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charlesriverconservancy
Participant
October 13, 2017
Question

Seamless Connection: Transparent line, transparent rectangle frame

  • October 13, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 211 views

Hi Friends,

I have searched the forum thoroughly but I am new to inDesign and fear that I am not utilizing keywords properly, which is leading me to not access the answers I need to learn.

I have two elements: a line and a rectangle frame. The line's stroke has the same color values as the frame's fill, and they are both at equal opacity (80%). I am trying to seamlessly "attach" them together.

The first image below is what I am working with. Because of the transparency effects, you can see the line extending into the rectangle frame. The second image is what I want it to look like (I changed the rectangle's opacity to demonstrate). I want the line to cut off at the edge of the frame. How do I do this while maintaining the transparency of both the line and the rectangle frame?

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    2 replies

    winterm
    winterm
    Legend
    October 13, 2017

    Well, since it's an InDesign forum here...

    Yes, you can't combine stroke and shape in ID, however, you can mask your stroke, apply the effect you want and later stick it seamlessly to whatever you need:

    I'm not telling it's a better approach, it just allows you to stay in ID.

    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 13, 2017

    Unfortunately you can't join a stroke to a path in the manner that you are asking. You will have to make the stroke into a path first and then you can use the Pathfinder Unite option to join them. In Illustrator it would be a simple matter to do this using the Object>Path>Outline Stroke option. InDesign does not have such a feature. However, if you copy and paste your stroke into Illustrator and then use the Outline Stroke option then you can copy and paste it back into InDesign and join it to your rectangle with the Unite option (see screenshot).

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