Adobe InDesign Basics Red = Top Menu Option (File, Edit, Layout, Type, Object, Table, View, Window, Help)

Bitmap vs. Vector Graphics

1. Bitmap Graphics: Image is made up of tiny pixels, each of which has a color and sometimes an alpha

(transparency) value a. Photoshop is primarily bitmap­based b. Increasing or reducing image size affects visual quality c. Bitmap file formats:

i. .JPEG ii. .PNG iii. .GIF iv. .DNG, .CRW, .CR2, .NEF, .NRW

2. Vector Graphics: Image is generated by mathematical formulas

a. InDesign is primarily a vector­based text and graphics editor, but can import and work with bitmap graphics

b. Infinitely scale graphics to display or print at any resolution c. Shapes are comprised of Points connected by Lines & Curves d. Fonts are saved as vector files e. Vector file formats:

i. .INDD ­ Adobe InDesign document ii. .AI ­ Adobe Illustrator file iii. .EPS ­ Encapsulated PostScript iv. .SVG ­ Scalable Vector Graphics

New Document Window 1. File > New > Document:

a. Preview Checkbox: Turn on to preview document before creating it

b. Intent: Print, Web & Digital Publishing i. Sets the Page Size

Preset & Working Units (points/picas, inches, pixels, etc.)

ii. 1 inch = 72 points (pt) iii. 1 inch = 6 picas (p) iv. 1 pica = 12 points

c. Facing Pages: Turn on for 2 page spread, off for individual pages

d. Number of Pages, Start Page # & Primary Text Frame

e. Page Size: Width & Height values f. Columns: Add column guide lines to document

i. Gutter: Space between columns g. Margins: 3p0 / ½” by default h. Bleed & Slug: Area outside document edge used for printer marks and cropping

2. Press OK to create your new InDesign Document (.INDD) file 3. You can adjust these settings later under

File > Document Setup and Layout > Margins & Columns

InDesign Interface Basics

1. Page: Contains your text, graphics, photos, artwork, etc.. 2. Tools Panel: Useful tools for editing your document 3. Control Panel: Properties and options for selected tool and objects 4. Rulers: Drag in from the left or top rulers to add Guides 5. Panels: Collapsible sets of settings, features & menus 6. Workspaces: Preset Panel layouts based on what you’re working on (Essentials, Book,

Digital Publishing, Typography…)

Panels 1. Adobe software organizes everything into separate Panels which can be reconfigured to your liking:

a. All panels are available from the Window menu at the top of the screen b. Click and drag the name of a panel to rearrange its position. You can dock/undock panels onto

different sides or group/ungroup them with other panels c. A blue line or blue box appears when you can attach a panel to a part of the interface d. The Workspaces menu in the top right has preset panel configurations based on different

workflows

Pages

1. Everything in your document that will be displayed or printed exists on a Page. The grey space outside of your Pages can be used as working space

2. Pages are organized by default into a Two­Page Spread, with left & right facing pages like a book

a. Go to File > Document Setup and uncheck Facing Pages to switch to disable Page Spreads

3. The Pages Panel is where you can organize and add/remove pages: a. Click on the Page Icon to add a new page b. Click on the Trashcan Icon to delete the currently selected page(s) c. Double­click on a page in the Pages Panel to navigate to that page d. You can duplicate the currently selected page(s) by Dragging that page onto the Page Icon

4. A­Master is your default Master Page Spread:

a. Master Pages allow you to add content that can be repeated across multiple pages, such as: Page Numbers, Book Title, Chapter, Author, Header/Footer, etc..

b. Anything you add to the A­Master page will be automatically propagated to all other pages with that Master Page applied

c. Right­click on the Page Panel Options and select New Master… to create multiple Master Pages for different layouts (e.g. Body Page, Intro Page, Images Page, etc..)

d. Right­click on a Page and select Apply Master to Pages… to apply a new Master Page to a page

