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How to Add a Drop Shadow in InDesign

Elise Williams

2024-04-18 11:56:27 • Filed to: Indesign Tips and Tricks • Proven solutions

If you are in the process of creating eBook or any other publication in InDesign, you might want to make certain part of the text pop just a little bit and stand out on the page. If the background is not dark enough for the white text to be readable on its own, we recommend adding drop shadow in InDesign. A drop shadow can add dimension by casting what appears to be the shadow of an object. And the best part is you can easily learn how to add a drop shadow in InDesign.

How to Add Drop Shadow to Text in InDesign

Drop shadow adds a shadow to an object, in most cases text, to give it a nice 3D effect casting a slight shadow. This guide will show you how to add shadow to text in InDesign. You can use the guide to add shadow to any other objet as well. However, be careful not to abuse this tool, as too much shadow can make the text hard to read. Also, we recommend not to use the drop shadow feature on text longer than a standard paragraph.

1. Using the selection tool, select the text frame that with the text. Select the frame itself, not the text.
2. Make the Effects panel visible by going "Window > Effects".
3. There are two ways for this step. The first option is to select the "fx" button at the bottom of the Effects panel. The second is to hit the selection button on the left and then hit Effects and then Drop shadow.
4. Once you open the Drop Shadow dialog box, you will need to use the following options: - Leave Mode to Multiply and Opacity at 75% - Change Spread to 20% - Change size to 0.125 inches - Check the preview box for the results
5. Click "OK" once you have set up the options and apply the drop shadow to the object.
6. Save your document.

How to Edit the Drop Shadow in InDesign File

A lot of people experience the following scenario. You edit the drop shadow feature in InDesign, you export the file to PDF for easier share ability, but then there are more edits you need to make. At this point, you can choose to either open the file again in InDesign and make the additional changes, or edit it directly into the PDF file.

If you choose the latter, you need a great PDF software that can handle everything PDF related. The good news is that Wondershare PDFelement - PDF Editor is exactly that type of software. Effective and efficient, it can help you maximize document productivity. And it is a better and cheaper alternative to Adobe Acrobat.

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What makes it so good? Well, it is all about the features that are as advanced and as premium as they come. Here are some of them:

Use OCR technology to make any scanned document searchable and editable.
- Easily add field forms within the PDF document and fill them.
- Edit PDF document text or images.
- Add annotation tools like comments, notes, drawing boxes, markups, and more.
- Convert PDF documents into any other file format.
- Print PDF documents with multiple options.

With that in mind, here are two quick guides how to add comments to PDF document and edit the PDF document.

Step 1. Open the InDesign PDF

Start by opening the InDesign file you want to edit. Do this by either drag and drop, or going to "Open File…" button on the main interface.

Step 2. Comment InDesign PDF

To add a comment to your document, go to "Comment > Note", and then click here you want to place the note and make comments in the box. If you want to continuously add text boxes, double click the "text box" button and then click the places on the page where you want to add the boxes. If you want to move comments, or copy and paste, click on "Select" button after adding the comment.

Step 3. Edit InDesign PDF

To edit the text in PDF, click on "Edit" button on the left side, and then click the desired text. There are two modes available, paragraph mode that lets you edit the whole paragraph, and line mode, which allows you to edit single line at a time.