Legal Book InDesign Paragraph Styles Setup

InDesign Paragraph Styles Setup (Legal Book System)
1. Base Setup (Do This First)
Document:
Facing Pages
Margins:
Top: 20 mm
Bottom: 22 mm
Inside: 25 mm
Outside: 18 mm
Baseline Grid:
Start: 0 mm
Increment: 14 pt
Then:
Preferences → Grids → Align to Baseline Grid (Body text only)
2. Paragraph Styles (Create in This Order)
[00] Body Base (Foundation Style)
Font: Minion Pro / Garamond / Times New Roman
Size: 10.5 pt
Leading: 14 pt
Alignment: Justified
Hyphenation: ON
Space After: 6 pt
This is your parent style for everything.
[01] Chapter Title
Based on: None
Font: Same serif
Size: 16 pt
Leading: 20 pt
Case: ALL CAPS
Tracking: +120
Alignment: Center
Space Before: 60 pt
Space After: 24 pt
[02] Chapter Heading (Main Title)
Font: Serif Bold
Size: 18 pt
Leading: 22 pt
Alignment: Center
Space After: 32 pt
[03] Section Heading (3.1, 3.2)
Based on: Body Base
Font: Bold
Size: 12 pt
Space Before: 18 pt
Space After: 8 pt
Keep with next:
[04] Subsection Heading
Font: Bold Italic
Size: 11 pt
Space Before: 14 pt
Space After: 6 pt
[05] Body Text
Based on: Body Base
(No change — this is your main text)
[06] Numbered List
Based on: Body Base
Bullets & Numbering:
Style: 1, 2, 3
Left Indent: 10 mm
First Line Indent: -5 mm
[07] Bulleted List
Bullet: •
Left Indent: 10 mm
Spacing: 4 pt after
[08] Footnote Text
Font: Same serif
Size: 8.5 pt
Leading: 11 pt
Alignment: Justified
Space After: 3 pt
Go to:
Type → Document Footnote Options
Numbering: 1,2,3
Position: Below text
Separator: line (0.5 pt)
[09] Block Quote / Citation
Font: Italic
Size: 10 pt
Left Indent: 10 mm
Right Indent: 5 mm
Space Before/After: 10 pt
[10] Table Text
Font: Same serif
Size: 9 pt
Leading: 12 pt
Table Style:
No heavy borders
Stroke: 0.25 pt grey
[11] Header (Running Head)
Font: Sans (Inter)
Size: 9 pt
Alignment:
Left page → Left
Right page → Right
Color: Grey (#777)
[12] Footer (Page Number)
Font: Serif
Size: 9 pt
Center or outer corner
3. Automatic Numbering (Important)
Multi-level List (For Legal Structure)
Go to: Type → Bulleted & Numbered Lists → Define Lists
Create: “Legal Structure”
Then apply:
Section Heading → 1, 2, 3
Subsection → 1.1, 1.2
Sub-sub → 1.1.1
4. Master Pages Setup
A-Master:
Header (book title / chapter name)
Footer (page number)
Margins locked
B-Master (Chapter Start):
No header
More top spacing
5. GREP Styles (Pro Level – Optional but Powerful)
Inside Body Text → GREP:
Automatically bold sections like:
“(a)”, “(b)”
Pattern:

\([a-z]\)
6. Export Settings (KDP Ready)
Print PDF:
Preset: PDF/X-1a
Marks: Crop + Bleed
Color: CMYK
EPUB:
Reflowable
Split document: Heading style
Remove overrides
Final Result
Once this is set:
You can import a 500-page Word file
Apply styles in minutes
Auto-generate:
TOC
Footnotes
Index