Editing Type 1. You can edit text with either the Type Tool (T) or by Double­clicking on any Text Frame 2. Once inside of a Text Frame, there are a few useful shortcuts:

a. Double­click: Select a single word b. Triple­click: Select a single line c. Quadruple­click: Select a paragraph d. Command+A: Select all type e. Command+Shift+A: Deselect all type

3. Use the Control Panel at the top of the screen to adjust type properties of either the selected Text

Frame or letters/word/line/paragraph: a. Font, Font Size, Leading, Kerning, Tracking, Scale, Baseline Shift, Alignment, Indentation

4. To add dummy text for layout purposes (if you’re still working on the final copy), Select the intended

Text Frame and go to Type > Fill with Placeholder Text (this will overwrite any existing text in the frame!)

Threading Text 1. A powerful feature of InDesign is the ability to thread Text from one Text Frame to another:

a. Text frames have two Ports: An In Port in the top­left and an Out Port in the bottom right i. An Empty Port Icon indicates the beginning or ending of the text in that frame ii. A Linked Port Icon is connected to another Text Frame in your document

­ Go to View > Extras > Show Text Threads to see this link graphically iii. Click on the Out Port of a Frame, and you can do one of two things:

­ Click and drag to create a new Linked Text Frame elsewhere in your document ­ Click inside an existing Text Frame to establish a Threaded Link

b. If you have more text in a frame than InDesign can display, the Out Port will display the

Overset Text Icon. c. Click on the Overset Text icon (out port) and click on the In Port of a new Frame to thread the

Overset Text to that Frame.

Character & Paragraph Styles

1. To keep all of your type appearing consistent throughout your document, it can be useful to use Styles 2. The Character Styles and Paragraph Styles Panels can be found in Window > Styles

a. Click the Page Icon to create a new style, or the Trashcan Icon to delete a style b. Double­click a style to edit its properties c. Character Styles:

­ Contains properties for Font, Style (Light, Medium, Bold Black, Italic), Size, Character Formatting (Leading, Kerning, Tracking), Scale, Color and other display options

d. Paragraph Styles: ­ Contains all the properties of Character Styles, as well as additional formatting options:

­ Indents & Spacing, Tabs, Paragraph Rules, Hyphenation, Justification, etc.

3. Select either an entire Text Frame or an individual text selection to apply that Style

Basic Object Manipulation 1. There are two basic types of objects you can have in your document: Shapes & Frames

a. Shapes are generally used for colored graphics, and can come in many forms:

i. Rectangle, Ellipse & Polygon Tools ii. Pen, Pencil & Line Tools iii. By default, they are given the current Fill/Stroke colors

b. Frames are meant to contain other content: type, photos, graphics and even audio & videos

a. Rectangle, Ellipse & Polygon Frame Tools: Contain an ‘X’ in the center, indicating their use for different kinds of content

b. Frames are invisible until you add content to them or specifically assign a Fill/Stroke color

1. Click and drag with any of the Frame or Shape Tools to create a new object 2. Hold Shift while dragging to create an object with equal horizontal & vertical dimensions

3. You can move and transform entire objects with the Select Tool (V):

a. Select an object: Single­click b. Move an object: Click and drag

­ Move along horizontal or vertical axis: Hold Shift, then Move c. Scale an object: Click and drag the corner or side transform handles (little white boxes)

­ Scale an object uniformly: Hold Shift, then Scale d. Rotate an object: Click and drag just outside corner transform handles (cursor changes to

double arrows) ­ Snap to 45 and 90 degree rotations: Hold Shift, then Rotate

Colors & Swatches 1. Every object in InDesign (Frames, Shapes, Paths) has two basic color attributes:

a. Fill: Inside color of object b. Stroke: Outside edge color of object

2. By default, these attributes may be set to None (invisible), as indicated by the red diagonal stripe

3. To change a selected object’s Fill or Stroke: a. Single­click on either the solid box (upper left) or hollow box (lower right) b. Double­click on the same box to open up the Color Picker c. You have several different Color Modes with which you can pick a color:

i. RGB: Adjust Red, Green & Blue values from 0 ­ 255 ­ Useful for primarily screen & web graphics

ii. CMYK: Adjust Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black values from 0% ­ 100% ­ Useful for commercial offset printing

iii. LAB: Adjust Lightness & a/b color­opponent dimensions ­ Approximates human vision; not generally used in this context

d. Click OK after you have adjusted your color to update the relevant Fill or Stroke

