Chapter 26: Drawing Free-Form Shapes and Curved Paths

Overview

InDesign's basic drawing tools let you create basic shapes, such as straight lines, rectangles and squares, circles and ellipses, and equilateral polygons. But what about when you need to create shapes that aren't so basic? An amoeba, perhaps, or a cursive version of your first name ? That's where InDesign's Pen tool comes in. You can use the Pen tool to create any kind of line or closed shape. And anything you create with the Pen tool can be used as an independent graphic element or as a frame for text or a picture.

If you've ever used an illustration program like Illustrator, FreeHand, or CorelDraw, or a page-layout program like PageMaker or QuarkXPress, you may already be familiar with B ƒ zier drawing tools. (B ƒ zier tools are named after Pierre B ƒ zier, a French engineer and mathematician , who developed a method of representing curved shapes on a computer in the 1970s.) If you aren't familiar with B ƒ zier tools, you should know in advance that getting the hang of using them takes a little time and patience. Even if you're a virtuoso when drawing with a piece of charcoal or a Number 2 pencil, you'll need to practice with the Pen tool for a while before your drawing skills will kick in. The good news is that, once you get comfortable using the Pen tool, you can draw any shape you can imagine. (Of course, if you can't draw very well in the first place, using the Pen tool won't magically transform you into an illustrator!) If this is new terrain for you, start simply and proceed slowly.

Tip ‚  

If you intend to use InDesign extensively as a drawing tool, you might want to purchase a drawing tablet, which can make working with the Pen tool a bit easier than using a mouse or trackball .