After I chose the right leaf character, I turned it into vector artwork by choosing Create Outlines from the Type menu. The story had a garden theme, so it all came together nicely. Recently, I used a dingbat font named Leaves in order to add some simple leaf shaped graphics behind my pull quotes. Note that with the Type tool cursor positioned in a text frame, you can add a glyph by double-clicking the character in the Glyphs panel. I can preview the dingbat fonts in Suitcase Fusion, and then activate the ones that might contain characters I can work with in my layout.īack in InDesign, I access the fonts in the Glyphs panel and choose the characters I want to use.

You should also make sure you choose one that will look good when arranged behind the pull quote text.Ī while back, I created a set of dingbat fonts in my font manager (Suitcase Fusion) exactly for this purpose. You can use the Glyphs panel in InDesign to locate a dingbat character that will work with the theme of your layout. When I need a simple graphic and I need it quick, I always refer to my dingbat font collection. But if you’re on a really tight deadline, you may not have the time to wear both hats as illustrator and layout artist. Sure, if you’ve got some illustration skills, you could draw your own graphics in Illustrator and then place them in your ID layout, or you could even draw them directly in InDesign. In this situation, you may have more to work with than you think. But what if you don’t have any graphics to work with? It looks even better if you can place the pull quote over a graphic of some kind. After you design your pull quote, you can position it in the body copy with a text wrap applied. Some creative font treatments and a little typographical know-how can go a long way. When I’m faced with this situation, my first instinct is to use pull quotes as graphic elements.

It’s up to you to figure out a way to make this work and still look good, and you don’t have a lot of time to make it happen. Your client has submitted enough text to almost fill the page, but has not provided you with any photos or artwork of any kind. Here’s a common design scenario for page layout artists: You’ve been hired to design a page layout and you’re on a really tight deadline.

Glyphs in illustrator