InDesign Fundamentals

Chapter 11

Chapter Objectives • Learn procedures to set up preferences for special settings

with InDesign documents before bringing in graphic and text objects.

• Layout guidelines for accuracy of placement of text and graphics.

• Place graphics and format type characters and frames using the Control panel and InDesign menus.

• Format spacing within a text frame and vertical alignment using the Text Frame Options dialog box.

• Apply color to selected type and stroke of frames.

• Save as the original document and as a template for future editing.

• Advanced: Preflight, packaging, and printing the final document for press

InDesign in Desktop Publishing

• InDesign is a high-end desktop publishing program used in today’s print industry.

• Desktop publishing programs allow designers to bring in text

and graphic objects or elements from other applications and

assemble and lay out these items accurately inside boxes

that it calls frames in an organized manner.

• InDesign is used to create and prepare documents and books for commercial printing, interactive media, or for web use.

• InDesign documents saved for printing have normally an

INDD extension to identify them.

The InDesign CS6 Environment

Word Processing vs. Desktop Publishing

• To create documents of formatted text for reports, short articles, or

single-page documents with fixed inserted graphics, a word

processing program works best.

– This is suitable for home or office use, not for commercial press.

• For printing on a commercial press, desktop publishing involves

placing items from a more diverse group of source applications into

either text or picture boxes called “frames” in InDesign.

• These boxes serve as “containers” for items that can be easily

resized, repositioned, reshaped, combined, or linked to other text

boxes on other pages.

• Desktop publishing provides a place to lay out and reposition items,

edit, and format contents in a more controlled workspace ready for

publishing.

Measuring with Inches and Points

• Desktop publishing and word processing programs use

points as a default measurement for sizing type fonts and

spacing between characters and lines of type.

• Although most designers lay out text and graphic items

using fractions and inches as standards of measurement,

font sizes and spacing are measured in points.

• Where 72 points is the equivalent of one inch and 36

points equals one-half inch, you can see why using

points is a more precise method of measuring for those

smaller measurements.

InDesign Tools

• The InDesign Tools panel is designed with various tools to create text and picture boxes and paths, link and unlink text boxes, and zoom, rotate, and cut items.

• In InDesign, as with any desktop publishing program, you must create either a text box, picture box, or path before placing text or images in the document.

• Tools in the Tools panel with a small black triangle display other tools when held down with the mouse.

InDesign CS6 Tools Panel

Creating Frames

• With InDesign, as with any desktop publishing program, the

designer creates a text box, picture box, or path before placing text

or images in the document.

• InDesign uses frames as the containers for type and graphics

follow.

How to Use Frames • You can select the Type Tool and diagonally drag a frame to start

typing inside.

• Text and graphics can be put in either container, frame, or shape.

• The Frame tools display a nonprinting X inside the shape. In the

graphics industry, a box with an “X” inside has traditionally been

used to show the location of an image.

• The empty frames created by the Rectangle, Ellipse, and Polygon

Shape tools are generally used for text inserts, although with

InDesign, both containers can be used for type or graphics.

• Understanding where to place type (empty container) and graphics

(container with an X) can help with your work flow by communicating

specific elements to team members.

Displaying or Docking Panels (1 of 2)

• For the convenience of providing additional space on your desktop,

InDesign displays its panels as tabs, which you can click to expand

or make active from the side as needed, then click again to contract

when you are done, as has been done with the rest of the CS suite

of applications.

• Sometimes when you click on a panel, it will be grouped with others

for convenience.

• You can select a panel by its title bar or tab and pull it onto your

document work space. This process is called undocking, and the

panel becomes free-floating. When you have finished using the free-

floating panel, drag it back to the edge of the screen to dock it, or

click on the X button to close it.

Displaying or Docking Panels (2 of 2)

Control Panel

The Control panel contains the most frequently

used commands found in the Menu bar for text,

graphics, lines, and paths and displays specific

panels for each.

The Pages Panel Components (1 of 2)

The Pages panel contains two panels that help you

navigate and make changes in your design project.

– The master page panel displays icons of the master

page(s) created and named.

– The document panel displays page icons of all

sequential document pages and their appropriate

master pages.

• When creating booklets of adjoining pages, choose

the Facing Pages option in the Pages panel.

The Pages Panel Components (2 of 2)

• A document icon that displays an “A” inside and a “1”

underneath indicates it is the first document page of

Master Page A.

• The easiest way to add document pages is to select

the Master Page icon and drag it down into the

document page panel below the page created. This

way all formatting remains the same throughout.

• Thumbnails display for each document for quick

reference.

Pages Panel The Pages panel provides a way to create and use template

guidelines with the same parameters and formatting called

“master pages” through multiple documents, and provides

navigation through multiple pages.

InDesign Welcome Screen

with Help and Support Center (1 of 2)

• As in most other Adobe products, the Welcome screen

provides choices in document set up, links to resources

and tutorials, and new feature descriptions.

• The InDesign Help Center provides resources to search

for tutorials, information, tools, commands, functions, and

techniques, including online resources.

