Using proper fractions in your text can make all the difference when it comes to professional appearance. ¼ looks a whole lot better than 1/4. There's an easier way than tweeking the size and baseline adjustment to regular text to achieve proper fractions.

Both Quark and InDesign offer a Glyph palette which allows you to find the fraction glyphs contained in many fonts. Many times though, the font you're using doesn't contain the fraction you need. For instance, many fonts only contain ¼, ½, ¾, and so on.

By far the easiest way is to use OpenType fonts though. You can simply type the fraction normally, then select it and choose Fractions from the OpenType menu from the Character panel in InDesign, or the Character Attributes tab of the Measurements palette in Quark XPress.

In the image above, you can see how much better the fraction on the right looks as compared to the normal text version on the left.