March 16, 2010

How to Make Variable Rounded Corners the Correct Way in InDesign

Del.icio.us   Technorati   Digg   StumbleUpon

Word of Warning: "Rounded Corners" are handled differently in Adobe InDesignCS4. Depending on how you created them in earlier versions of InDesign, they may not appear correctly in InDesign CS4.

Here is the challenge: In Adobe CS and CS2 designers wanted to create text frames or graphic boxes that only had one, two or even three rounded corners. While this may have been challenging, it was possible. In CS3, Adobe supplied a script to make this task more efficient. Since InDesign CS4 handles rounded corners differently, you may notice that some of the rounded corners you made in previous versions of InDesign no longer appear rounded. In this blog I will explore all the options you had in InDesign CS, CS2, CS3, and now in CS4 to create boxes whose corners are not all rounded. I'll also explain how to fix frames that may not appear correctly in CS4.

For years designers have wanted to make frames in InDesign that have either rounded corners just at the top, bottom, left, right, or on every other point on a frame. In Adobe InDesign CS and CS2, there were two correct ways to do this. There was also a third undocumented way that worked. However, this unconventional method of making only certain corners round doesn't work, is not supported, and even changes corners back to right angles in CS4! Let's take a look at the options you had in CS and CS2.

When you make a frame in Adobe InDesign, all corners default to right angles. That is to say, that each corner has one point that connects the two sides of a frame, and those sides are perpendicular.

This is a rectangular frame drawn in Adobe InDesign.

If you want to make all corners of this frame rounded in InDesign CS or CS2 you need to choose Object > Corner Effects from the menu. In CS3 and CS4 it is reffered to as "Corner Options" so as not to be confused with the new "Effects" options that were integrated into CS3.

These are the "Corner Options" inside of InDesign.

While InDesign does offer you many types of "Corner Options," it does not allow you to apply different options to each corner. It applies your chosen option to all corners uniformly.

This is a frame with "Rounded Corners" applied to all sides.

The first way to make a frame that only has certain corners rounded is to make two frames; one that has rounded corners and one that does not. Stack these two frames over one another and make sure the rounded corners appear in the correct position. For this example, I wanted the rounded corners to appear on top.

A rounded frame and a rectangular frame stacked on top of one another.

Hint: Make sure the two frames are perfectly lined up. Either copy and paste the original frame "in place" and then use the "Shift" key to drag the new frame, or use the Alignment panel to align them before you use Pathfinder.

Now that the two frames are over one another, you can use the Pathfinder panel to "Join" the two frames together. Select both of the frames with the Selection tool. To view the Pathfinder panel, choose Window > Object and Layout > Pathfinder. To  integrate these two separate frames  into one, click on the "Add" button located in the Pathfinder panel.

After you "Add" the two frames together, you are left with a hybrid of the two former shapes.

A second way to build a shape that only has rounded corners on certain edges is to use the Convert Direction Point tool located within the Pen tool. First make a frame, then apply rounded corners to all sides (like you have a choice). Now choose the Convert Direction Point tool located under the Pen tool. Just click and hold on the Pen tool to locate it. Click on the corners you don't want to be rounded and drag out. You will notice that "directional lines" will appear as you drag.

This is what you will see as you drag out the "directional lines."

Now drag these directional lines back to the starting point of the frame. The corner will now appear as a right-angle.

This is a frame with 3 rounded corners.

Both of the aforementioned ways are still supported in Adobe InDesign CS4. However, the next way I will  demonstrate is not supported in CS4. This means that if you create frames this way in CS, CS2, or CS3, when the document is opened in CS4 the corner will no longer appear rounded. Even though it was possible to create frames this way, it was undocumented, and for all intensive purposes should never have worked in the first place.

First you create a frame, then make all corners rounded. Next you can choose the Pen tool, and click near a corner when you see a "plus sign" appear next  to your cursor. This "plus sign" simply means it will add another anchor point to the frame. You can now use the "Direct Selection" tool to move the point you just made over the corner point it is closest to. This makes the rounded corner suddenly appear as a sharp corner.

