Drawing Straight Lines


Although they're not as flashy or versatile as graphic shapes and frames , lines can serve many useful purposes in well-designed pages. For example, plain ol' vertical rules can be used to separate columns of text in a multicolumn page or the rows and columns of data in a table. Dashed lines are useful for indicating folds and cut lines on brochures and coupons . And lines with arrowheads are handy if you have to create a map or a technical illustration.

InDesign lets you create straight lines with the Line tool and zigzag lines, curved lines, and freeform shapes with the Pen tool. In this chapter, I keep things simple and limit the discussion to the Line tool.

Cross-Reference ‚  

For information about using the Pen tool, see Chapter 26.

To draw a straight line:

  1. Select the Line tool (or press \).

  2. Move the I-beam pointer anywhere within the currently displayed page or on the pasteboard .

  3. Click and hold the mouse button, and while holding down the mouse button, drag in any direction.

    As you drag, a thin, blue line is displayed from the point where you first clicked to the current position of the crosshair pointer. Holding down the Shift key as you drag constrains the line to horizontal, vertical or a 45-degree diagonal.

    Tip ‚  

    To create such constrained lines without holding the Shift key, you can also use the Orthogonal Line tool, which you access by holding on the Line tool and dragging the pointer to the crosshair icon that represents the Orthogonal Line tool in the pop-up menu.

  4. When the line is the length and angle you want, release the mouse button.

    Don't worry too much about being precise when you create a line: You can always go back later and fine-tune it. Figure 10-4 shows a new line.


    Figure 10-4: After you create a line with the Line tool, the active line is displayed either within a rectangular bounding box that has eight resizing handles (if the Selection tool was previously selected; left) or with anchor points at both ends (if the Direct Selection tool was previously selected; right).

    Note ‚  

    When you release the mouse button after creating a line, the line is active. If the Selection tool was previously selected, the line is displayed within a rectangular bounding box, which contains eight resizing handles. If the Direct Selection tool was previously selected, moveable anchor points are displayed at the end of the line. In both cases, you have to change tools if you want to change the shape or size of the bounding box or the line. The Selection tool lets you change the shape of the line's bounding box (which also changes the angle and length of the line) by dragging any of the resizing handles. The Direct Selection tool lets you change the length and angle of the line itself by moving anchor points on the frame. Chapter 11 explains how to resize lines with the Selection tool; see Part V for information about modifying shapes using the Direct Selection tool.

    Tip ‚  

    When you create a line, it takes on the characteristics specified in the Stroke pane (Window Stroke, or F10). When you first open a document, the default line width is 1 point. If you want to change the appearance of your lines, double-click the Line tool and adjust the Weight in the Stroke pane that will appear. If you make this adjustment when no document is open , all new documents will use the new line settings.

When the Line tool is selected, you can create as many new lines as you want. Simply keep clicking, dragging, and releasing. After you create a line, you can modify it (without changing tools) by changing any of the attributes ‚ including weight, style, and start/end shapes ‚ in the Stroke pane.

Cross-Reference ‚  

See Chapter 11 for more about modifying lines.




Adobe InDesign CS Bible
Adobe InDesign CS3 Bible
ISBN: 0470119381
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 344
Authors: Galen Gruman

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