Participant

Answered

How to set page background color in InDesign

Forum|Forum|16 years ago
June 16, 2009
8 replies
446584 views

I would like to design a book, with some pages white, some gray, and some black backgrounds. In photoshop it is easy to set a background color, but I can't see how to do this in InDesign CS4. It should be easy, but I can't find the answer anywhere!

Thanks for your help.

Paul

***** Title renamed by Moderator "VS" *****

How to

Correct answer Peter Spier

Unless you intend to actually print the background color, rather than printing those pages on colored stock, you should put them on a sepatate layer behind everything else and either set the layer to non-printing or turn off the visibility before output.

Also, if the majority of the publication will be output on colored stock, you can edit the [Paper] swatch to display something close so you won't need to have a special background for those pages.

R

rapha[ha[ha[ha

Participant

Open swatch panel
-> double click on {paper}

-> edit your background colour

You're done !

BobLevine

Community Expert

Incorrect! And since this post is 15 years old, I'm locking it.

bradleyd1453121

Known Participant

My issue is this: When I originally created my [400 page] document, whoever created it created a master to change all of the defaulted WHITE pages to have a BLACK background (my doc is now entirely black).

I now wish to change only some of those black BGs to WHITE. Trouble is, when I draw the box around it and choose a color from Swatch, I don't see WHITE as a color option.

Is this something I need to alter in the Master? (and if so, how?)

Thanks!

BobLevine

Community Expert

Unless the original person did it on each individual pages, yes, it's on the master.

This post is several years old. If this doesn't help, please start a new thread and in the future please refrain from opening old threads.

R

Rajan30951448nmbp

Participant

I am new to InDesign. I have applied styles to Chapter numbers, names and section/subsections. These are highlighted in a different color. I wish to change the color of everything to match the background color (either pure white or some preset color in master page). Could someone help me how to do it in few clicks without going through the entire document. My screenshot is below:

L

lancewille

Participant

There is a way, but its global for the entire document. You can change the color swatch named "paper".

juliem60638476

Participant

lancewille - I don't think that will work in this case as they want to print the colour and anything selected as "paper" does not print. Your tip is a great one for quickly visualizing how a document will look though - thank you

C

capitalg71627241

Participant

How to Change Background Color in inDesign - YouTube

J

JenLaurie

Participant

This helped me ...

Cheers

Jen

http://blogs.adobe.com/vikrant/2011/04/how-to-simulate-paper-color-in-indesign/

Petteri_Paananen

Inspiring

It also might be a good idea to lock position of that box (Object>Lock Position) except if you put it into master page, then it´s automatically kind of locked in layout pages...

P

Paul 999Author

Participant

I would like to print some pages with a gray background and some with a black background on white stock. I'll be using online bookmaking services, so probably will conver to PDF before sending. But there is only white stock for the entire book.

Thanks.

Paul

BobLevine

Community Expert

Draw a rectangle. Fill it with the desired color.

For use over and over again, put that rectangle on a master page.

Bob

Peter Spier

Correct answer

Community Expert

Unless you intend to actually print the background color, rather than printing those pages on colored stock, you should put them on a sepatate layer behind everything else and either set the layer to non-printing or turn off the visibility before output.

Also, if the majority of the publication will be output on colored stock, you can edit the [Paper] swatch to display something close so you won't need to have a special background for those pages.

P

Paul 999Author

Participant

Thanks, Peter.

I would like to print some pages with a gray background and some with a

black background on white stock. I'll be using online bookmaking services,

so probably will conver to PDF before sending. But there is only white

stock for the entire book.

Paul

O

osgood_

Legend

Paul 999 wrote:
I would like to design a book, with some pages white, some gray, and some black backgrounds. In photoshop it is easy to set a background color, but I can't see how to do this in InDesign CS4. It should be easy, but I can't find the answer anywhere!
Thanks for your help.
Paul

Just draw a box the size of the page, add a bleed area for trim if required, colour the box. Am I missing something?

O

oblivias

Participant

I just don't understand how a command like that wouldn't exist in InDesign. It's so basic.

BobLevine

Community Expert

So is drawing a rectangle.

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