Coloring Objects


You can change the color of any selected object by either choosing a color from the Color palette or clicking on a swatch in the Swatches palette.

Fills and Strokes

Objects in InDesign can have both their fill (the color, gradient, or pattern inside an object) and their stroke (the actual lines or borders that define the object) changed. The fill/stroke proxy in the toolbox, the Color palette, and the Swatch palette controls what is being changed. The solid square represents fill, whereas the hollow square represents stroke. Whichever of these is in front controls what is in focus. To make the stroke active when the fill is in front, click the stroke proxy. To make the fill active when the stroke is in front, click the fill proxy.

The Stroke palette lets you change the weight (thickness), corner, and ends of a stroke (if the selected path is closed and has no ends, the start and end options do nothing). You can also choose to align a stroke to the center line, inside, or outside of a path (see Figure 8.44).

Figure 8.44. Choosing to align a stroke to the outside of the path in the Stroke palette.


Working with Swatches

Swatches are a way for you to keep track of which colors are being used in your document. They also help you keep those colors consistent so that all your light blues match each other (because they're applied to your objects with the same swatch).

To create a new swatch, click the New Swatch button at the bottom of the Swatches palette. Adjust the sliders until the color looks just right, and then click the OK button. A new swatch is created. To apply a color to an object, select the object and click on the swatch.

Spot Colors

Two types of colors exist when it comes to printing: process colors and spot colors. Process colors are made by combining various percentages of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (the four standard colors used in color printing). Spot colors are made by using a single ink that is a specific color. If you're creating a design that is black and green, you'll probably want to use a spot color for the green. A popular system for specifying spot colors is the Pantone Color system, and you can define Pantone colors as spot color swatches as well. When you choose to create a spot color from the Color Type pop-up menu in the Swatch Options dialog box, choose a Pantone library from the Color Mode pop-up menu (see Figure 8.45).

Figure 8.45. Choosing a Pantone color library.


Did you Know?

Although you can use any number of spot colors in a document, doing so will result in your printer having to use a different ink for each color, which can cost significantly more than using process colors.


Corner Effects

Corner effects can be used on any corner of any path (the corners on a rectangle, a star, or any path you've drawn with the Pen tool) to give the corners a little more visual interest than a standard corner. Access these settings by choosing Object, Corner Effects.

Transparency Effects

Most objects in InDesign can be made "transparent," which is really to say that you can make them less opaque so that objects below can be viewed through them. Of course, InDesign provides more than just basic opacity controls, but that's what you'll be using the most.

Did you Know?

To see transparency on objects more clearly, choose View, Grids & Guides, Show Document Grid. This puts the grid behind all objects in the document and shows you the difference between tinted objects and partially opaque ones.


In the Transparency palette, you control both opacity (via the Opacity slider) and blending mode (via the pop-up menu). Slide the Opacity slider to the left (toward 0%) to make the selected object more transparent. Experiment with the different blending modes to see the results.

Soft Drop Shadows and Feathers

You can apply drop shadows to any object. To do so, select the object and choose Object, Drop Shadow. Although most of the options are self-explanatory, one isn't: The Blur field controls how fuzzy the edges of the drop shadow are. Increase Blur to make the shadow edges fuzzier (the fuzziness is transparent). You can also add noise to a drop shadow to prevent banding (see Figure 8.46). Remember that drop shadows are object attributes, so you can apply a shadow only to an entire text frame, not individual words.

Figure 8.46. Specifying a noise setting for drop shadows could help reduce banding.


Feathering makes the edges of an object gradually fade transparently into the background. To feather an object, select it and choose Object, Feather.

Object Styles

InDesign CS2 has the capability to define object styles, which enable you to quickly apply object attributes consistently across an entire document. To define an object style, open the Object Styles palette by choosing Window, Object Styles. Then choose New Object Style from the palette menu.

The New Object Style dialog box lets you specify different attributes, or you can select an already-styled object before choosing to create a new style, to have InDesign create a style from that existing object (see Figure 8.47). Object styles can also be applied using the QuickApply feature mentioned earlier.

Figure 8.47. Defining an object style in the New Object Style dialog box.




Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Creative Suite 2 All in One
Sams Teach Yourself Creative Suite 2 All in One
ISBN: 067232752X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 225
Authors: Mordy Golding

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