In InDesign, drawn lines are called strokes. The InDesign Stroke panel allows you to give your lines all kinds of characteristics, such as weight (thickness), style (solid, dotted, dashed), and color. You also can add shapes on the ends and size those shapes any way you like.
Learn about the possibilities, beginning with this excerpt from Book Design Made Simple. Also watch our companion video (Scaling arrowheads in inDesign CC2017) about InDesign strokes.
Exploring the InDesign Stroke panel
The color of a stroke is selected in the Swatches panel. However, the Stroke panel is where you’ll choose the weight and type of stroke. Open your Stroke panel at the right of your screen or by clicking Window>Stroke, and it’ll look something like this:
Strokes can be applied to shapes created with shape tools (see chapter 33), to lines created with the Line Tool, Pen Tool, or Pencil Tool (see chapter 34), and even to text and image frames.
Select your shape, line, or frame using your Selection Tool, then select the type and weight of the stroke in the Stroke panel.
You can specify the size of start and end arrowheads and shapes by scaling them independently. Link the start and end sizes by clicking the link icon if you want them to stay proportionate as they are scaled.
Save your favorites!
We hope you have fun experimenting with InDesign strokes. Once you’ve found the right size and type of stroke to use throughout your book, save time and stay consistent by creating an object style for it.
Haven’t learned to use the drawing tools in InDesign yet? We’ve made five videos about drawing nice lines and making shapes in InDesign to give you a boost.
Read more: Using object styles »
Watch a video tutorial: Using InDesign object styles »
The excerpt above is from Book Design Made Simple, Second Edition, chapter 35, Using the Stroke panel, page 272. Copyright © 2017 Fiona Raven and Glenna Collett.
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