Let’s dive deep into Adobe InDesign to explore a powerful design element: Pull Quotes! If you’re looking to enhance your layouts, break up dense text, and capture your readers’ attention, you’re in the right place.

What Are Pull Quotes?

Pull quotes are concise, impactful excerpts taken directly from your main text. They’re strategically placed within your layout to:

• Break up large blocks of text. Making your content more digestible.
• Highlight key points by drawing attention to crucial information.
• Add visual interest by enhancing the overall aesthetic of your design.
• Serve as teasers to the article and encouraging readers to delve deeper into the content.

Think of them as little nuggets of wisdom or captivating snippets designed to engage your audience.

Creating Effective Pull Quotes in InDesign

Let’s walk through the process of creating a visually appealing pull quote.

Extract and Paste

1. Start by copying a compelling sentence or phrase from your main text.
2. Create a new text frame and paste the selected text into it.

Leverage Text Wrap

1. Instead of threading separate text frames, utilize InDesign’s text wrap feature. This provides greater flexibility and simplifies repositioning.
2. Using the Text Wrap panel, select the “Wrap Around Bounding Box,” “Wrap Around Object Shape,” “Jump Object,” or “Jump to Next Column” options depending on your layout requirements.
3. Use the offset option to create breathing room around your pull quote.

Format for Impact

1. Add quotation marks to enhance visual appeal.
2. Increase the font size of the pull quote to make it stand out (e.g., double the size of your body copy).
3. Adjust the leading (line spacing) to provide adequate breathing room.
4. Turn off the snap to baseline grid to have more control over the leading.
5. Left align your text for better character spacing.

Precise Positioning

1. Use the Text Wrap panel to prevent the pull quote from overlapping the main text.

   

2. Utilize the offset feature to create visual separation.

   

3. Carefully position the pull quote to have equal space on all sides.

Optical Margin Alignment

1. Apply optical margin alignment from the “Story” panel to refine the visual balance of the pull quote.

   

2. By placing the pull quote in a separate text frame, you can apply this setting without affecting the main body copy.

Fine-Tune the Details

1. Experiment with font sizes to achieve the desired emphasis.
2. Adjust the text frame size for a clean, polished look.

Why Text Wrap is Your Friend

Using text wrap instead of threaded text frames offers significant advantages:

• Easily reposition the pull quote without disrupting the flow of the main text.
• Streamlines the design process.

Design Tip?!

Experiment with different font styles, shapes around the pull quotes and colors to further enhance the visual impact of your pull quotes.

Watch our full video tutorial for a step-by-step demonstration! Don’t forget to subscribe to uLearn for more design tips and tutorials.