Stroke Outlining In Indesign: A Comprehensive Guide

Adobe InDesign is a powerful tool for creating and editing digital designs. One common question that arises for users is whether it is possible to outline a stroke in InDesign. While it is a common practice, especially in the printing industry, it is generally considered unnecessary and even harmful to the quality of the document. There is currently no direct way to outline a stroke in InDesign, and users are advised to use Adobe Illustrator for this purpose. However, some workarounds exist, such as using the Pathfinder tool to create the effect of an outlined stroke or converting text into outlines using the Type > Create Outlines function.

Converting strokes to shapes in InDesign

Using Adobe Illustrator

One method is to copy the desired object from InDesign and paste it into a new document in Adobe Illustrator. In Illustrator, go to "Object", then "Paths", and select "Outline Strokes". Finally, copy the outlined object and paste it back into your InDesign project. This method is suitable for simple graphics, which will remain in vector format when copied back and forth between the two programs.

Using the Pathfinder Tool

Another approach involves using the Pathfinder tool in InDesign. First, create a circle or any desired shape as a path, not a stroke. Copy and paste the shape in place so that it overlaps the original shape, and make sure the new shape is a different colour. Adjust the size of the new shape so that the original shape appears as a stroke. Once you've decided on the thickness of the "stroke", select both shapes, open the Pathfinder panel, and click "Subtract". This will give you an outlined path.

Recreating the Line as a Shape

If the line you want to outline is a simple rule, not a curve, you can recreate it as a shape within InDesign. Find the length and stroke weight in the control panel. Then, select the frame tool and click on the page to create a new frame. Set the width and height of the frame to match the length and stroke weight of the line. Finally, set the stroke colour to none and adjust the fill as needed.

While these methods can help achieve a similar result to outlining strokes, they are not as straightforward as a native outlining feature would be.

Recreating lines as shapes

If you want to recreate lines as shapes in InDesign, you can do so by following these steps:

Firstly, select the line tool in your toolbar or use the backslash key as a shortcut. Then, click and drag to draw your line. If you want to keep your line perfectly straight or in perfect 45-degree-angle increments, hold down the Shift key while drawing. To draw your line from the centre point instead of one side, hold down the Option key while drawing. To do both – keep it straight and draw from the centre – hold down Shift + Option while drawing.

You can resize and rotate your line by selecting the Selection tool or hitting the letter V on your keyboard. Place your mouse or cursor at the end or beginning of the line until your cursor turns into a curved arrow. Then, click and hold your mouse to rotate the line. To resize your line while keeping both sides symmetrical, hold down the Option/Alt key while resizing.

If you want to create a rectangle, select the rectangle tool from the toolbar or use the keyboard shortcut M. To draw a perfect square, hold down the Shift key while drawing, and it will keep all sides equal. To create a circle, click and hold the rectangle tool icon and select the Ellipse tool, or use the shortcut L. To draw a perfect circle, hold down the Shift key while drawing.

To resize your shapes, click the select tool (shortcut V), then click and drag from the corners or sides. Again, hold Shift to keep the same proportions as the original shape, or hold Option/Alt to resize from both sides at the same time.

To rotate your shape, click the select tool, select the shape, then put your cursor just outside one of the corners until it turns into a curved arrow. Then click and hold and move your mouse to rotate the shape. You can also rotate at a specific angle using the rotate tools at the top of the toolbar.

Using the Pathfinder tool

The Pathfinder tool in InDesign is used to create compound shapes and paths. This tool allows you to combine multiple paths or shapes into a single compound path or shape, with various effects such as adding, subtracting, intersecting, or excluding overlaps. Here's a detailed guide on using the Pathfinder tool:

Creating a Compound Path:

• Use the Selection tool to choose all the paths you want to include in the compound path.
• Navigate to Object > Paths > Make Compound Path.
• A hole will appear wherever the selected paths overlap. You can adjust whether this is a hole or a fill by selecting Object > Paths > Reverse Path or clicking Reverse Path in the Pathfinder panel.

Creating a Compound Shape:

• Select the objects you want to combine into a compound shape.
• Open the Pathfinder panel by navigating to Window > Object & Layout > Pathfinder.
• Click on one of the buttons in the Pathfinder section (such as Add, Subtract, Intersect, or Exclude Overlap) to create the desired effect.
• The resulting compound shape will usually take on the attributes (fill, stroke, transparency, etc.) of the frontmost object. However, when subtracting shapes, the frontmost object is deleted, and the resulting shape takes on the attributes of the backmost object.

Working with Text Outlines:

The Pathfinder tool can also be used with text outlines. By selecting Type > Create Outlines, you can convert text characters into compound paths that can be edited and manipulated. This is particularly useful for creating effects in large display type but is not recommended for body text or smaller sizes.

Breaking Up a Compound Path:

To break up a compound path, you can release it by selecting Object > Paths > Release Compound Path. This will turn each subpath into an independent path, allowing you to work with them separately.

Converting text to outlines

InDesign is a layout program, and it is not meant to outline strokes. If you want to outline a stroke, you can use Adobe Illustrator. You can copy the object from InDesign and paste it into Illustrator, where you can use the "Object > Paths > Outline Strokes" function.

If you want to convert text to outlines in InDesign, you can use the "Type > Create Outlines" function. However, this will not preserve bullets, underlines, strikethroughs, text frame borders, and other formatting.

A better way to convert text to outlines is to use InDesign's transparency flattener to convert the text automatically when you export a PDF. To do this, you will need a custom flattener setting, which you can create by choosing "Edit > Transparency Flattener Presets." Choose "High Resolution" from the Transparency Flattener Presets dialog box and click "New" to create a duplicate of the currently selected preset. Turn on the "Convert All Text to Outlines" checkbox, then give this a suitable name and click "OK" twice.

Now, you need to make sure your pages are going to get flattened. For each spread that contains text that you want to be converted to outlines, put a transparency object on it. If you want to convert every page, you can put this object on your master pages. For example, it could be an object with a Tint of 0.1% and an Opacity of 0.01% off to the side of the page where it will never be seen.

When you export your PDF file, make sure you have Compatibility set to Acrobat 4, which lets you implement the flattener. You could also export each page as an EPS file, which also requires flattening. Select your custom flattener setting in the Advanced pane of the Export PDF dialog box or the Export EPS dialog box. Click "OK."

That's it! All the text in the document (or at least on each spread that has a transparent object) gets converted to outlines, and you don't lose your rules, underlines, bullets, and so on.

Printing outlined text

To print outlined text, one must first outline the fonts in the file. This can be done in Adobe InDesign by highlighting all the text in the document with the Type tool, then going to Type > Create Outlines. After this, go to File > Save As and rename the file accordingly so that it does not get saved over the editable file.

Another way to outline text in InDesign is to use the Transparency Flattener Presets. Go to Edit > Transparency Flattener Presets, then click on the [High Resolution] preset and click "New". Name it "outline" and ensure the "Raster/ Vector Balance" is to the right on vectors. Turn on the "Convert all Text to Outlines" checkbox. Make sure you have transparency on every page of your document. Finally, go to File > Export and save the file as a printable PDF, choosing "PDF x1a" and setting the compatibility to Acrobat 4.

It is important to note that once text has been converted into outlines, it can no longer be edited. Therefore, it is recommended to save the print file with outlined fonts separately from the working file. Additionally, outlined text will result in a larger PDF size since each letter is now a shape.

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