Fit rectangle frames into curve of a circle

[Guest]

Hi all,

I'd like to place a couple rectangle frames into a circle. My hope is to have the frames take to the shape of the circle. Once in the circle, I'm hoping to add a drop shadow to the frames.

I've tried pathfinder, but that doesn't seem to give me the result I'm looking for. I'm also not sure if InDesign is the best tool for this. I know how to create a pattern fill in Illustrator, but that doesn't quite give me the result I'm looking for either. 

I would appreciate any help on this, thanks so much! 

[Scott Falkner]

Can you include an image showing what you want? It's hard to picture exactly what you are looking for. It sounds like you want to distort the frame (and, presumably, the content of the frame like a placed image) to fit a circle. This is not something InDesign can do. Illustrator's warp and envelope effects might do what you want. 

[Guest]

Sure. I've attached a sample of the concept I'm looking for. 

In the attached I used a pencil tool, but I'd like to do something similar but with a rectangle or text frame. I'd only like to use 5 or 6 frames because I'd like to type a little blurb in each one. 

Does that make sense? Let me know if not, thanks!

[Diane Burns]

Still not totally clear on the effect you're trying to achieve, but perhaps you may be looking for the Edit menu > Paste Into command. Create your rectangles, select them and Paste Into a circle.

Here I just put some underlines under some text and pasted into a circle. Again, not sure exactly what you're going for.

[Guest]

Hi Diane,

I appreciate it, thank you. I don't think that's quite what I'm looking for. I guess I'm not sure how to explain it. 

I would like to place a rectangle inside an ellipse and have the corners of the rectangle take to the shape of the ellipse. I'm not sure how to do that. I do want to include text but I might save that for later. 

[jmlevy]

1. Draw one horizontal line and duplicate it and group the lines, like this

2. Draw a circle

3. Cut the lines group, select the circle and paste the lines group into the circle (Cmd Alt V on Mac, Ctrl Alt V on Windows)

[Guest]

Thank you! Is there a way to do this with rectangle frames, not lines? I'd like to add a drop shadows to my frames.

[Rishabh_Tiwari · Accepted solution]

Hi @Deleted User ,

Thanks for reaching out. In addition to the suggestions shared above, I found this similar discussion which you can refer to here https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/rectangle-in-a-circle/m-p/10975302#M178642

Let us know if this helps or if you need any further assistance.

Regards

Rishabh

[Guest]

Thank you thank you! 

[jmlevy]

Instead of pasting lines, paste rectangles into the circle, but I think that the result will be the same.

[Guest]

Thanks!

[Barb Binder]

Yes. Draw the frames, and the shadows, group them and then you can use Paste Into.

~Barb

[Guest]

Thank you!