How to Bold Text in InDesign 2025

When writing text you may want to emphasize a certain word, number, or phrase. You can do that by bolding the text. We use bold to grab the reader’s attention. Using InDesign bold text, you can make certain words or phrases stand out from the surrounding text.

How to Bold Text in InDesign Files with PDFelement

Before we talk about how to bold text in InDesign, let's talk about what happens when you export the document to PDF to make some edits. If the recipient of the document does not have InDesign, he will not be able to make adjustments and edits. But by converting to PDF and using a valid PDF software, you can easily edit documents, add annotations, and much more. PDFelement is one of the leading PDF software products on the market.

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With a price tag that is much more affordable than rival companies like Adobe, PDFelement offers robust and smart solutions for all of your PDF-related issues. You can use it on both Windows and Mac operating systems, giving you a universal product.

You can create PDF files, merge PDF files, convert files to PDF and vice versa, and then edit the documents. Do you need to create PDF forms? PDFelement allows you to seamlessly create forms with all types of interactive form controls. And in terms of editing, there are many options. Here are some of the key features:

• Edit text, change size, font, bold text, underline text, and much more.
• Add annotation tools like sticky notes, comments, stamps, page numbers, header, footer, and more.
• Protect your PDF document with password and permission restriction.
• Redact sensitive content.
• Add watermarks and backgrounds to your PDF document.
• Crop, insert, and merge PDF pages.
• Edit images by adding, removing, pasting, rotating, replacing, and more.

With that in mind, we want to show you how to bold text within an InDesign file in PDFelement. Here is a quick tutorial.

Step 1. Open the InDesign File

Open the InDesign file by clicking "Open Files", or just simply drag and drop it into the program.

Step 2. Bold Text in InDesign File

Go to the "Edit" tab and click on the "Edit" button located in the upper left corner.

With your mouse, select the text you want to bold. A new pop up window will appear over the selected text. Click on "Bold".

Step 3. Annotate Text

It also offers other annotation options, including adding comments, highlighting text, underlining text, or adding sticky notes. Text boxes, stamps, and personalized drawing tools allow you to easily edit your document in a number of ways. Just go to the "Comment" tab to access these features.

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How to Bold Text in InDesign Directly

If you have access to InDesign, you can bold text directly in the app as well. You have to utilize the app's keyboard shortcuts. They allow you to work quickly, and you do not have to rely on a mouse or touchpad. Here is a quick guide for bolding text in InDesign.

1. Open the application, and then highlight the text you want to bold.
2. Press Command + Shift + B (Mac OS), or Ctrl + Shift + B (Windows OS). Some fonts have a built-in bold typeface, and they will be automatically bolded. However, if they do not, you’ll need to format it.
3. You can bold the font or make it thicker by adding weight. Highlight the desired text using your cursor, and then press F10 to show the stroke panel. From the drop-down menu, select "Weight", and then select a thicker weight that makes the text look bold. You can start with the smallest weight, and go from there until you reach the desired thickness.
4. Last, press F6 to show the color panel, and select "stroke.” Here, you can make sure it is set to the same color as the font.
5. Some fonts contain more than one variation of Bold. Go to "Type Style" to see what is available. Some fonts have an "extra bold" option, or "condensed bold.” The first one is thicker, while the latter has smaller width between letters. There is also an option of "extended bold", with larger width between letters.

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