The Convoluted Path to Symmetry

Version: 4
Operating systems: Macintosh, Windows

Creating symmetrical objects is something computers are typically quite good at. If you’ve worked with illustration packages like Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia FreeHand, then you know it’s not a particularly difficult task. There’s usually a tool you can use to reflect or flip the angle of an object. Well, not so with QuarkXPress. The ability to flip objects is there but it’s fairly buried. In this article, we’ll take you down the winding path to building a symmetrical design like the one shown in Figure A. If you thought QuarkXPress couldn’t do this, you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Figure A: You can create symmetrical designs in QuarkXPress.

It’s not heart-stopping

Open a new document and drag a guide from your vertical ruler out onto your page. We’re going to build a heart by drawing one half and then duplicating it, flipping it, and joining it together. The Bézier drawing tools work best for this job. To get started, select the Bézier Line tool from the Tools palette. Click on a point directly on top of the guide and drag the handles up and out to the left to make the top curve of the heart. Position additional points, making sure that your final point for the heart’s tip ends up on the guide as well. Your heart half should look similar to the one shown in Figure B.

Figure B: Use the Bézier Line tool to quickly create half a heart. Be sure that both endpoints are aligned with the guide.

Flipping an object

To be able to flip the heart half, you need to turn off point editing for the object. You can do this by choosing Item > Edit > Shape. Shape will already be selected, and by choosing it you’ll deselect the option. Also, you can see that point editing is turned off because a bounding box now surrounds your object. To make the heart symmetrical, you must duplicate the heart half and keep it perfectly aligned with the original. Oddly enough, whether you use the Duplicate or the Step And Repeat command, QuarkXPress positions the duplicated object according to the Horizontal and Vertical Offset settings in the Step And Repeat dialog box. Since you need to go there first to zero the settings, it’s the most efficient choice for duplicating the object. While your object is selected, choose Item > Step And Repeat to access the dialog box. Set the Horizontal and Vertical Offset settings to 0, and the Repeat Count setting to 1, then click OK. Even though nothing looks different on the screen, an exact duplicate of your heart half is sitting on top of the original.

You also need to take note of the width of your heart half in the Measurements palette for use later on. Ours is 1.086 inches wide. If you have too awkward of a number to remember, just select and copy it to the Clipboard to paste in later.

Now, with the Item tool selected, grab the heart by the middle bounding point on the left side. This way you’re only manipulating the object’s width. Drag the point across the heart and past the guide, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C: Drag all the way across the heart to flip it over.

The heart half should flip over once you cross the guide. Don’t worry too much about where you release it. Enter or paste the original width number in the Width setting of the Measurements palette to correct the width of the new heart half.


Note: This process can be a bit glitchy. If your heart half doesn’t flip properly the first time, just try again. When you click on the middle bounding point, outlines should surround your heart half. Once you see that, the process should work flawlessly.

Joining up

So that you can edit the shape again, select both heart halves and choose Item > Edit > Shape to turn on point editing. Then immediately choose Item > Merge > Join Endpoints. Only one pair of endpoints will join, so if you want to turn the heart into a box, hold down the [option] key ([Alt] key in Windows) and choose Item > Shape and then select the squiggle shape that looks like an artist’s palette.

The winding path

Now you know how to flip an object in QuarkXPress. It’s a longer way to get there than in some applications, but you can still create symmetrical shapes to use as picture and text boxes.

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