09 March 2008
InDesign: Turn A Clipping Path Into A Picture Frame
11/03/08 17:49 Filed in: Photoshop
Here's a lesser-known feature of InDesign: the ability to take a clipping path and turn it into a picture frame.
1. A picture of my father-in-law. For those of you who tuned into my last blog, he's the one at who's house I stayed last rainy weekend. Nice place, actually. And proof that moving out of London can be a worthwhile thing to do. He's basically swapped a one-bedroom flat in Hampstead for a five-bedroom house in Sussex, complete with 1/2 acre of land and a swimming pool. Still, I digress...
2. The image is actually a Photoshop document with background removed. It's the way I like to work in InDesign. If I'm preparing a cut-out I will either remove the background in Photoshop or use a layer mask.
In this case I select Object> Clipping Path and choose Alpha Channel from the Type menu. Transparency is automatically selected. You might want to play with the Tolerance and/or Threshold but in this case I'm happy with what I've got.
3. At this point I'm able to use the Direct Selection tool to have a look at the clipping path. Just select it and click in the middle of the image.
4. Now for the interesting bit: simply right-click on the image and the following contextual menu will be revealed (if you don't have a three-button mouse or a Mighty Mouse, simply hold down the Control key and click on the image). It contains the command 'Convert Clipping Path To Frame'. This is interesting because this command is unavailable in any of the standard InDesign menus.
5. And here, with the stoke coloured and thickened up is your new frame.
6. Now you can remove the image and use the frame on its own if this takes your fancy.
1. A picture of my father-in-law. For those of you who tuned into my last blog, he's the one at who's house I stayed last rainy weekend. Nice place, actually. And proof that moving out of London can be a worthwhile thing to do. He's basically swapped a one-bedroom flat in Hampstead for a five-bedroom house in Sussex, complete with 1/2 acre of land and a swimming pool. Still, I digress...
2. The image is actually a Photoshop document with background removed. It's the way I like to work in InDesign. If I'm preparing a cut-out I will either remove the background in Photoshop or use a layer mask.
In this case I select Object> Clipping Path and choose Alpha Channel from the Type menu. Transparency is automatically selected. You might want to play with the Tolerance and/or Threshold but in this case I'm happy with what I've got.
3. At this point I'm able to use the Direct Selection tool to have a look at the clipping path. Just select it and click in the middle of the image.
4. Now for the interesting bit: simply right-click on the image and the following contextual menu will be revealed (if you don't have a three-button mouse or a Mighty Mouse, simply hold down the Control key and click on the image). It contains the command 'Convert Clipping Path To Frame'. This is interesting because this command is unavailable in any of the standard InDesign menus.
5. And here, with the stoke coloured and thickened up is your new frame.
6. Now you can remove the image and use the frame on its own if this takes your fancy.
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