Vertical Text

How to set Japanese, Chinese and Korean vertical text (tategumi), plus tate-chu-yoko, emphasis marks, ruby and right-bound books.

Making a vertical text frame

Vertical text is set per text frame. Lines run from top to bottom, and lines and columns are placed from right to left.

1. Select the text frame with the Select tool (not while editing).
2. In the Attributes tab's Text section, set Direction to Vertical. Click Horizontal to switch back.

Threaded frames (a chain) follow the direction of the first frame — changing it on a later frame changes the whole chain. Columns, insets, text wrap and text inside shapes work in vertical text too. Table cells choose their direction one by one (select the cells, then Inspector › Text › Direction). Vertical text on a path stands kanji and kana upright along the path and lays Latin letters on their side (tate-chu-yoko, emphasis marks, ruby and underlines follow the vertical rules). In vertical text, a table longer than the line is split by rows into blocks placed side by side to the left within the same line. A row longer than the line is split between lines of its cell text, and a cell merged across several rows is broken between rows too, its text continuing in the next block.

To start a new layout as a vertical book, choose Vertical (right-to-left binding) for Writing Direction in the web portal's new layout dialog. The primary text frames are created vertical and the layout is right-bound (see "Right binding"). If a Word manuscript's section text direction is vertical (top to bottom, right to left), Import Manuscript makes a new frame vertical; when placing into the body frames, the report tells you the manuscript is vertical.

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Editing vertical text

Double-click a vertical frame to edit it as usual. The caret is a horizontal bar and the arrow keys follow the screen — ↓/↑ move to the next/previous character, ← to the next line and → to the previous line. The composition window of Japanese and Chinese input methods also opens vertically.

Kanji, kana and Hangul stand upright; Latin letters and digits lie sideways (the Unicode vertical orientation rules). Punctuation (、。「」 etc.) and the long-vowel mark switch to their vertical shapes. Footnotes sit at the left end of the column, and you can click a footnote to edit it in place. Inline objects (images, shapes) stay upright in the line instead of rotating. In vertical text a drop cap sits at the top of the paragraph and spans the set number of lines from the right.

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Vertical glyphs and fonts

Vertical text uses the font's own vertical glyphs. For fonts that support vertical writing, such as Noto Sans JP and Noto Serif JP, those glyphs are loaded when vertical text is set and appear the same on screen and in the PDF. Fonts you upload are prepared the same way automatically if they contain vertical glyphs.

For fonts without vertical glyphs, punctuation is drawn with Unicode vertical presentation forms and small kana are shifted slightly. Shapes or positions may be off depending on the font. The pre-output check reports this as Font without vertical glyphs — punctuation in vertical text uses substitute shapes.

While editing vertical text, turn on Prop. in the Character section to tighten upright punctuation such as 、。 with the font's vertical proportional widths (vpal, InDesign's proportional metrics). In horizontal text, the Proportional metrics row of the same section tightens brackets and kana with the font's horizontal proportional widths (palt).

Chinese vertical text uses a font that matches the text's language: Noto Sans TC or Noto Serif TC for Traditional, Noto Sans SC or Noto Serif SC for Simplified. All of them have vertical glyphs. Even with vertical glyphs, Traditional fonts put 。，、 in the centre of the cell, while Simplified and Japanese fonts put them at the top right. So if Traditional vertical text uses a Simplified or Japanese font, the punctuation is not in the Taiwanese position. Preflight reports this as Font does not match Simplified/Traditional Chinese — punctuation position differs. Zhuque Fangsong has no vertical glyphs and is not suited to vertical text.

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Tate-chu-yoko and character orientation

Tate-chu-yoko sets short numbers or Latin letters horizontally inside one cell of vertical text. If the run is wider than one cell (1em), it is compressed horizontally to fit.

1. While editing vertical text, select the characters to set horizontally (e.g. 12).
2. Choose Tate-chu-yoko from the right-click menu. If the selection is already tate-chu-yoko, the menu shows Remove tate-chu-yoko.

You can also toggle it with the Tate-chu-yoko button in the Attributes tab's Character section. To avoid selecting short numbers one by one, choose a digit count (2–4) in Layout Setup › Language › Auto tate-chu-yoko; runs of digits up to that length become tate-chu-yoko automatically (with 2 digits, the 12 in 第12章 is set horizontally while 2026 is not).

Character orientation is Auto (Unicode rules), Upright (Latin letters stand upright one by one) or Sideways (even kanji lie sideways). Tate-chu-yoko and character orientation appear in the Character section only while editing vertical text and have no effect in horizontal text. You can also put them in a character style in the Vertical text · emphasis section of the style settings dialog.

With tate-chu-yoko characters selected, the Character section shows a TCY position row. Left/right and Up/down move the group by a percentage of the type size (+ = right, down).

To turn letters and digits into full-width characters that stand one per cell, select them and choose Full/Half Width › To Full Width from the right-click menu (To Half Width reverses it; kana stays as is).

To choose a variant glyph of a kanji (for example 辻 with one or two dots), put the caret after the character and right-click › Glyph variants…. The font's variants are shown; choosing one adds a variation selector after the character (the character itself stays, so search and copy see the base character). The PDF gets the same glyph.

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Emphasis marks

Emphasis marks (kenten) are marks placed on each character. They are half size, above the character in horizontal text and to the right in vertical text, and they skip punctuation and spaces. In Chinese text, unless a position is set, they go below the character in horizontal text (see “Chinese Typesetting”).

Select the characters and choose one of Sesame ﹅, Open sesame ﹆, Dot •, Circle ○, Filled circle ● or Triangle ▲ in Emphasis marks in the Attributes tab's Character section. None removes them. Marks on the first line show and print even when they stick out above the frame (to the right in vertical text).

