Feather text to the bottom of text frames

Understand how to feather (space-out) text in a text frame in Adobe FrameMaker.

When FrameMaker feathers text, it first adds space between paragraphs, up to a limit that you set. If more adjustment is necessary, it adds space between lines, up to another limit that you set. FrameMaker does not feather the text in a text frame in which text runs around graphics.

Figure 1. Before and after feathering

Beforeandafterfeatheringtexttothebottomoftext frames

In a multicolumn text frame that contains straddles—paragraphs, tables, or anchored frames—FrameMaker adds vertical space to align the last baselines of text in adjacent columns above each straddle.

Figure 2. Before and after feathering with straddling

Beforeandafterfeatheringtextwithstraddling

If a document window is active, place the insertion point in the main text flow. If a book window is active, select the documents you want to affect.
Choose Format > Page Layout > Line Layout.
Select Feather, and enter the maximum amount of space FrameMaker can add between lines (Maximum Interline Padding) and between paragraphs (Maximum Inter-Pgf Padding).

FrameMaker will not exceed the padding limits you set. If it’s not possible to feather text in a column without exceeding the limits, FrameMaker does not feather text in that column.
Click Update Flow.

Note: Feathering leaves room for the largest possible descender in the largest font size used in the line, even if no character with such a descender actually appears. If the last line in a column seems too high, check to see whether the column contains a nonprinting character (such as an anchor symbol) in a font that’s larger than that of the surrounding text.