open documents before specifying text settings. These become application-wide defaults.
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