Change font, size, color, alignment, and spacing

Change text font, size, color, alignment, and spacing

You can format text using these tools:

  • Format bar: If you don’t see the format bar (below the toolbar), choose View > Show Format Bar.

    Format bar below toolbar

  • Text inspector: To open the Text inspector, click Inspector in the toolbar and click the Text Inspector button.

    Text Inspector button at top of Inspector window

  • Fonts window: To open the Fonts window, choose Format > Font > Show Fonts.

  • Format menu: Choose Format > Font > Option or Format > Text > Option.

This table describes which tools you can use to accomplish specific formatting tasks.

To do this

You can use

Change text font or size

  • Format bar

  • Text inspector

  • Fonts window

  • Format menu (choose Format > Font > Bigger or Format > Font > Smaller)

Important: To make sure the fonts in your completed book are displayed correctly, use only fonts in TrueType (.ttf) or OpenType (.otf) format. If you’re not sure what format a font is, preview your book in iBooks to be sure the font looks correct.

Replace a font in a book

  • Format menu (choose Format > Font > Replace a Font)

Make text bold, italic, or underlined

  • Format bar

  • Fonts window

  • Format menu (choose Format > Font > Option)

Add shadow or strikethrough to text

  • Fonts window (adjust shadow opacity, blur, and offset)

  • Format menu (choose Format > Font > Option)

Create outlined text

  • Format menu (choose Format > Font > Outline)

Change text color

  • Format bar

  • Text inspector

  • Fonts window

Change text background color

  • Format bar

  • Fonts window (use the Document Color control)

Make text superscript or subscript

  • Format menu (choose Format > Font > Baseline > Option)

  • Text inspector (click More and type a positive or negative number in the Baseline Shift field)

Change text capitalization

  • Format menu (choose Format > Font > Capitalization > Option)

Change character spacing (tracking)

  • Text inspector

  • Fonts window (choose Typography from the Action pop-up menu, with a gear icon)

Turn off ligatures (on by default)

  • Text inspector (click More and select “Remove ligatures”)

  • Fonts window (choose Typography from the Action pop-up menu, with a gear icon)

Align paragraphs

  • Format bar

  • Text inspector

  • Format menu (choose Format > Text > Option)