Of all the transformations you can apply to objects in InDesign, shearing is probably the most difficult to understand and use. Trying to use the Shearing tool without a little training beforehand can be an exercise in confusion and frustration. But don’t despair—you can use shearing effectively in InDesign. In this week’s free video, I will show you how.

You may be wondering, if shearing is so fiddly and so fickle, why one would even want to bother with it. One great reason is the Shearing tool’s ability to take a simple photo and make it into a 3D book.

While, Inner shadow and beveling both contribute to the overall effect in the example above, shearing is the key ingredient, and if you can master it, you can do all kinds of interesting things that you can’t do with any other tool in InDesign.

The book cover in this week’s free InDesign FX video is made up of two main elements, both sheared around the vertical axis. The front cover is sheared 10° and the spine is sheared –60°.

The back cover and the pages are made from copies of the front cover.

In the video, I show how to apply shearing by selecting an item and then double clicking on the Shear tool. That is the only way to have precise, numerical control over both the angle and the axis around which you’re shearing, and the best way to add shearing to an item, in my opinion.

Once you try shearing this way, you may never go back to dragging with the Shear tool or using the Control panel. For lynda.com members, I also have another new video this week in the online training library devoted to shearing effects. Not surprisingly, it’s called Shearing to Create 3D Effects, Part 2. If your particularly partial to dragging with the Shear tool, or looking for a reason why you may choose one shearing technique over another, in the video, I show how you it is indeed possible to successfully drag with the Shear tool to make different variations on a magazine effect.

See you here again in two weeks with another InDesign effect!

Tags: InDesign, InDesign FX, Mike Rankin

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