Learn to create visually appealing line elements and shooting stars using various tools and keyboard shortcuts in InDesign. The article guides you step-by-step, from creating dotted lines to changing stroke characteristics, and finally constructing a group of shooting stars.
Key Insights
- The article explains how to use the line tool in InDesign to create different types of lines, including dotted lines and shooting stars. The process involves drawing a line, changing the characteristics of the stroke to obtain the desired line type, and adjusting the size and color as required.
- To create a group of shooting stars, the first line is drawn and then duplicated by clicking and dragging while holding the ALT key. The length and angle of the lines can be adjusted to achieve the desired effect. All the lines are then grouped together to be treated as a single item.
- Keyboard shortcuts are utilized throughout the process, such as pressing W to switch to normal editing mode or preview mode, and V to select the selection tool. The up arrow key is used to nudge elements up slightly, and holding SHIFT while dragging ensures straight lines or maintains the same angle when adjusting line length.
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In this video, we'll be working with lines. So, let's begin by hitting W on the keyboard to go back to normal editing mode.
On this side of the card, we'll be adding a couple line elements. The first will be a series of dotted lines right below our text. In order to do this, let's utilize our line tool.
And, let's simply draw a line. We'll draw it right in the center here. We'll click and drag, and if we hold Shift, we'll see that it drags only straight across.
And, we'll drag it about this size, and release. And, for this line, we actually want a series of circles, rather than a straightforward line. In order to accomplish this, we'll need to change the characteristics of our stroke.
To do this, we'll go to our properties panel. And, within our stroke, we can change it by clicking on the right-hand side of our stroke. And, we'll be selecting either dotted or Japanese dots.
In this case, we'll select Japanese dots. From here, we'll want to increase the size of our stroke to have larger dots. So, we'll go to our stroke, and simply click up.
Until we're happy about the size. We can also change the color of our stroke to white, by double-clicking the stroke color. And, we'll select paper.
In InDesign, white is actually paper, since it means that no ink is being applied to the white paper below. So, let's now select our selection tool. And, we're going to hit V on the keyboard.
And, simply drag our line below. In addition, if we want to change the size of our line, we can do so by dragging on the end of the white box. And, we'll just shorten it up until it's about this size.
Finally, let's line it up to the center, along with everything else that's center aligned. And, here we have our dots. We'll hit W to see a preview of what this looks like.
In my personal preference, I'm going to move the text up by selecting the text. And, dragging it up, we'll hold Shift. And, I also want to drag this line up a little bit.
But, rather than dragging it up using the Selection tool, I'm going to use the up arrow key to nudge it up slightly. I'll click outside, and hit W to preview. And, I think this looks a little bit better.
As our final step on this side, let's create the shooting stars. We'll hit W again. And, let's utilize our line tool to create these shooting stars.
We'll start by clicking right above the rectangle. And, let's have the stars come right down at about this angle. And, we'll release.
And, now let's change the color of this stroke. To do so, we'll double-click the stroke. And, let's choose a yellowish color.
And, I'm going to choose this color right here. And, click OK. Next, we need to duplicate this line.
So, we'll hit V on the keyboard for our selection tool. And, then holding ALT, I'll click and drag to the right-hand side. And, maybe drag it a little lower.
I’ll do this one more time. Holding ALT and drag it just a little bit lower. Next, let's change the length of these lines.
And, just adjust them a little bit to give us a better feel for our shooting stars. If you want to adjust the length of them, you can do so. By dragging up on one of the corners.
And, holding SHIFT to maintain the same angle. In this case, I'll move this one down just a bit. And, I think this looks pretty good as our shooting stars.
Finally, we now want to center these together. So, let's select all three. Clicking one and then holding SHIFT to select the other two.
From here, we now want to group all three lines together. So, that they can together be grouped and treated as one item. To do this, we can right-click and select Group.
Now that they're grouped, if we click outside and select it. We can move the entire object together. Or, if we go into our alignment options, we can align to horizontal center.
In the case of this image, I'll just drag it a little bit to the right. So, that they're coming down a little closer to the center. And, I think this looks good.
Let's hit W to see a preview of this. And, if we need to, we can still make adjustments while in the preview mode. And, I like the look of this right now.
I’ll hit W again to make sure that all of my items are going out past the bleed. We'll hit W again to give it one more look. And, I'm going to make a couple adjustments.
Just dragging the bottom of the rectangle and our two text and line elements. Holding Shift, I’ll move them below. Again, this is just making some minor tweaks.
I’ll move the lines below using the arrow key. And, I like the look of this a little bit better. Finally, I’ll hit W. Making sure everything extends past the bleed.
And, now we've completed this side of the business card. Let's hit CTRL + S on the keyboard to save our work. And, in the next video, we'll work on the other side of our business card.
See you there.