An Introduction to 'In Design'

Alan Rolfe, University of West London, Ealing, London

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Arranging text and Images

Before reading this section you should have covered 'Getting text on to a page' and 'Getting images on to a page'.

The essence of Desktop Publishing (DTP) is the juxtaposition of text and images on a page, or a series of pages, to create a booklet, flyer, magazine or whatever you want. This section will show you how to combine text and images to produce the layout you want with the minimum of fuss, and to do it in such a way that making changes later on is easier to do.

Creating a framed page

The most straightforward way of arranging your text and pictures is to create a page of empty frames before importing any content. This is easy to do, and generally works very well.

empty framesfull frames

Text Wrapping

What the above method doesn't allow you to do is text wrapping. This is the process of allowing text to flow around an image, or even another text block, as below:

wrap example

This gives you more flexibility in the placement of pictures and also, as we will see later, provides the opportunity to shape text around non-rectangular frames.

Basic text wrapping

Click on 'Window/Text Wrap' to bring up the Text Wrap palette:

text wrap

Use the Selection Tool select toolto select the object you wish to be wrapped (i.e. if you are wrapping around an image, select the image, not the surrounding text).

Of the 5 icons along the top of the Text Wrap palette, choose the second one ("Wrap Around Bounding Box"). Then, in the four boxes below, enter your required stand-offs for top, bottom, left and right. These represent the minimum gap between the object and the surrounding text.

Tighter control

For better control over the way the text wraps around your object, select the third option from the top row ("Wrap Around Object Shape"). This brings up a further selection under the heading "Contour Options":

text wrap 2

 

It is suggested here that you select the option "Bounding Box" and manipulate the box manually. You may experiment with the other options at leisure.

Choosing "Bounding Box" and selecting the 'Direct Selection' tool direct toolgives you a view like this:

pic with bounding box

In this picture ann offset has been applied to all four sides to make clear the difference between the bounding box (blue) and the edges of the image (in brown). It is now possible to manipulate the bounding box to a non-rectangular shape. Use the Direct Selection Tool direct toolto move the nodes, and the Pen Tool pen tool to add nodes where required. You can then create an effect like this:

irregular box

This looks better without the frame edges:

irregular box without edges

Ignoring text wrap

The usual result of text wrapping an object is to exclude all text from within the wrapping area. Sometimes, however, you might want to have some text which is supposed to go inside the wrapping area, or even across the boundary. A caption is a good example of this.

To achieve this, select the text you wish to go 'inside the box' using the Selection Tool select tool. This has to be a whole text frame, so you may wish to create it first on a blank area of the page. Then select 'Object/Text Frame Options' and tick the small box marked 'Ignore Text Wrap'. This will now let you position this text anywhere on the page, irrespective of any text wrap applied.

wrapped pic with caption


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