Reverse out text (make 'paper' swatch) "automatically" in Indesign

[marketingc39907871]

Is there a way to have text on a footer (or anywhere) reverse out automatically depending on the background?

Context: I'm creating bottom left hand corner page numbers and footers on a page. In some instances, the text falls on a white background or across an image with a very light background and therefore requires the standard text colour (which in this instance is grey achieved with 80% black).

However, I also want to have the text reversed out in the instances (about half the time) where the image background is dark enough to require reversed out text for legibility reasons.

In all cases the text in question is on the master page and it would be easier to get this to work automatically rather than override the master page item in order to amend it to reversed out.

Can anyone help?

[Scott Citron · Accepted solution]

InDesign has no way of automatically knowing if your text is over a light or dark object. I suggest making two paragraph styles; one for text over a light background and one for text over a dark background. The problem of Master Pages can be solved by having a Light Text Master and a Dark Text Master. Apply the Light or Dark Master that's appropriate given the background shade or color

Does this help?

[marketingc39907871]

Cheers Scott. Those were the solutions that I was going to do, but thought it would be silly if there was a way to do it that I was asking about. An alternate Master page & alternate Paragraph style would appear to be the way forward.