Frames & paths

Everything you see on an IDML page is a page item — one of a small family of elements that hold every mark on a spread.

In short: A page item is the IDML element that places content on a page: a block of body copy, a photo, a tinted background panel, a hairline rule, a logo cluster. They are a small, closed family — text frames, rectangles, ovals, graphic lines, polygons, and groups — and each lives as a direct child of a Spread. Learn the family and you can read any spread; the rest is just which attributes each member carries. This page introduces the family, the two jobs it splits into, and the skeleton every member shares.

One family, two jobs

The page items split cleanly by what they hold:

• Frames that hold text. A TextFrame points at a story (its ParentStory) and the composer flows that story's paragraphs into the frame's outline.
• Frames that hold graphics or nothing. A Rectangle, Oval, GraphicLine, or Polygon is a vector shape. With a FillColor it is a colour panel; with a nested <Image> it is a picture frame; with neither it is an empty outline.

That split is not rigid in InDesign — the same underlying object becomes a graphic frame, a text frame, or an empty shape depending on its content. But in the IDML on disk each item is written under a named element that tells you its current role, and that is the name our parser dispatches on.

The members

The same shape can carry any of three content roles, which IDML records on a ContentType attribute: TextType (a text frame), GraphicType (a graphics frame), or Unassigned (an empty shape). Our parser does not read that attribute directly — it infers the role from the element name and from whether a ParentStory or image link is present. A <TextFrame> with a ParentStory is text; a <Rectangle> with a FillColor and no story is a graphic.

How a page item is built

Every member shares the same skeleton. Strip a Rectangle and a TextFrame down and they look nearly identical — that is by design, and it is why the reference page can describe them together:

• a Self id, so other parts can point at it;
• an ItemTransform that places it on the page;
• a PathGeometry (or, on older exports, a GeometricBounds) that gives its outline;
• paint attributes — FillColor, StrokeColor, StrokeWeight;
• an AppliedObjectStyle that supplies defaults for everything left unset.

The shape's outline lives in its own inner coordinate space, authored from the origin; the ItemTransform slides and rotates that outline onto the page. This is the same coordinate story the geometry chapter tells in full — page items are where it pays off.

Where to go next

• Page-item types — the reference: one attribute table per member, with exactly which attributes our renderer honours.
• Text frames — the TextFramePreference block that controls insets, vertical justification, auto-sizing, and the first baseline.
• Groups — how membership and group-level transparency work, and one thing the renderer does not yet do inside them.

Frequently asked questions

What is a page item in IDML? A page item is any element that places content on a page — a TextFrame, Rectangle, Oval, GraphicLine, Polygon, or Group. Each is written as a direct child of a Spread and carries its own placement, outline, and paint.

What is the difference between a text frame and a graphic frame? A TextFrame points at a story through its ParentStory, and the composer flows that story's paragraphs into the frame's outline. A graphic frame — a Rectangle, Oval, GraphicLine, or Polygon — holds a vector shape that paints as a colour panel (with a FillColor), a picture frame (with a nested <Image>), or an empty outline (with neither).

How does the parser know what kind of page item it is reading? It dispatches on the element name and on whether a ParentStory or image link is present, not on the ContentType attribute. A <TextFrame> with a ParentStory is treated as text; a <Rectangle> with a FillColor and no story is treated as a graphic.