Text wrap, Photoshop paths, grayscale images. . . I'm just not getting it.

[George_Papoon@adobeforums.com]

Hiya Friends. I'm trying, been trying for weeks in fact, to reproduce a charcoal drawing of some clam shells in an InDesign document. I want to split one drawing into three separate tiffs, and run text around 'em. I don't seem to know what I'm doing; and I certainly don't understand the symptoms I'm encountering. Can anybody point me to a how-to, set of directions, list of gotchas, etc., to help me out?

Symptoms:

I have, as I say, a single, large, grayscale scan of a nice charcoal drawing. I split my original into three, call'em 1.tif, 2.tif, 3.tif. I adjust tonal values using curves, resize, sharpen, target, and import into InDesign. I've blasted the background out so I can run text up close against the edges of my clam shells.

Same process, repeated three times, three quite different results. As I say, I followed the exact same steps three times, and don't understand the different results, which are: text runs around, but background of tif surprints text box; text runs around but edge of clam shell cut off very abruptly, with no smooth transition at the edge of the drawing as in the other two instances; text runs around clam shell just like the doctor ordered.

Near as I can tell I'm following identical procedures in Photoshop, and trying to maintain the exact same object specs in InDesign: my picture frames are all formatted using object styles, and the text frame is positioned as the top element on the page.

Actually, I have a fourth drawing in this document, and in that instance I didn't even need to draw a Photoshop path to demarcate the text boundary: InDesign was able to recognize the edge of the drawing without any problem. I adopted the Photoshop path technique in response to some suggestions that were made in response to one of my earlier postings on here on this topic.

What I really need is a set of point-by-point instructions, with information about the necessary settings (picture frame settings, text frame settings, relationship to one another, etc.). Can anybody point me to such a thing, or even create one, if one doesn't exist? I'm baffled here.

[George_Papoon@adobeforums.com]

Hours trial and error, and dozens of examples later, I give up: InDesign can't actually handle text wraps, certainly not reliably or transparently (in the sense that the user can figure out wtf is going on).

This is another bug, isn't it?

A year and a half after switching to InDesign, and I still can't do very basic things that I have been doing in Quark for ten years. I'm thinking I may have made a big mistake in leaving QXP behind.

[Kenneth_Lasley@adobeforums.com]

Create your image in Photoshop and keep your background transparent, save it as a PSD file. Place the PSD file into InDesign. Now choose Object>Clipping path>Detect edges or if you have created a clipping path in Photoshop select photoshop path. When your image is positioned where you want it, go to Window>Text Wrap palette> Select the third option wrap around object shape. You may have to do some manual adjustment on it, but that should get you in the ballpark.

Ken

[Nini Tjäder]

InDeisgn can handle text wraps and transparency. I wouldn't say that QXP can and certainaly not that QXP can handle it reliably.

There are two good pdf papers that come with InDesign or can be downlaoded from Adobes website that handles transparency and how to work with it. One is called "Designer's Guide to Transparency.pdf" and the other "Getting Started with Transparency.pdf".

As for textwraps use the Text wrap palette to set the basics for the wrap, and the direct selection tool to fine-tune it. You can also experiment with the statcking order and layers to get it the way you want it and in the order you want things to happen.

You might also want to download the 10MB pdf "QuarkXPress to InDesign CS2 Conversion Guide (PDF, 10.8M ) Get answers to common questions and dozens of tips with this comprehensive guide for QuarkXPress users." which you can find here < <http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/pdfs/idcs2cguide.pdf>>.

And go to this page < <http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/indepth.html>> for some further in depth info. You wil also find the pdfs about transparency there.

[George_Papoon@adobeforums.com]

Thanks to both of you for your helpful answers. Fiddling with the clipping path controls in InDesign did the trick, and I've been able to get my job off to press as a result.

I already have a copy of The Designer's Guide to Transparency printed out & on my reference shelf, and it has been helpful (though in another context) already. The "indepth" link was new to me, however.

[Kenneth_Lasley@adobeforums.com]

Great, glad you figured it out.

Ken