Page-item types

IDML has six page-item elements, and they all share one skeleton — they differ only in a handful of fields.

In short: The six page-item elements are TextFrame, Rectangle, Oval, GraphicLine, Polygon, and Group. Every one of them carries the same skeleton — a Self id, an ItemTransform, a PathGeometry, paint attributes, and an AppliedObjectStyle — and the differences between them come down to a few extra fields each. This page is the reference: one attribute table per element, with each attribute marked, from the parser, for exactly what our renderer does with it.

The two filled shapes below — a Rectangle with a red fill and an Oval with a blue fill — are the smallest example that exercises this page. Neither carries text or an image; the FillColor alone makes them paint.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<idPkg:Spread xmlns:idPkg="http://ns.adobe.com/AdobeInDesign/idml/1.0/packaging" DOMVersion="20.0">
  <Spread Self="uspread" PageCount="1" BindingLocation="0" ShowMasterItems="true" AllowPageShuffle="true" ItemTransform="1 0 0 1 0 0">
    <Page Self="upage" Name="1" AppliedMaster="umaster" ItemTransform="1 0 0 1 0 0" GeometricBounds="0 0 841.89 595.276" MasterPageTransform="1 0 0 1 0 0"/>
    <Rectangle Self="urect" ContentType="GraphicType" AppliedObjectStyle="ObjectStyle/$ID/[None]" Visible="true" Name="$ID/" ItemTransform="1 0 0 1 80 100" FillColor="Color/Red" StrokeColor="Swatch/None" StrokeWeight="0">
      <Properties>
        <PathGeometry>
          <GeometryPathType PathOpen="false">
            <PathPointArray>
              <PathPointType Anchor="0 0" LeftDirection="0 0" RightDirection="0 0"/>
              <PathPointType Anchor="0 200" LeftDirection="0 200" RightDirection="0 200"/>
              <PathPointType Anchor="300 200" LeftDirection="300 200" RightDirection="300 200"/>
              <PathPointType Anchor="300 0" LeftDirection="300 0" RightDirection="300 0"/>
            </PathPointArray>
          </GeometryPathType>
        </PathGeometry>
      </Properties>
    </Rectangle>
    <Oval Self="uoval" ContentType="GraphicType" AppliedObjectStyle="ObjectStyle/$ID/[None]" Visible="true" Name="$ID/" ItemTransform="1 0 0 1 200 380" FillColor="Color/Blue" StrokeColor="Swatch/None" StrokeWeight="0">
      <Properties>
        <PathGeometry>
          <GeometryPathType PathOpen="false">
            <PathPointArray>
              <PathPointType Anchor="0 0" LeftDirection="0 0" RightDirection="0 0"/>
              <PathPointType Anchor="0 240" LeftDirection="0 240" RightDirection="0 240"/>
              <PathPointType Anchor="240 240" LeftDirection="240 240" RightDirection="240 240"/>
              <PathPointType Anchor="240 0" LeftDirection="240 0" RightDirection="240 0"/>
            </PathPointArray>
          </GeometryPathType>
        </PathGeometry>
      </Properties>
    </Oval>
  </Spread>
</idPkg:Spread>

Attributes shared by every page item

These appear on all six elements (the Color/* references resolve against Resources/Graphic.xml):

TextFrame

A TextFrame is the only member with a ParentStory: the story id whose paragraphs flow into the frame. Its ContentType is TextType. Everything else is shared.

The TextFramePreference child — insets, vertical justification, auto-sizing, first baseline — has its own reference page.

Rectangle

The workhorse. A Rectangle with a FillColor is a colour panel; with a nested <Image> it is a picture frame; with neither it is an empty outline. Its ContentType is GraphicType (or Unassigned).

Oval

Same fill and stroke story as Rectangle. Its geometry is the ellipse inscribed in the path's bounding box — a square outline yields a circle, as in the example above.

GraphicLine

A straight stroke with no fill region. IDML stores the line implicitly: its two endpoints are the top-left and bottom-right corners of the path's bounding box. A GraphicLine has no FillColor field — only stroke attributes mean anything.

Polygon

An arbitrary closed outline — charts, stars, cut-out shapes. The parser keeps the full anchor list (and per-contour boundaries for compound paths).

Group

A Group is not a shape — it is a container. Its children are the page items it clusters, and its own ItemTransform composes onto each of them so the whole cluster moves, scales, or rotates as one. It carries no fill or stroke of its own.

Group membership and the group-level transparency block get a fuller treatment on the Groups page.

Frequently asked questions

Which attributes do all six page items share? Every page item carries a Self id, an ItemTransform, a PathGeometry, paint attributes (FillColor, FillTint, StrokeColor, StrokeWeight, StrokeType), an AppliedObjectStyle, and an ItemLayer reference. The renderer honours all of these; the per-element tables above cover only the fields that differ.

What is the difference between a Rectangle and an Oval in IDML? Both share the same fill-and-stroke story, but their geometry differs: a Rectangle paints the path outline directly, while an Oval paints the ellipse inscribed in the path's bounding box — so a square Oval outline yields a circle.

Are corner options and line arrowheads rendered? Not fully. CornerOption is parsed but every non-square variant (Rounded, Bevel, Inset, and so on) is drawn as Rounded for now, and GraphicLine arrowheads (LeftLineEnd / RightLineEnd) are parsed but not yet drawn — the line renders as a plain stroke.