Setting up a Ghosted Background Behind Text

David Blatner

11

Here’s a basic technique that I’ve been asked about several times recently: How to set up a lighter area behind text, so that you can read the text on top of a dark background. In CS2 and earlier, it was necessary to set up two or more frames to achieve this effect. In CS3 and later, it’s far easier:

1. In Object > Text Frame Options, increase the Text Inset value so you have some space between the edge of the frame and the text.

2. Set the background fill color of the text frame to Paper (or some other color).

3. Click on Fill in the Effects panel. This is the crux of the tip: You can choose Object, Fill, Stroke, or Text in the Effects panel. By clicking Fill first, the effect will only apply to the frame’s fill color.

4. Lower the Opacity value to something like 70%. That’s it! You have now ghosted back the fill color, which is the same as lightening up whatever is behind it.

5. If you want a softer edge, select Basic Feather from the Effects pop-up menu (at the bottom of the Effects panel), while Fill is still selected. (Of course, you could use Directional or Gradient Feather instead… it just depends on the “blurry edge” effect you’re trying to achieve.

Of course, this also works for darkening an area behind text, or just changing it to something different, using different blending modes and so on. But I’ll leave that to you to explore.

Actually, here’s one other method, with a very different look: You can set the background fill of the frame to None, then apply an Outer Glow effect to the text. Make sure you increase the Spread value in the Effects dialog box, to get a strong “glow” or else you’ll barely be able to see it:

Personally, I don’t like that look as much, but as they say: There’s no accounting for taste!