EDUCBA Logo

EDUCBA

MENUMENU
  • Explore
    • EDUCBA Pro
    • PRO Bundles
    • Featured Skills
    • New & Trending
    • Fresh Entries
    • Finance
    • Data Science
    • Programming and Dev
    • Excel
    • Marketing
    • HR
    • PDP
    • VFX and Design
    • Project Management
    • Exam Prep
    • All Courses
  • Blog
  • Enterprise
  • Free Courses
  • Log in
  • Sign Up
Home Design Design Tutorials Design Basic Tutorial InDesign arrow
 

InDesign arrow

InDesign Arrow

Introduction to InDesign Arrow

InDesing arrow is the same as we used in adobe illustrator for different types of purposes and in InDesign we use it for many types of indication works when we use the arrow in the form of stokes. We can create shapes of arrows also with the help of some tools of tool panel as well as some option of menus of the menu bar. Here in this article, I will tell you about both types of arrows so that you can use them according to your requirement. You will find many adjustable parameters during creating arrows by using the Strokes panel. So let us analyze these parameters.

 

 

How to create and use Arrow in InDesign?

I will explain to you about the arrow on this design layout. You take a new document for this purpose or take your own design. So I want to indicate these labels on the circle which has a fractional area for each label.

Watch our Demo Courses and Videos

Valuation, Hadoop, Excel, Mobile Apps, Web Development & many more.

InDesign arrow output 1

So for that, we navigate the Strokes panel on the working screen of this software. You will find this Strokes panel at the right side of this working screen in the panel’s sections because it is Typography workspace mode.

InDesign arrow output 2

If you are unable to find this panel on your working screen then go to the Window menu and click on it. In the scroll down list of it, you will find the Strokes panel so click on it for enabling it or you can press F10 functional key of keyboard as its shortcut.

InDesign arrow output 3

For creating an arrow using the Stroke panel we have to draw a line or curve which is a stroke. So I will take Line tool from the tool panel. You can do this with a pen tool also.

InDesign arrow output 4

I will draw a line near the Character Animation label with the help of the line tool.

InDesign arrow output 5

But you can see it is not visible to us. The reason is that the strokes color is white so make sure you have a stroke color different from the background color of the design layout.

InDesign arrow output 6

So I will go to the tool panel and off the fill color from the color square box.

InDesign arrow output 7

Then select the Stroke color box by clicking on it.

InDesign arrow output 8

And choose some other color for the stroke from the color picker dialog box. Color may be according to labeling or different.

InDesign arrow output 9

Now I will go to the Stroke panel which is at the right side of the working screen and increase the width of this line a little bit by increasing the value of the Weight option of this panel. I am increasing the width so that you can clearly see it. There is no connection between the arrow and changing of the width of the stroke.

InDesign arrow output 10

Here when you click on the down arrow button of the Start/End option of this panel you will have a list of arrowheads such as Bar, Square, Curved, and so on.

InDesign arrow output 11

I will choose this one for the starting point of this line. You can choose anyone from the list just by clicking on your desired one. One thing i would like to tell you is that the left side box will add an arrowhead at the starting point of the line and the right side box will add an arrowhead at the endpoint of the line.

InDesign arrow output 12

And once you click on any arrowhead it will apply to the chosen end like this. Now I will choose this arrowhead for the endpoint of this line.

InDesign arrow output 13

And you can see it is a nice arrow that you can use for indication purposes. You can also apply these arrowheads on curved strokes.

InDesign arrow output 14

Now let us analyze other parameters of this panel. I have made a copy of the first arrow for the next label and when i scale it down from any side.

InDesign arrow output 15

You can see the proportion of arrowhead is maintained so there will be no effect on arrowhead if we scale the stroke. It will only change if the width of strokes changes.

InDesign arrow output 16

It will work with dashed lines also or any other stroke line type which we can choose from this list.

InDesign arrow output 17

There is a plus point with this arrow that we can scale the arrow head from the stroke panel separately.

InDesign arrow output 18

For example, if I change the value of starting arrowhead to 150% then you can see the size of starting arrowhead increased as 150%.

output 19

Same as we can decrease the size of the arrowhead also. For example this time I will enter 50% as the value of the end arrowhead.

output 20

By clicking on ‘Swap start and arrow heads’ button we can interchange both arrow head quickly with each other.

output 21.1

output 21.2

If we want we can change the color of gaps between this dashed line of stroke. You can choose a color from the Gap Color option of this panel.

output 22

And it will give you a very nice arrow.

output 23

Now let me tell you how you can create a custom arrow for any shape. I want to make an arrow with this part of the circle. So I will take a rectangle tool and make a rectangle like this.

output 24

I will add an anchor point at the center of the lower edge of this rectangle and then delete corner anchor points so that they become a triangle.

output 25

Now I will go to the Window menu for having a Pathfinder panel. So go to the Object & Layout option then choose Pathfinder.

output 26

Now I will select both of the shapes and then click on the Add button of the Pathfinder panel.

output 27

And it will convert these two shapes into one shape.

output 28

And I will place it here like this.

output 29

The same way I have to create two move arrows and you can we can use this custom arrow for different designing purposes.

output 30

Conclusion

Now you can understand both ways for creating arrows in InDesign which we discussed above. You can create more custom arrows on the basis of your own idea and manipulate them as per your design layout requirement. Just practice on both types of arrows so that you can have an idea about where you can use which type of method for creating arrows.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to InDesign arrow. Here we discuss How to create and use Arrow in InDesign and both ways for creating arrows. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –

  1. What is Adobe InDesign
  2. Alternative to Indesign
  3. InDesign Document Setup
  4. Figma Alternatives

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Follow us!
  • EDUCBA FacebookEDUCBA TwitterEDUCBA LinkedINEDUCBA Instagram
  • EDUCBA YoutubeEDUCBA CourseraEDUCBA Udemy
APPS
EDUCBA Android AppEDUCBA iOS App
Blog
  • Blog
  • Free Tutorials
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Log in
Courses
  • Enterprise Solutions
  • Free Courses
  • Explore Programs
  • All Courses
  • All in One Bundles
  • Sign up
Email
  • [email protected]

ISO 10004:2018 & ISO 9001:2015 Certified

© 2025 - EDUCBA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE CERTIFICATION NAMES ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
Loading . . .
Quiz
Question:

Answer:

Quiz Result
Total QuestionsCorrect AnswersWrong AnswersPercentage

Explore 1000+ varieties of Mock tests View more

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA
Free Design Course

3D animation, modelling, simulation, game development & others

By continuing above step, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

EDUCBA Login

Forgot Password?

🚀 Limited Time Offer! - 🎁 ENROLL NOW