Fill Live Text With Any Image in InDesign

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This article was originally published in InDesign Magazine issue 62 (June 2014). Subscribe to CreativePro Magazine now!

Consider the wonders of duct tape. Originally used by American soldiers in WWII, this magical stuff might be the most versatile material on earth. What else can remove lint from your shirt and patch a hole in a sinking boat? When the Apollo 13 astronauts had their famous “problem” in space, they fixed it with duct tape. Nowadays kids fashion everything from wallets to prom dresses from it. (Just don’t use it to seal ducts—ironically, that’s the one thing it can’t do well.) So in honor of this miracle material, I offer this InStep on how to fill live text with duct tape. And in fact, the technique is almost as versatile as real duct tape, since you can use it to fill live text with any image or texture on any background.

Place an image of duct tape (or whatever you want to fill your text with) into your InDesign document. I got this image from cgtextures.com, which has a large selection of free textures for personal and commercial use.

Create a frame that totally covers the image of the duct tape. You can fill it with anything you like: a solid color, an illustration, a photo, etc. It just has to completely hide the underlying image. In this example I’m using a wood grain photo, which also came from cgtextures.com.

It might seem weird to put the background image on top of the duct tape, but it’s the only way to make this effect work properly. Essentially, what we’re going to do is use a blend mode trick to punch a text-shaped hole through the background image so it looks like the letters are made of whatever’s underneath (in this case, duct tape).

Create a text frame with no stroke and no fill on top of the background image. Then add the text that you want to spell out in duct tape. Use a font that’s bold enough to show off the texture of the tape. You might also want to find a font with a hand-drawn appearance so the letter shapes look like they were cut out with scissors or a razor blade. I chose a free font called Wee Bairn from Typodermic.com. Fill the text with white.

Select the text frame with the Selection tool. Open the Effects panel by choosing Window > Effects. With the Object level in the Effects panel targeted, choose Multiply from the blend mode menu.

The Multiply blend mode adds the darkness of the topmost object to what’s beneath it. Since the text frame had no darkness to add (no stroke or fill, and the text was filled with white), it completely disappears.

Select the text frame and the top image, and group them. Be sure not to include the duct tape image at the bottom of the stack.

With the group selected, enable the Knockout Group setting in the Effects panel to reveal the duct tape image through the letter shapes.

If necessary, move or scale the image of the duct tape to get the best look.

It’s not required, but a very small drop shadow applied to the text frame can lend a bit of realism. Select the text frame, and choose Drop Shadow from the fx menu in either the Control panel or the Effects panel. For a material that isn’t very thick (like duct tape), use a very small size and offset, usually just 1–2 pixels. Adjust the angle, opacity, spread, and noise to taste.

Edit the text as needed, change the font, images, etc. The effect will update automatically.

***

Mike Rankin is the Editor in Chief of CreativePro Magazine and the author of the LinkedIn Learning course InDesign FX.

Editor in Chief of CreativePro. Instructor at LinkedIn Learning with courses on InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, GIMP, Inkscape, and Affinity Publisher.
  • Bob Richardson says:

    Nice! I liked this tutorial… great explanation each step. Also thanks for the external site links!

  • Batool Nasir says:

    This is fantastic! I thoroughly enjoyed doing it. Wonderful.

  • JAYKAY144 says:

    Excellent Mike! As much as i appreciate this technique and am eager to apply it, I liked the intro paragraph better.  “(Just don’t use it to seal ducts—ironically, that’s the one thing it can’t do well.)”

    Classic

  • Brittany says:

    Awesome! Thank you!

  • Angie says:

    This is a great tip. So much better than converting text to outlines and filling with an image. This is live text! You can change your mind about the font, the weight, the size, etc. Very important when trying to input client changes. Thank you.

  • Lauren says:

    I’ve just tried this effect and looks great. However it didn’t retain when pdf’d. Do you know what I might have done wrong? I could see the whole of the bottom layer image!

    • Mike Rankin says:

      Hi Lauren-

      I’m not sure why it would look OK in InDesign and then do what you’re describing in the PDF. Was the document created for print or digital publishing? What PDF export settings are you using? And what software are you using to view the PDF?

      • Rachel says:

        I also can’t export to a PDF. I’ve tried both a print PDF and an interactive PDF, and it comes out as solid white every time.

      • Sergii says:

        You can always export as JPG with maximum quality and 300 dpi options. Of course, it flattens all layers, but you’ll get a 100% same image as inside Indesign.

      • Angie says:

        Hi Sergil!

        Is this method as accurate as PDF though? (For a huge banner of dimensions 3 x 1 metres?) Or is there another solution to make it work as PDF? :3

        Thanks!

        P.S.: I loved this btw! <3

      • Mike Rankin says:

        If you’re going to a professional print service provider who accepts PDF, the method shown in this article will work in almost all cases. It may look incorrect when viewed by apps that don’t recognize transparency like the macOS Finder’s QuickLook or Preview. Ask your service provider. If they say it won’t work for them, then you can simply convert the text to outlines and place the image into the outlines like you would with any regular frame.

  • marie says:

    As far as the drop shadow to the text goes- how can you select just the text box. If you ungroup, you lose all effects. If you leave grouped the drop shadow simply goes around your filled box not the text? I tried highlighting text while grouped, but then to effects options are available.
    Thanks
    Marie

  • Erica says:

    I tried this, and it didn’t work for me even though I tried it a few times. I used a jpeg background and a solid color frame, and it did nothing. I was really excited about this, so now I’m disappointed.

    • Mike Rankin says:

      Hi Erica-

      Sorry you’re having trouble. The technique does work, so I’d suggest trying it with some different images and double-checking that you followed the steps exactly. Usually when folks have trouble it’s because they selected the wrong objects before applying transparency settings.

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