'split' a letter (into black and white)...

[Jean Matua Bustamant]

hello

I want to have InDesign 'split' a letter: one half shall appear in a color, the other in another, or not at all. I know how to do this in Illustrator, of course, but then I'd have to import a broken-apart letter, thus a vector, into InDesign, and I'd rather avoid that...
(maybe it's a stupid question - In this case, I beg your pardon.)

thanks for any help on this

Jean Matua

[Dave Saunders]

You don't have to convert to vector to do this in either Illustrator or InDesign.

In InDesign do this:

1. Put your letter into a text frame by itself.

2. Paste that frame inside a Rectangle.

3. Duplicate the Rectangle in place.

4. With Transform Content off in the Transform palette pop-up, shrink each rectangle so that the two smaller rectangles now abut each other (easiest when you're splitting in half, but you can split however you like).

5. Color the rectangles and text as you need (you might want to do this earlier in the process).

Dave

PS: I think the same trick applies in Illustrator.

[Jean Matua Bustamant]

GREAT! Works beautifully, exports just fine, in pdf as well as in eps, wonderfull. Really, thank you so much, that helps me save hours.
I hope a lot of people will read this. Great idea.

thanks again.

Jean Matua

[David Creamer]

I'm not sure if Jean was trying to avoid converting the letters to vector or not -- or just did not want to *import* vector art.

If you don't mind converting the letter to vector inside of InDesign, here is another method (not better, just different):

Convert your letter to vector and color
Make a box in position over the letter
Color with second color
With black arrow, cut the box
Select the vector letter, and paste inside

It can be done very quickly, if time is a factor.
Of course, the colors can be changed at any time.