4. Click on the double arrows in the top­right of the Fill/Stroke area to Swap them

5. You can save colors to the Swatches Panel by dragging them from the Stroke/Fill area on the left into the area beneath the default Swatches (None, Registration, Paper, Black, CMYK/RGB)

a. Double­click on a Swatch to edit its properties: i. Name, Colors and Color Mode

b. Trashcan Icon: Delete a Swatch

Placing Content into InDesign 1. File > Place: Easiest way to add content (text, photos, graphics, multimedia) into your document

a. Navigate and select one or more files on your computer ­ Enable Show Import Options to change how InDesign places your file prior to

inserting it b. Your cursor now displays a preview of the piece of content to be inserted c. Click to insert the content at 100% scale, or Click and Drag to specify its size in the document

­ You can either insert the content into an existing Frame, or into blank space to create a new Frame

d. If you selected more than one piece of content earlier, the next piece will be loaded into the cursor after you place the first one.

2. You can place documents with layers, such as Photoshop & Illustrator files directly into InDesign and

then Right­click > Edit With… to make changes to the file. When you save and go back to InDesign, the changes will be updated automatically.

3. Don’t worry if Placed Images look pixelated; the final document will use the full high­resolution image.

Links Panel

1. The Links Panel will display all files you placed into your document a. Image Files, Layered Documents, Multimedia. PDFs, etc. b. Link Info displays useful information about your file c. If your file is either deleted from its current location on your

computer or given a new filename, you will see a Red Question Mark in the Links panel. This indicates that InDesign cannot link to your file, and will not be able to include it in the final document.

d. To repair a broken link, either double­click the question mark or right­click your Linked Item and select Relink…

e. Navigate to where the file is saved on your computer and select Open to repair the link. The Question Mark should disappear.

Working With Images

1. Images placed into InDesign have two components that can be selected, moved, rotated and scaled independently of each other

a. Frame: The container in which the image lives b. Content: The file itself (image, could also be a multimedia file like video, Adobe Flash, audio)

­ The Arrow Cursor appears when you’re manipulating a Frame ­ The Hand Cursor appears when you’re manipulating Content

c. Click and drag anywhere within a Frame to move just the Frame, or click on the concentric circles to move the Content

d. You can also double­click in a Frame to switch between editing its Frame or its Content

2. With an Image Frame selected, go to Object > Fitting for different options on having your content displayed correctly:

a. Fit Frame or Content Proportionately b. Fit Content to Frame, or Fit Frame to Content c. Center Content

3. Object > Fitting > Frame Fitting Options:

a. Turn on Auto­Fit and set your Content Fitting Rule to have the Content fit the Frame at any size or dimensions

Output File Formats 3. File > Export (Command+E):

i. .PDF: 1. Interactive: Include bookmarks, hyperlinks, movies & sound clips 2. Print: format for printing 3. Opens separate Export dialog box, click OK

ii. .TIFF:

1. Commonly used for print documents 2. Supports transparency, layers & vector paths

iii. .EPUB:

1. Compatible with eReaders (Kindle, iPad, Kobo) 2. Supports reflowing type based on device screen size

Printing

1. File > Print Booklet… a. Use for double sided (duplex) printing b. Setup:

i. Booklet Type: 1. 2­up Saddle Stitch 2. 2­up Perfect Bound 3. 2, 3 and 4­up Consecutive

ii. Space Between Pages iii. Bleed Between Pages iv. Creep v. Signature Size vi. Margins: Automatic or manually set

c. Preview: Check first to ensure proper settings

d. Print Settings: i. Setup > Scale > Scale To Fit ii. Color Management > Options:

1. Color Handling: Let InDesign Determine Colors 2. Printer Profile: Select correct paper/ink type for Epson 3880