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Apply color effects to type

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      4. Apply color effects to type
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      10. Add transparency effects
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Discover how to enhance your typography in InDesign with stunning color effects.

Change the color, gradient, or stroke of text

You can apply colors, gradients, and strokes to characters and continue to edit the text. Use the Swatches panel and Stroke panel to apply colors, gradients, and strokes to text, or change Character Color settings when creating or editing a style.

Swatches

A. Swatch affects fill or stroke B. Swatch affects container or text C. Tint percentage 

  1. Do one of the following:

    • To apply color changes to text inside a frame, use the Type tool  to select text.

    • To apply color changes to all text in a frame, use the Selection tool  to select the frame. When applying color to the text rather than the container, make sure that you select the Formatting Affects Text icon  in the Tools panel or in the Swatches panel.

  2. In the Tools panel or in the Swatches panel, select whether you want to apply the color change to the fill or stroke. If you select Stroke, the color change affects only the outline of characters.
  3. Do any of the following:

    • In the Swatches panel, click a color or gradient swatch.

    • In the Stroke panel, specify a weight or other stroke options. (See Stroke panel options.)

You can also apply a gradient to text by dragging across the selected text using either the Gradient Swatch tool  or the Gradient Feather tool .

Note:

To create reverse type, you can change the text fill color to white or [Paper] and the frame’s fill color to a dark color. You can also create reverse type by using a paragraph rule behind text; however, if the rule is black, you’ll need to change the type to white.

Add transparency effects to text

Use the Effects panel to add transparency effects, such as drop shadows, to text.

Mike Rankin provides examples about transparency effects at InDesign Eye Candy, Part I.

  1. Use the Selection tool  to select the text frame.
  2. Choose Object > Effects > [effect].
  3. Choose Text from the Settings For menu.

    You can choose Object if you want the effects you choose to apply to the text frame’s stroke and fill as well as the text inside it.

  4. Specify the effect attributes and click OK.

    If you want to change the text’s blending mode or opacity settings, make these changes on the Effects panel.

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