Create and adjust text margins

You can create a custom margin using the Margins controls in the Layout pane of the Text Inspector or by activating a paragraph-style text-entry field in the Canvas.

For information on creating text with margins in the Canvas, see Add text.

Create text margins in the Inspector

  1. Select the Text tool in the toolbar, click in the Canvas, then enter some text.

    When the Text tool is selected, clicking in the Canvas (without dragging) creates a blank text layer with the Layout Method set to Type.

  2. In the Layout pane of the Text Inspector, set Layout Method to Paragraph.

  3. In the Margins section of the Layout pane, adjust the sliders to set the left, right, top, and bottom margins.

  4. Press Esc or click the Select/Transform tool to exit text-editing mode.

Adjust text margins without scaling the text

When you add paragraph-style text with adjustable margins (or import a text file from another application) you can resize the margins of the text-entry field in the Canvas without affecting the scale of the text. (For information about adding paragraph-style text with margins, see Add text.)

With the Text tool selected, Layout Method set to Paragraph in the Layout pane, and a text layer selected, do one of the following:

  • In the Canvas, drag a text-entry field’s onscreen scale handle.

    Note: Do not use the Select/Transform tool to resize text margins. When you exit text-entry mode (by pressing Esc or selecting a tool from the toolbar), a standard object bounding box appears around the text. If you resize standard a text bounding box (by dragging one of its scale handles), the text is resized, not just the width of the bounding box.

    Canvas showing text entry field resized with Text tool
  • In the Layout pane of the Text Inspector, adjust the Margins controls.

    Layout pane of the Text Inspector showing margin controls

    Note: When text is deleted from a paragraph, the paragraph margins remain in their original locations.