In Adobe InDesign CS4, they have "fixed" rounded corners so that you can no longer use this trick. If you attempt to drag a newly added point over a corner point, all your corners will become right angles, even if the rounded corner options are applied! You can just imagine how much havoc this has caused book publishers who open their CS2 documents in CS4 for the first time. Hours of production time have been wasted fixing this issue already. That is the sole reason I am writing this blog. I want InDesign users to know how to create these objects correctly, and know how to fix them if they were already created incorrectly in previous versions of InDesign.

This is a rectangle with one rounded corner made the incorrect way in CS3. Notice that none of the corners appear rounded in CS4. 

In Adobe InDesign CS3, a new script was added to the Script panel to automate the process of only rounding certain corners. This is still by-far the most easy and efficient way to accomplish this task. And don't worry, it is still supported in CS4.

If you still use Adobe CS2, you can download the sample scripts from this location: http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/scripting/index.html. The rounded corner script is contained in these sample scripts.

To find the script in CS3 or CS4, choose Window > Automation > Scripts. When the Script panel opens, click on the right-facing arrow to expose the two different kinds of scripts that are loaded with InDesign. Choose JavaScript and you will see a script called "Corner Effects.jsx."

All you need to do is make a frame, give it a stroke weight, and double-click the corner effects script in the script panel.

These are the corner effects options found after running the script.

You will notice that you still have a choice of corner type and offset but you can now apply it to any corner by choosing a pattern from the drop-down menu.

These are the different patterns you can choose.

To apply the pattern to the corners you want, you must first know what InDesign means by "First" when it refers to the points of a frame. The first point of a frame is the top left point. All other points are counted counter-clockwise from there. For example: the first and last points are the top left and the top right points, respectively.

Now that you know about this script, making specific rounded corners is easy!

Finally, what if you open up a CS3 document in CS4 and find that some of the rounded corner frames are no longer rounded? The simple way to fix each frame is to choose the frame and convert it back to a rectangle. Choose the object with the Direct Selection tool. Then choose Object > Convert Shape > Rectangle. This will turn your frame back into four points, removing the extra points that were added using the "Add Points" way. Now you can run the rounded corners script and the frame is fixed.

(Insert round11.jpg)

Turning the shape back into a rectangle.

The "CornerEffects" script is definitely the easiest way to make select corners round in Adobe InDesign CS2 or higher. However, be on the lookout for older documents that lose their roundness. You never know how they may have been created!

Posted at 11:25 am by Robert Underwood

Technorati Tags:

Del.icio.us   Technorati   Digg   StumbleUpon

Add comment

• K4 Version 6 Allows the Creation of Alternative "Designs" for Layouts 05/04/2010 - 11:51
• K4 Version 6 Article Components Can Now be Checked-Out by Multiple Users 05/04/2010 - 09:49
• Vjoon's K4 Version 6 is packed with tons of new and exciting features... 04/29/2010 - 19:21
• K4 Version 6 now lets you change Publication Terminology 04/28/2010 - 12:33
• K4 Version 6 Now Ships with Sticky Notes! 03/23/2010 - 11:49
• How to Create Dynamic InCopy Article Templates Inside of K4 01/20/2010 - 12:36
• Exploring Adobe InDesign CS4’s Built in Scripts 09/30/2009 - 22:00
• Make Panel Titles Easier to Read Inside Adobe InDesign CS4 08/28/2009 - 17:30
• Using the New Grep and Nested Line Styles Feature’s Inside InDesign CS4 — Part 2 07/27/2009 - 09:40
• Using the New Grep and Nested Line Styles Feature’s Inside InDesign CS4 — Part 1 07/27/2009 - 09:32

Contact DPCI to learn more about our Web content management systems,
digital asset management solutions, online collaboration software, custom development, multi-channel publishing systems, and workflow management solutions.