I was wondering if there was a way to build insets into a graphic frame object style. Here is what I am trying to do: Place graphic as anchored object above figure caption.In order to conform to the last design of this document (not shock my cohorts with a radical departure), figures must contain a border with a 1em inset. This has been a nightmare for me to manage because resizing is a pain. Whenever I must resize, I've been using a 1em square box filled with registration black to measure that inset. So time-consuming!The grouped frame (border, caption, image) is always just laid on the page. Now I have the caption utside the frame, with the frame itself sitting above the caption—except the border is too colose to the graphic. Yes, I can just resize the graphic, but again I am trying to get away from micromanaging this beeyotch.So I set up an object style that has everything except the inset (nice border, force-fit frame to content, anchor styles all set...) Of course I tried the Text Frame inset option in hopes it would work (it didn't, naturally.) So simply: is it possible to automatically inset graphic frames the same way text frames can be inset? That ability would solve my whole headache...

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Question

Inset for Graphic Frame

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
January 17, 2020
6 replies
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I was wondering if there was a way to build insets into a graphic frame object style. Here is what I am trying to do:

Place graphic as anchored object above figure caption.
In order to conform to the last design of this document (not shock my cohorts with a radical departure), figures must contain a border with a 1em inset. This has been a nightmare for me to manage because resizing is a pain. Whenever I must resize, I've been using a 1em square box filled with registration black to measure that inset. So time-consuming!
The grouped frame (border, caption, image) is always just laid on the page. Now I have the caption utside the frame, with the frame itself sitting above the caption—except the border is too colose to the graphic. Yes, I can just resize the graphic, but again I am trying to get away from micromanaging this beeyotch.
So I set up an object style that has everything except the inset (nice border, force-fit frame to content, anchor styles all set...) Of course I tried the Text Frame inset option in hopes it would work (it didn't, naturally.)

So simply: is it possible to automatically inset graphic frames the same way text frames can be inset? That ability would solve my whole headache...

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miosine

Participant

Hi mate, I know this issue was posted a year ago but I was having the same problem recently and I found the solution for myself.

The setting you're looking for is located in: Object > Fitting > Frame Fitting Options

Just play with "Crop amount" numbers, they work the same way as an inset for text frame. I think this is exactly what you were looking for.

L

Laubender

Community Expert

You could also anchor the group and set a text wrap to the group if necessary.

Changing the width of the anchored group will change width of image frame and text frame together.

Changing the height of the group will change the height of the image frame only.

Editing the text inside the group where more lines of text are added or lines of text are removed will change the height of the text frame only:

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

L

Laubender

Community Expert

TMacFarlane said:
… I think Uwe's answer is closest to what I am trying to achieve. I hear Uwe saying: damn the graphic frame and just use the text text frame: caption being the text, with the graphic just an anchored object (the key I think everyone is missing is that the text has to sit within the border as well as the graphic,) …

Hi,

no, still I would not suggest to use an anchored frame.

Just apply the custom stroke style Rob suggested to the text frame as well. The frame with the image has the text wrap. The text frame and the graphic frame are aligned top. The text frame should work with auto alignment height only, pinned top.

That gets us to this combination of the two frames:

That issue can be resolved. Simply place that image not inside a full rectangle, but inside an "open" path rectangle.

Below the principle illustrated:

Doing that with our rectangle in two steps.

1. Add one additional path point to the bottom of the frame.

2. Remove that additional path point by selecting it with the Direct Selection Tool and hitting "Delete".

The result is not exactly what we want, but it's very close. The stroke is applied on the top, on the left and on the right.

What's missing as final step? Reverse the path of the frame:

You'll find this command under menu:

Object > Paths > Reverse Path

Graphic frame with image and text frame aligned and grouped:

You can download the result INDD 2020 document or the exported IDML file from my Dropbox account:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hxpzrmpz9jr7k5w/CustomStroke-10Pt-Image-and-TextFrame-GROUPED-CC-2020.indd?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ixu3e831gnj3zqs/CustomStroke-10Pt-Image-and-TextFrame-GROUPED-CC-2020.idml?dl=0

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

rob day

Community Expert

Here anchored into some caption text as an Above Line anchor:

L

Laubender

Community Expert

Hi Rob,

I think a group of image frame and text frame is more effective when it comes to changing the width or height of the whole arrangement. If grouped one could change the width and height of the group when the group is selected. The text frame and image should automatically follow. With that you would not change the width of the custom stroke around the image.

The position of the text will follow automatically if the text frame is set to auto grow height only and if the image has a text wrap. To start this, text frame and image should be aligned on top first. Then text wrap should be applied to the image.

Of course the group should never be scaled. To "scale" the whole arrangement change width and height of the group or height of the container frame of the image and change the scale of the image inside its container frame separately.

Some screenshots from my German InDesign below.
Note that I did not use a color for the gap of my custom stroke and did set the stroke to overprint. You have to do that even if you set the stroke's color to [Black] and black is set to overprint in the preferences of InDesign.

Text wrap defined on the container frame of the image inside the group:

Changed the width of the group. Both items of the group are following:

Changed the height of the group only. Only the image container's height changed this time:

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

rob day

Community Expert

It does get tricky with all of the possible preference interactions.

I was assuming you wouldn’t want to scale the text or the text frame, but only the anchored image and frame. So I set my scaling prefs like this with Include Stroke Weight unchecked:

And then set the Transform Panel’s Adjust Stroke Weight when Scaling to unchecked

Now I can scale the image and frame proprtionally with the Free transform tool without affecting the border, gap, or Space After the anchor:

rob day

Community Expert

Is this what you are trying to do:

A custom stroke setup with the inside gap set to [Paper]

Scott Falkner

Community Expert

I’m having a hard time picturing what you want to do. Can you post a screen capture of the desired result?

To answer your primary question: No. There is no way to add an inset to a graphic frame. But there may be other ways to achieve the results you want.

Hae you tried adding a thick border matchign the background of the page (likely the Paper swatch)?

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