First Line Indent

[Hangman]

I'm unsure whether this is expected behaviour or would be considered a bug...

With left-ranged and centred text there is no limit to the value that can be set for the First Line Indent, i.e., the first line can extend beyond both the text frame and page margin effectively becoming a Right Outdent rather than an Indent...

With right-ranged text, even though the value that can be set isn't restricted the First Line Indent itself is restricted to the Text Frame...

Word, Apple Pages and Google Docs don't allow the First Line Indent to extend beyond the Text Frame or Page Margin which makes sense so I just wanted to clarify whether the behaviour in Affinity apps is expected or whether it should restrict First Line Indents to the Text Frame in a similar fashion...

[MikeTO]

I think I've reported this issue before but in a different way. IMO, Affinity should do a better job fitting the first word when First Line > Column Width, but I don't think it should try to limit the value of First or Last Line. In a word processor, column width is a paragraph attribute so it can limit first/last line to logical values but Affinity can't do this because a story might start in a narrow column on page 1 and continue in a wider column on page 2. And when you edit a text style as you've done, Affinity has no idea what the column width will be.

Using first line indent with left aligned, centre aligned, or justified text (left screenshot), Affinity renders the first character of each paragraph on the first line which will result in that first character being rendered outside of the frame. Using first line indent with right aligned text (right screenshot), Affinity renders the first character inside the frame on the first line. All alignment options result in a bad outcome, no user would want this even if it's their own fault in choosing these settings.

Apple Pages is a hybrid app so you can create a layout doc that works more like Affinity. If you create a layout doc and draw a frame that is X wide, Pages won't let you set First Line to more than X - ~0.25. But if you add/remove text to shift that text to a narrower frame, say one that is half the width of X, you'll have the same situation as Publisher. When this happens, Pages renders the first word inside the frame, effectively overriding first line indent to avoid the impossible fit condition. IMO, this is what Affinity should do. The first word should be on the first line and rendered inside the frame, not just the first character.

This is off topic, but here's an interesting filler text quirk that confused me for a moment while looking at this. It's of zero importance and I'm sharing it only to save somebody else from doing the same thing and being confused, too.

1. Insert filler text as filler text
2. Set alignment = right and first line > frame width. All but the first paragraph will have one character on the first line. The first paragraph will have no characters on the first line
3. Expand the field - now the first paragraph will have one character on the first line. This is just a quirk of fields and doesn't matter.

[Hangman]

In both Word and Pages the First Line Indent honours the Margins set for the document but to try and mirror Publisher a little closer using a text frame both still limit the First Line Indent to the Text Frame itself, i.e., neither won't allow you to enter a value greater than the width of the text frame, unlike Publisher which allows and honours any value, e.g., 10 million inches...

Apple Pages - Ranged Left - Left | Ranged Right - Right

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

I don't think it should try to limit the value of First or Last Line.

I've been trying to think of a use-case scenario for this and I can't think of one...

 

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

Apple Pages is a hybrid app so you can create a layout doc that works more like Affinity. If you create a layout doc and draw a frame that is X wide, Pages won't let you set First Line to more than X - ~0.25. But if you add/remove text to shift that text to a narrower frame, say one that is half the width of X, you'll have the same situation as Publisher. When this happens, Pages renders the first word inside the frame, effectively overriding first line indent to avoid the impossible fit condition. IMO, this is what Affinity should do. The first word should be on the first line and rendered inside the frame, not just the first character.

I agree which was the main reason for raising this to try and understand whether the current behaviour is by design or effectively a bug...

2 hours ago, MikeTO said:

This is off topic, but here's an interesting filler text quirk that confused me for a moment while looking at this. It's of zero importance and I'm sharing it only to save somebody else from doing the same thing and being confused, too.

This is in effect because you are restricted as to where the caret can be placed with unexpanded filler text, i.e., it can only appear before the first character (or after the last character) and because you can apply any value to the First Line Indent instead of the value being restricted...

When you look at the caret's position (by inserting it in the text before or after) and then applying a first-line indent greater than the frame width it makes no practical sense...

[NathanC]

Hi @Hangman,

I would agree that the first line indent not being restricted to the frame on left aligned text only is more likely to be a bug, particularly as this behaviour isn't mirrored with the the right aligned text. I'll log this with the developers for further investigation and will report back if there is any feedback.

[Hangman]

Hi @NathanC,

Thanks for investigating, it would be good to hear the feedback from the Developers so we know what is and isn't expected behaviour...

Many thanks