Hi there! In this video we’ll be discussing blending modes in InDesign, so let’s get started.
I already have this image opened in InDesign, and it appears to be a pretty colorful image.
Let’s grab the ellipse tool, and add a circle to one of the sides, to create some sort of
effect. Now I’m going to drag the circle in such a way that part of it is on top of
our image, and rest is outside of the printing area. Rather than adding a color from the
color palette, let’s pick the eyedropper tool, and steal a color from the image, so
with my shape selected, I’m going to select this color.
Alright! Now I have two options. Either I can reduce the opacity of this color, in order
to have the background reveal itself, in which case it’s going to look something like this,
or we can add one of the blending modes.
For people who’ve come from Photoshop, or Illustrator, would know what blending modes
are. They control how the base color, which is the underlying color in the artwork, interacts
with the blend color, which is the color of the selected object, or group of objects.
The resulting color is the color resulting from the blend.
Let’s first change the opacity of our shape back to 100%. There are three ways you can
access the blending modes in InDesign. First is this fx option that you see on top, click
it, and then select the ‘transparency’ option, and you’ll land at blending modes
screen. You can even access the blending modes by selecting your shape, and then right-clicking
it, and then go to ‘effect’, and then ‘transparency.’ Lastly, you can go to
‘object, and then effects, and select ‘transparency’, so let’s click transparency from here. You’ll
find the blending dropdown list, from which you can chose any mode, to your liking. Actually,
let’s check the preview box first. Now you see the effect that you get from using these
blending modes is way different than what you get by reducing the opacity of the shape,
as these modes let you vary the ways in which the colors of stacked objects blend, giving
your shape a completely different look. You can even control the opacity of your blend,
using the opacity slider here, in case the intensity of the chosen mode is too high,
so when you apply a blending mode to an object, its colors blend with all objects beneath
it, giving more weight to the effect, so do make good use of it.
Alright guys! That concludes our session, and it’s time for a short break, and I’m
going to see you in just a bit. Good bye!