How do you do that? Place photos with tape April 26, 2010
April 26, 2010 / InDesign / Spring 2010

How do you do that? Place photos with tape

Written by Jamie Chambers

Never use real adhesive tape on your photos. But by using InDesign to add graphics of tape to the corners or edges of images, you can give your spread a candid look.

1. Using the pen tool, draw a simple rectangle shape, giving each of the small edges a ripped appearance. Add a fill of yellow, or choose an appropriate color from the Swatches palette, Set the tint to approximately 10%. The Stroke should be Black with the Stroke size of .25 inch and also a tint of 10%.

Step 1

2. Add dimension to the tape artwork. Open the Effects palette, and go to Object > Effects > Satin. Set the Satin effect to .125 inch with 5% opacity. While the Effects palette is still open, add a slight drop shadow. Change the Blending mode to Darken at 30% with a distance of .0125 inch and size of .0125 inch. Click OK.

Step2

3. Change the Opacity of the tape artwork. Go to Objects > Effects > Transparency. Change the Blending mode to Hard Light and the Opacity to 60%. The tape will allow the photos to show through the artwork when you place the tape over them.

Step 3

4. Add tape to the photos. Move the artwork to a corner of a photo. Copy and paste this tape artwork, moving it to different corners of the photos. Rotate the artwork to different angles for the various corners of the photos. Repeat these steps to create new pieces of tape artwork.

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Jamie Chambers

Jamie Chambers faced two career path choices in college, and lucky for Walsworth he chose art over accounting. He has been a creative influence for Walsworth for 17 years, currently as Design & Creative Concepting Supervisor in the Marketing Department. For 10 years, as an artist and supervisor for the Creative Services Department, Jamie traveled to workshops to collaborate with yearbook staffs to develop their covers and theme packages.