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L
LSHess
Participating Frequently
August 21, 2009
Answered

change arrowhead size?

  • August 21, 2009
  • 3 replies
  • 84778 views

Hi everyone! Using InDesign CS4. I need to reduce the size of arrowheads that are applied to a line with a stroke weight of .5 pt. I do not want to change the line weight. (Although as a side note, reducing the line weight down to .1 pt did not get the arrowheads small enough.) Any solutions?

    Correct answer Laubender

    Here some screenshots that are showing the scaling rule with arrow heads:

    10 pt stroke weight. 100 % scaling.

    20 pt stroke weight, 100 % scaling:

    10 pt stroke weight and 200 % scaling:

    And that's the same as 20 pt stroke weight and 100 % scaling.

    Wheras the size is not doubled!

    Regards,
    Uwe


    Still you have to do the following to double the size of your arrow head.

    Make sure that in the General Preferences "Adjust Scaling Percentage" is clicked.

    1. Scale the graphic line ( or polygon ) to 200 % ( factor f = 2 )

    2. Scale the arrow head to 200 % ( factor f = 2 )
    3. Halve the stroke weight ( 1 / factor f )

    Regards,
    Uwe

    3 replies

    sitosun
    sitosun
    Participant
    June 29, 2015

    Amazing ... the first question about this flaw was 2009 ..
    Now 2015, Adobe still didn't fix that issue

    Workarounds are nice, but totally annoying

    Please Adobe .. there are so many things like that ... people are asking for years .. with a good reason

    Indesign wants to be a pro app ... and a good designer needs that feature

    Why you cannot just fix this?

    sorry for the bad mood ..

    but on the other hand it's an Adobe forum and such flaws also give me a bad mood

      E
      Community Expert
      Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 29, 2015

      This is a user to user forum, hosted by Adobe.

      Adobe staff rarely visit here and most likely never read this.

      If you want this feature the visit https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

      The more people that request it the more likely it is to be introduced.

        C
        corriela
        Participant
        December 6, 2011

        Or here's an alternative solution using a custom arrow and applying it as text-on-a-path:

        http://indesignsecrets.com/making-custom-arrowheads.php

        Nice

        mgs70
        mgs70
        Participating Frequently
        July 30, 2012

        Pretty much makes it useless... Way too much trouble to do it custom or create an element in AI then paste it in. Amazing how in Illustrator they give you an area to enter a percentage and SCALE the arrowheads. Imagine that!

        Heck I think even Quark X-Press did this! Another example of something that works great in one application that's completely left out in the other. The IND & AI teams need to get their heads together.

          E
          Community Expert
          Eugene TysonCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          July 31, 2012

          You can do it - it just needs to make a new stroke. Like a few things, the sample strokes provided need to be tweaked, or create new ones.

          Hope this helps

          Window>Stroke

          Top right of the panel there's a sub menu (fly out menu)

          Click on Stoke Styles

          Click on New

          Choose Stripe

          Drag one of the black blocks off the dialog box to remove it

          Change the width of the stripe to 10%

          Place it at 45% (so it's 5% before 50% and 5% after 50%)

          Save it

          Make the Stroke Width 10pt

          You now have a larger arrow head

          Hope that helps

            Peter Spier
            Community Expert
            Peter SpierCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            August 21, 2009

            Unfortunately, the only way to accomplish waht you want is to draw the ends a separate objects and group them with the lines.

            naturescape_peopletecture
            naturescape_peopletecture
            Participating Frequently
            February 24, 2015

            You make a good point that there needs to be a more efficient way to produce lines with arrowheads which can be scaled as in Illustrator.  I honestly do not understand why the "standard" weight/stroke of the arrowhead is 5x the weight /stroke of the line...

            L
            Community Expert
            LaubenderCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            February 24, 2015

            I honestly do not understand why the "standard" weight/stroke of the arrowhead is 5x the weight /stroke of the line...

            @naturescape – indeed there is no such ratio between the base of an arrow head and the stroke weight of the path.

            There are rules of course, but they aren't as "straight forward" as they seem.

            Uwe

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