Module

    Description

The Process of Desktop Publishing

A 'high level' look at InDesign taking your first serious look at the software application. Creating your first 'pieces' of work - an A1 size poster for a motorcycle race meeting and a poster for an art exhibition at a primary school. The importance of using InDesign templates is emphasized, especially those that you create yourself. After looking at some posters, we further develop the concept of using templates by using one to create a job advertisement and a travel company flyer. After producing some additional work, it is time for some theory. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Desk Top Publishing (DTP) and the need to learn to use additional tools such as vector drawing programs, image editors, scanners,text editors and digital cameras.

The benefits of producing PDF files from your InDesign files is illustrated as we look at some examples of PDF files created by our students. Finally, we illustrate InDesign's ability to produce 'in house' documents by printing out a list of the various keyboard shortcuts which can be used to speed your work.

Preliminaries

Some steps to take before beginning serious work with InDesign. The relationship between InDesign and the Windows operating system. Installing InDesign, Acrobat Distiller, Acrobat Postscript Printer Driver. Installing a print driver. Setting preferences in InDesign suitable for the metric environment - the units and column widths. Installing a new Windows font and Postscript font series. Installing some Postscript fonts. Creating a set of folders suitable for InDesign projects.

InDesign in Action 

Showcasing InDesign. Collecting some design ideas and recognizing the value of keeping a design ideas portfolio. Viewing sample files produced by some of our students. Editing your first publication - a brochure for a catering company. Placing graphics in a frame on the page. Adjusting frame contents by scaling. Some more theory - what is Desk Top Publishing? What are the advantages and disadvantages of DTP over conventional publishing methods? What hardware and software are required for DTP? Comparing DTP to word processing. Using InDesign templates. Our first serious publication - a label for a floppy diskette. Developing a document to print two labels for a CD-ROM (with a background graphic).

The User Interface

The InDesign Interface. Drop down menus, rulers, guides, and palettes. Managing palettes - floating palettes on the screen. Combining palettes into groups. Activating palettes by the Window drop down menu. Activating the pages palette, docking palettes.

The Tools palette, selecting tools, using fly out menus. The function of each of the tools from the toolbox palette - Pen, Pencil, Line, Frame, Shape (the difference between shapes and frames), Rotate, Scale, Shear, Free Transform, Eyedropper (copies formatting), Measure, Gradient, Type tool, the Scissors tool, Grabber hand (Pan) and Zoom. Foreground, Background and colour of the stroke (line weight). Keyboard overrides to commands.

Display tricks: the Zoom tool. Positioning the mouse. Percentage magnification - the value of Control key (and the O option). The Zoom Window option.

Controlling movement between pages. Page button movement. The value of Latin text. Exploring the Pages Palette. Exposing Frame Edges, Baseline Grid, Text threads, Document grid. The value of Master Page items. Using preview mode. Opening, closing and positioning palettes. Combining palettes. Selecting frames. Using the Control Palette, making objects non printing. Keyboard shortcuts. Manipulating objects, changing the order of object display. The value of the status line.

Planning documents

Planning an InDesign publication is of crucial importance. Selecting appropriate images to illustrate the concepts behind the document. Sketching design ideas by hand (at an appropriate scale). Headings, body text, readability and typography. The need to involve management early and the value of preparing a project charter.

A Single Page Document

Creating a simple one-page document - a fact sheet for a plant nursery, complete with description and photographs. Importing text from external word processors into a document. Building a two-page document. Using layers in documents - a single page information sheet for a library staff election. Creating and applying watermarks. Printing - editing and printing your course certificate.

Using layers

Manipulating layers - stacking order, adjusting the transparency of a layer, isolating layers, setting the current layer. A sample 'layers' project - a voting flyer for a library election campaign.

Multi page documents

Building a newsletter a multi page document with columns. Placing graphics and stories on the pasteboard ready for page layout. Using high resolution graphic images stored as TIFF files. Keeping images outside the document. Placing stories and linking them such that they flow from one column to another. Applying styles to text. Using styles in a menu for a sophisticated restaurant. Using InDesign's story editor, linking graphics. Editing text and graphics in situ. Printing and proofing. Understanding the use of colour in InDesign documents. The value of understanding RGB, CMYK and Pantone colours. Preparing for commercial printing, colour separations, applying crop marks, Pre-Flight - Pack and Go, Postscript files. 

A note on colour

Applying colour to elements in pages - problems matching colour. The Pantone system, Maunsell colours, RGB vs. CMYK.

Page Design

Some brief guidelines for page design. 'Playing' with typography as design tool. The effect of symmetry and asymmetry in documents. Text flow across and down the page. The value of headings and building a hierarchical structure in documents.