Choose Custom mark… and type the character to use in the mark field. Characters with emphasis marks get one more settings row — Over or Under (right or left in vertical text), size (percent of the body type size, 50% by default) and offset (percent outward from the body em box). If ruby or an underline is on the same side, the marks go outside them.

In vertical text the underline is a bōsen drawn to the right of the characters by default. To draw it on the left, set the Underline position to Below · vertical left (in the Character section while editing underlined text).

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Ruby

Ruby (furigana) is a small reading set above the base characters (to the right in vertical text). It does not increase the line spacing.

1. While editing, select the base characters (e.g. 漢字).
2. Choose Ruby… from the right-click menu.
3. Type the reading in Ruby and choose the Type.
• Group ruby — one block over the whole selection. The line never breaks inside it.
• Mono ruby — a separate reading for each character. Separate the readings with spaces (東京 → とう きょう). If the number of readings differs from the number of characters, it is set as group ruby.
• Bopomofo (注音) — Taiwanese Bopomofo (zhuyin). In horizontal text it is stacked vertically to the right of the character (see “Chinese Typesetting”).
4. If needed, set Size (percent of the base size, 50 by default) and Overhang adjacent kana, then confirm.

When the ruby is longer than the base text, it may overhang the neighbouring kana by up to half a ruby character; any remainder spreads the base characters evenly. Put the caret in ruby text and open Ruby… to edit it, or remove it with Remove Ruby. Characters typed right after the ruby are not added to it; characters typed inside it extend the base text. Ruby in Word manuscripts (phonetic guide) is imported as ruby, and EPUB exports it as ruby.

Align applies when the ruby is shorter than the base text: 1:2:1 (JIS) (default), Center, Start, End or Justify. Set Position to Below (vertical: left) to put the ruby below the line (to the left in vertical text). At the start and end of a line, overhanging ruby is pulled inside the line, and when a ruby character also has emphasis marks, the marks go outside the ruby. The alignment of Word phonetic guides is imported too. When you copy or search text in the PDF, ruby and emphasis marks are left out and only the base text comes through.

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Warichu

Warichu is an inline note set as two small lines in the space of one body line. Japanese typesetting uses it for short explanations inside the text.

1. While editing, select the text to set as warichu.
2. Choose Warichu… from the right-click menu.
3. Set Size (percent of the body type size, 50 by default) and Line gap (percent of the body type size, 0 by default), then confirm.

The selection is split where the two lines are most even, filling the upper line first, and the two lines sit centred in the body characters' em box. Lines also sets three or four lines (reduce the size with it). At the end of a line the warichu splits and continues on the next line, and each line's share is divided evenly again. In vertical text the right-hand line comes first. Put the caret in warichu and open Warichu… to edit it, or turn it back into normal text with Remove Warichu. EPUB exports it as small text.

Line alignment puts shorter lines at the start, center or end of the box, or justifies them, and Brackets adds （ ） or 〔 〕 at body size before and after the block (the brackets are left out when you copy text from the PDF).

You can also turn warichu on and then type. With nothing selected, open Warichu… at the caret and confirm: the characters you type next go into the warichu. To return to the normal size, choose End Warichu Input from the right-click menu or move the caret elsewhere. Characters typed right after an existing warichu are always normal size.

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Jidori (fit to characters)

Jidori spreads a short piece of text, such as a heading or a table-of-contents entry, evenly over a set number of character widths (for example a three-character heading over five characters).

1. While editing text, select the text to fit.
2. Right-click and choose Jidori…, then set Width in characters (in steps of 0.5).

The first character sits at the start, the last at the end, with equal gaps between them. A single character is centred. If the text is longer than the width, the characters are squeezed horizontally. The width is a multiple of the run's first character size, and lines don't break inside the run. It works in vertical text too, and EPUB gets an evenly justified box of that width. To change it or undo it with Remove Jidori, put the caret in the run and open Jidori… again.

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Tsume (glyph tightening)

Tsume (文字ツメ) tightens text by removing a percentage of the empty space before and after each glyph's ink. Unlike tracking, the amount differs per character — kana, brackets and punctuation with narrow ink tighten a lot, while kanji that fill their cell hardly change. Use it to set headings and display text tightly.

1. While editing text, select the text to tighten.
2. In the Character section of the Attributes tab, enter 0–100% in Tsume (100% = remove all of the side space).

The Tsume field appears when the layout language is Japanese or Chinese, or when the selected text already has a value. It is also in the Vertical text · emphasis tab of the character style dialog and in the Character section of title text. In vertical text it trims the space above and below upright characters. The space is measured from the font's actual glyph ink, so the same percentage gives different results in different fonts, and the screen and the PDF place glyphs the same way. Spaces, characters with tate-chu-yoko, ruby, warichu or jidori, and joined dashes are not tightened. Combined with proportional metrics, the space left after the proportional widths is trimmed. Tsume is not carried into EPUB.

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Right binding

Vertical books are bound on the right and turn from right to left. In the Layout panel shown when nothing is selected, choose Left binding or Right binding under Binding.

With right binding the first page of each spread is on the right — page 1 stands alone on the left, and the next spread has page 2 on the right and page 3 on the left. Changing it re-places the pages in spreads and moves objects with their pages. Body frames that fill the margins move to the inside and outside margins of their new side; objects you moved or resized stay where they are. ⌘/Ctrl+Z undoes it in one step.

A right-bound layout gets a right-to-left reading direction in the PDF, and the EPUB also turns from right to left. If the body text is vertical, the whole EPUB is exported as vertical text. In Reader mode, ← goes to the next page and pages turn from right to left. The KDP check expects odd pages on the left in a right-bound book.

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