White 1pt stroked text frame?

[Michael5ED9]

Why would someone add a 1pt white stroke to a text frame? I just received a job from another designer with this and can't figure out under what circumstances they'd do it.

Mere curiosity, but if anyone else out there does this I'd love to hear the reasons why. Maybe I'm missing out on a really good production tip.

[Randy Hagan · Accepted solution]

Quick guesses are:

1) By accident. A user thought that they had an item selected to transform, but they did not. Which would make the new default setting for each time they created a text frame. Or ...

2) It was intentionally done to set a border or knockout over any item placed behind the text frame.

So I guess, if it serves a purpose for your job output needs, #2 would be a good trick. But if it serves no good purpose at all, my guess would be #1.

Randy

[Michael5ED9]

Thanks Randy.

No 1 is probably right. I found out the user is self trained in the use of InDesign – credit to him for trying – but limited in day-to-day experience or understanding of how to use it properly. For example, simple but important things such as margins or text frames lining up, are all over the place. 

[Randy Hagan]

Have mercy on his soul. One of the things about mastering the tricks of your trade is that it's all too easy to forget the mistakes you made when you first started learning how it all goes together.

Whenever I think I'm just so good at this I can hardly stand it, I reach in my file cabinet and review a folder I keep of the really crappy jobs I did when first learning how to do this stuff. It was humbling because, back then, I thought a lot of it was pretty good work. And I'm really flattering myself to say that work didn't age very well ...

I've been working with this stuff for 35 years, and I'm still learning things that make the job easier, or better, or cheaper. Learning to be better is a life-long process. Heck, I believe learning is life. As long as we can keep doing it, we're living and getting better all the time.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Randy

[Jumpenjax]

The last time the creator created a box it may have been on a dark background and they wanted a white border. Then if the background is white, they may not have noticed it was still had a white border.

[Michael5ED9]

Thanks Jumpenjax for replying.

Just a lack of experience on the user's part, I think.

[defaults2aq0czkx4gl]

As suggested before maybe it's been left from a previous design. Where I work we copy-paste things across designs where something like the background might change and that stroke will have more significance but doesn't do a great deal of harm in the new document either. I agree it's probably not best practise.

[Michael5ED9]

Appreciate your reply.

It's funny because on first opening the file, I couldn't understand what had happened after seeing the double line in Default view before realising that the frame was stroked – not sure I'd ever seen it done before. I suppose well all get used to a work routine, and the way we set defaults documents up.

[jane-e]

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@Michael5ED9 wrote:

Why would someone add a 1pt white stroke to a text frame?

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This is not your situation, but it's a good and useful trick when you are creating form fields for an interactive PDF. 

~ Jane

[Michael5ED9]

Thanks Jane.

Not quite with you on that one?

[jane-e]

Hi @Michael5ED9 

InDesign: format text field with white fill and white stroke. I used 2pts in the one on the left. The text field on the right has no stroke.

Export to Interactive PDF. Note the extra spacing on the left, which is really the white stroke.

As I said, though, it's not your situation, but you did say you'd love to hear reasons why! 😊

~ Jane

[Michael5ED9]

Thanks for going to all the trouble, Jane. Interesting tip which I'll keep in my InDesign tips folder.

[jane-e]

You're welcome, @Michael5ED9  😊

~ Jane