OUGD405- Design Process- Software Workshop Indesign

Introduction to Indesign

Indesign is used for designing layouts for print.

New Document Set up

To set up a document input the correct page size of the final output in the width and height sections.

More Options

 

Columns- sets up guides vertically on the page

Gutter- space between the columns

Margins- sets up guides inside the page to allow for a consistent white space around the page

Bleeds and Slug- Bleed allows for inaccuracies in trimming after the document has been printed.

(standard bleed is 3mm)

The slug is another area outside the page that is larger than the bleed and contains printers marks. For example, crop marks, registrations marks etc.

Facing pages- select facing pages if the outcome is a book

Pages Palette

The pages palette allows you to increase the number of pages.

Margins and Columns

 

This allows you adjust the margins and columns after initial document setup.

Create Guides

 

Allows to add multiple guides to a page after initial document setup.

To add content to a page you need to create a frame.

 

To add text you need to create a text frame

Placeholder Text

This allows you to fill the frame with mock text

With the selection tool you can adjust the container rather than the content.

 

 To import text from a document outside of Indesign, create a text frame, select place and choose the appropriate document.

 

The red box indicates the text that has been imported has overflowed the text frame.

 Either adjust the frame till the text fits or click the red box and drag a new text frame  like above. This is useful when working in columns.

When preparing images you need to:

Photoshop

1. Actual size
2. CMYK or greyscale
3. 300dpi
4. Save as .tif or ,psd NOT jpeg

Illustrator

1. CMYK
2. Save as .ai file

Photoshop

To add an image, the same as importing text, go to place, select the image and simply click on the page

 

To adjust the container click on the little boxes around the frame.

 

The adjust the content click on the center of the image to adjust the size of the image. However this should be done in Photoshop.

To avoid mistakes it is best to make a plan first.

Illustrator

To add images from illustrator you need to create a rectangle frame, go to place and select the illustrator file.

 

If the image is larger than the frame, click the center of the image and rescale it to fit. This can be done without affecting the quality of the image because its a vector file.

Part 2

When an image is placed in Indesign it establishes a link between Indesign and the image file.

 

Indesign needs to know the origional location of the image. It displays a low resolution preview on screen. Once printed it will be high resolution. These can be located in the links palette.

All images placed in Indesign need to be kept in a folder that can be located. This makes the software run more efficient when creating a large document.

If you move an image you will need to tell Indesign where its new location is. A red question mark will appear either in the image frame or in the links palette. To relink link you need to click the question mark and select the image in its new location.

 

To improve the image resolution change the display performance settings as above.

 

You can place an image in Indesign then go back into Photoshop to adjust. This will update the file in Indesign. If you rescale an image in Indesign you need to find the image scale in the image below on the left, and rescale it in Photoshop.

To edit the photo in Photoshop, right click the image and go to edit with; Photoshop

or hold the alt key and double click and the image and will open up in Photoshop.

Once in Photoshop change the image size and the the colour mode to CMYK then save the document and it will automatically update the image in Indesign.

Opacity 

Open the image in Photoshop. First you need to unlock the layer to allow you to create transparency.

 

Using the appropriate method erase the areas you want transparent and save the file as a .psd file.

In Indesign place the file and it will keep its transparency.

 Frames

With overlapping frames you can change the stacking order of the frames. To do this go to object, arrange.

To preview what the page will look like simply press W.

 

Below is another way of previewing the page in different ways. This is at the bottom of the tool bar on the left.

Text Wrap

 

To wrap text around an image go to window, text wrap and the box below will appear.

 

Select the  wrap around bounding box for the text to wrap round the image. 

To create a larger space/gutter round the image adjust the options in the image below.

To wrap text around a transparent image select wrap around object shape and select Alpha Channel.  Alpha channel is the transparent areas of an image.

 This will wrap the text around the transparent image like below.

 This can be done with different shaped frame tools as well.

Similar to illustrator you can create a shape with the pen tool.

 

To specify whether its a graphic or text box go to object, content.

 

 Anchor points can be adjusted in the same way as illustrator.

 In Illustrator you can copy and paste the vector shapes straight into Indesign.

Colour

Working with colour in Indesign is the same as Illustrator. 

For a consitant application of colour use the swatches palette.

Colour has to be applied to a frame or a shape.

Text frame

When adding colour to a text frame the default will fill the frame box with colour. To add colour to the text select formatting affects text.

To create a new swatch use the swatch palette menu 

 

Select new swatch and select the CMYK colour mode and adjust the settings as required and click add. This will add it to the swatches palette.

Print

When using the printer in the studio leave the setting on define by driver then select page set up.

PDF

The best quality pdf for commercial work is (press quality)

High Quality print is for digital print (not suitable for commercial work)

Smallest file size pdf is best for blogs and websites