Create 5 High-Impact Typography Effects in Adobe InDesign

Final product image — What You'll Be Creating

InDesign is the best Adobe tool for creating traditional and expertly crafted typography designs. Designers are often quick to jump over to Illustrator or Photoshop if they want to create more unique and contemporary text effects. However, with a little know-how, you can create cutting-edge, creative text effects and typography designs without ever having to leave InDesign.

This Adobe InDesign tutorial shows you how to create five striking typographic designs using tools and tricks available to you in InDesign. You can follow these tutorials individually, and then tweak the steps to make your own unique styles.

Prefer a video tutorial? Then you must check out this new video by Ashlee Harrell from the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel. Follow it to learn how to add effects to text in InDesign:

What You'll Learn in This InDesign Text Effect Tutorial

How to set up your document
How to create a text-inside-text effect
How to create a block-color text effect
How to enhance text with a dramatic drop cap
How to add a surreal twist to your typography design

What You'll Need

1. How to Set Up Your Document

To learn how to add effects to text in InDesign, first we'll set up the document. For all of the InDesign text effects below, we’ll be using an A4 layout. But feel free to skip this step if you’ll be incorporating a particular text effect into a document you've already created.

To create a new A4 layout, Open InDesign and select File > New Document. In the New Document window set the No. of Pages to 5. Deselect Facing Pages. Under Page Size, select use 297 mm for the Width and 210 mm for the Height. Leave the Margins at their default value and set the Bleed to 0 mm all the way round.

Click OK, and your document's ready to use.

2. How to Create a Text-Inside-Text Effect

Let's start with this cool and eye-catching typographic design: a text-inside-text design, perfect for posters, flyers, and more.

Step 1

For this text effect and typography design, you will need to use two fonts. The first font will form the enclosing text, and it needs to be heavy enough to contain a body of text. Cartif is a great choice as it’s also an uppercase style, giving the typography added impact.

The second font will fill the characters of the first font. It doesn’t need to have a particular style or weight, but try to select a typeface that fits the look of your design. In this case, I’ve gone for the soft and simple Dudek.

Step 2

Create a new Swatch and Fill the background with C100 M90 Y10 K67. Type the word 'HOT' using Cartif 210 pt. Set the Fill to None and the Stroke to Paper with a 3 pt Weight.

Step 3

Copy (Command-C) and Paste (Command-V) this text layer. Create a new Swatch and Fill it with C9 M100 Y96 K93. Apply a Drop Shadow to this second text layer using a C0 M100 Y100 K17 swatch.

Step 4

Apply an Outer Glow to this second text layer using a C0 M45 Y100 K0 swatch.

Step 5

Apply a Basic Feather to this second text layer.

Step 6

Duplicate this second text layer and remove the Basic Feather. Add a Gradient to the third text layer for the Fill using the Red and Orange swatch.

Step 7

Grab the Type Tool (T) and Type ‘H’. From the Character Formatting Controls panel along the top of the screen, set the font to Cartif, Size to 210 pt, and Orientation to Align Left (if you choose Align Center, this has a tendency to unhelpfully Anchor the frame once converted to outlines). Maintain the default [Black] text Fill.

Select the text frame and Edit > Copy and Edit > Paste. Change the character to ‘O’ and maneuver the frame to the right of the first character.

Pull down a Guide from the top Ruler (View > Show Rulers) to create a baseline for the characters to sit on. You can also pull out horizontal Guides from the left-hand Ruler to create guidelines for equal spacing between characters.

Repeat the above process for the other character—in this case, ‘T’ to form the word ‘HOT’.

Step 8

Select the first character’s text frame and go to Type > Create Outlines. Repeat for each text frame. Each character is converted to a vector outline.

Step 9

Select all the outlined characters by pressing Shift and selecting each letter.

Open the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) and set the Fill to [None]. Deselect the characters by clicking once outside of the page.

Step 10

Select the Type Tool (T) and hover over the first character in the word (here, ‘H’). You will see the icon change from a type icon with straight brackets to a type icon with curved brackets.

Click once, and the vector shape will be transformed into a text frame. Switch to the Selection Tool (V, Escape) and select the first character, here ‘H’. A small white square has appeared at the bottom-right of the shape. Click once on the square and click again in the next character (here, ‘O’) to connect the two characters with text threads.

Go to View > Extras > Show Text Threads to view how the characters are connected. Repeat the process above until all the characters are connected to one another.

Step 11

Select the Type Tool (T). In the Character Formatting Controls panel, set the font to Dudek Semibold Round, Size to 9 pt, Leading to 9pt, and Orientation to Justify with Last Line Aligned Left.

Click once inside the first character and go to Type > Fill with Placeholder Text. You can also insert your own text to create an artistic effect with extra meaning.

Select the three text frames and apply a Gradient Feather.

Step 12

You can create more contrast for your typography by adding another text layer with a gradient stroke with a drop shadow.

And you're done! This sort of typography effect best suits a large-scale setting, perhaps as part of a poster or banner.