Gaining control over your text and imagery is the key to a sharp-looking layout. Let’s look at how to wrap text around images in InDesign.
InDesign’s powerful page layout tools let you craft a great-looking layout for your project using all the assets you’ve built in Photoshop and Illustrator, plus any existing images you import from sites like Shutterstock. Here’s how to elevate your page layouts with strategically wrapped text.
Video: Wrapping Text Around an Imported Image
If you’re more of a visual learner, watch this step-by-step tutorial on wrapping text in InDesign.
How to Wrap Text Around an Imported Image in InDesign
Start by opening your InDesign project and importing your image. Once the image is in place on the page, follow these directions to make the text wrap around it:
- Select Window > Text Wrap to display the text wrap menu.
- Use the Selection Tool or Direction Selection Tool to select the object you just placed.
- Within the Text Wrap menu, adjust the settings to fit your text layout needs. (Not sure what the settings mean? Read on to the next section!)
This process can be fine-tuned to wrap text closer to an image or further from it, to define space, or to otherwise customize the way your text and images interact.
Text Wrapping Options
As shown above, InDesign’s Text Wrap menu gives you tons of options for how your text and imagery will interact. Here’s what each component means:
- Wrap Shape: Choose how the text will wrap around the image: the bounding box, the object’s shape, and so on.
- Offset: Enter a number to determine how close to the image the text will appear.
- Wrap Options: Choose where the text will wrap in relation to the image: on the left only, the right only, both, and so on.
- Contour Options: If you’ve chosen to wrap text around the image’s shape, then these additional settings give you finer control over exactly how the text contours.
Since all of the text wrap settings are adjusted live, you can play around with these options to see exactly how they’ll affect your final page layout. If you don’t like something you’ve chosen, just undo it and try something new!
Cover image via Roman Samborskyi.
Use InDesign’s paragraph styles to save and quickly apply pre-set formatting to your text in a single click.
In this quick and easy tutorial, we’ll look at how you can create a spliced effect for a poster design using Adobe InDesign.
Let InDesign do the legwork for you. Learn how to collect your entire design project in one easy-to-share package.