Applying Color to Text

Applying Color to Text

Just because you're printing on a four-color printing press or have a color printer doesn't mean you should be getting carried away with coloring text. You want to keep your content legible and unified, but that doesn't have to mean it's all black on white. You'll commonly see color in headlines, banners, subheads, and pull-quotes. However, you'll rarely see color applied to body text.

Colors applied to text are often derived from colors within related graphics or from a publication's traditional palette. In general, the smaller the type, the darker its color should be ‚ with pastels reserved for large text, bright colors for bold text, and dark colors for body text. InDesign lets you make an entire character one color, or make the fill (inside) and stroke (outlines) of a character two different colors, as shown in Figure 19-11. You can even apply gradients to fills and strokes.

Figure 19-11: The episode headline has a 1-point black stroke and a fill color of white.

To color text:

1. Click the Type tool in the Toolbox or press T.

2. Highlight the text you want to color.

3. Click the Fill button or the Stroke button on the Tools palette to specify whether you're coloring the character or its outlines.

4. If necessary, open the color Swatches pane by choosing Window ‚ Swatches or pressing F5.

5. Click a color swatch to apply it to the stroke or fill.

6. To specify the thickness of the stroke, use the Strokes pane (Window ‚ Stroke, or F10) and to apply a gradient to the stroke or fill, use the Gradient pane (Window ‚ Gradient).

   Cross-Reference ‚  

   For information about creating color swatches or working with gradients, see Chapters 8 and 28.