Coordinate Spaces & Transformations in InDesign — Chap.1-5
June 30, 2018 | Tips | en
Six years! It tooks me six years to document the fundamentals of InDesign “Coordinate Spaces and Transformations.” You may think I am sluggishly slow—which is a sensible diagnosis!—but the topic required a true immersion to be both experimented and covered. Chapter 5 (“The Transform Process”) is now available and makes this version 3.1 consistent enough to form a kind of white paper…
For the present, Coordinate Spaces & Transformations in InDesign CS4–CC covers all atomic subjects that a developer should grab before using transformation matrices and related methods. This includes:
1. KEY CONCEPTS
— 2D Coordinates; Affine Maps; Relative Locations, Inner Space.
— Transformations, Maps, Matrices; Matrix Patterns and Product.
— InDesign Transform Order (scaling×shear×rotation×translation).
— Transforming vs. Deforming; Hierarchical Mapping of DOM components.
2. INDESIGN COORDINATE SPACES
— Pasteboard, Spread, and Page spaces; Page Size and Location Issues.
— Inner Coordinate Space of a PageItem.
— Chasles' Relation; Moving vs. Displacing in Space…
3. BOUNDING BOXES
— Each Bounding Box Depends on a Coordinate Space.
— Each Bounding Box Defines a Coordinate System.
— Path Bounds vs. Visible Bounds.
4. RESOLVING LOCATIONS
— Definition; Location Specifier and Syntax.
— All about the resolve() method.
— Transform-Space into Bound-Space Algorithm.
— InDesign's Ruler System; Details about Page-based Rulers.
5. THE TRANSFORM PROCESS
— Understanding the “Transform Space.”
— Transformation Origin.
— MatrixContent flags and other parameters.
— Impact of Transform Preferences.
Version History
2018-06-30. — Version 3.1, Chapters 1 to 5 + bookmarks, CoordinateSpacesTransfos01-05.pdf (1,17 MB, 41 p.)
2016-06-14. — Version 3.0 (draft), Chapter 4 only, CoordinateSpacesTransfos04.pdf (433 KB, 12 p.)
2014-10-18. — Version 2.1b, added Chapter 3, CoordinateSpacesTransfos01-03.pdf (528 KB, 22 p.)
2014-10-08. — Version 2.1a, Chapters 1 and 2, CoordinateSpacesTransfos01-02.pdf (481 KB, 19 p.)
2014-03-24. — Version 2.0, “Key Concepts,” CoordinateSpacesTransfos01_KeyConcepts.pdf (377 KB, 10 p.)
2012-12-21. — Version 1.0, creation date (unpublished.)