InDesign Welcome Screen

and Help and Support Center (2 of 2)

Creating a Coupon Advertisement (1 of 2)

• You will need to create a custom size coupon measuring in inches.

• You will place and accurately position a graphic for the advertisement.

• Coupons will be created using dashed outlines from the Stroke panel for

cutting edges.

• You will enter text and format using the Control panel's character

formatting function.

• The text will need to be centered and justified using the Text Frame

Options function.

• For displaying the "cents" as smaller type in the pricing, you will create

superscripts for emphasis.

• You will learn to add and apply new swatches using Pantone Process

colors.

The Coupon Advertisement (2 of 2)

• A graphic will be placed behind the entire coupon to become the new

background and add a sense of warmth.

• A template will be created for future editing.

Creating and Organizing Folders • When you are going to send your materials to a commercial printer

or web designer, you need to keep all documents, images, and fonts in folders to be included with your InDesign document.

• This is crucial, otherwise images may not print at full resolution or fonts may be substituted when sent to the commercial press.

• It is also just as important to keep these folders with your InDesign document on your hard drive or on the same portable media, like a flash drive.

• Although InDesign has a utility that will perform this, it is a good habit to understand the importance of organizing and keeping files and folders in one place.

Setting Up the New Document • Preferences in InDesign should always be set up first before

starting the document. In Windows, preferences are set in

the Edit menu. In Mac OS X, the InDesign Application menu

is where you would set preferences.

• When you create a new document (File > New >

Document), you need to input information to describe the

page layout.

• You will notice choices in the New Document window for

margin and column sizes, facing pages for booklets, gutter

width, and type of document orientation (portrait or

landscape).

Setting Preferences

Before setting up your document, you need to set

up the preferences for measurement and layout.

New Document Settings

Saving the InDesign Document • When you save the InDesign document, all nonprinting guides and

margins are saved as well.

• The extension for an InDesign project is INDD.

• Like all other applications, InDesign uses the Save and Save As commands, but also has a Revert to Save command to allow the designer to go back to the last “save” done on the document to get out of trouble spots while working on the project.

• InDesign also allows you to save the document as a template with an INDT extension, so that you can make changes to the document, save the file with a new name as desired, and the original template remains untouched.

• InDesign includes a Save a Copy command, which creates a duplicate of the document under a different name, leaving the original document still active.

Saving the InDesign Document (.INDD)

Using Guides (1 of 2)

• Guides are used to lay out various text and picture items with

precision.

• Margin guides use purple lines as a default for measurements

set up in creating the initial document.

• Layout guides are green in color and are guidelines dragged

out from the top and left-side rulers.

• The cursor will display a double arrow to indicate a selected

guideline.

• To remove a layout guide, click it, and when a double arrow

cursor is displayed, drag it back into the ruler or select View >

Hide Guides to hide all guides.

Using Guides (2 of 2)

• Guides are nonprintable and can be set up in the View menu

along with displaying rulers.

• You can also use the Control panel for exact placement by

typing the location in the selected guide X or Y coordinate

field.

• As with Photoshop and Illustrator, InDesign also has Smart

Guides for precise alignment, resizing, and placement of

multiple graphics and text (View > Guides and Grids > Smart

Guides).

• With Smart guides coordinates appear dynamically you can

easily snap an object's edge to other objects in your layout.

Guides

Creating Graphic and Box Frames (1 of 2)

• When inserting graphics, typing in, or importing text documents,

you can create a frame box or container to put the contents into.

• With InDesign, a designer can use the various shape or the

frame tools to place type or graphics, or select the Type tool and

drag a rectangular box to place type only. To import graphics or

text, use the Place command.

• The Rectangle Frame Tool creates frames with an “X” for

placing graphics.

• Smart guides will display coordinates and its smart dimensions

features will display arrows and center lines when the boxes are

aligned.

Creating Graphic and Box Frames (2 of 2)

• Graphics and type can also be placed without any container in InDesign. Clicking the mouse will drop the text or image on the document, with or without a box (creating frames as you place).

• It is generally an accepted practice in the industry that if you have created a blank box, that is where you intend to insert type. A box with an “X” in it created by one of the frame tools will usually be used for placing graphic elements

• You can then make adjustments to the box and format the text, or adjust the coordinates, stroke weight, and format a selected frame using the Control panel.

• Each graphic object placed on a document is also displayed in the Links panel, which is represented with a thumbnail that provides more detailed information when clicked, such as scale, rotation, and resolution, among other attributes. Click on the text or graphic link and find more info about that file.

Creating Frames Setting up text and graphic boxes. Creating dashed line

weight for coupons.

The Content Indicator and Links Panel (1 of 2)

• The Content Indicator allows the designer to see the complete

dimension of an image with a bounding box and to place the

image within the frame with precision.

• If you use the Content Indicator, you will see a bounding box

appears to show outer dimensions of the graphic.

• Each graphic object placed on a document is also displayed in

the Links panel, which is represented with a thumbnail that

provides more detailed information when clicked such as

scale, rotation, and resolution, among other attributes.

• Click on the text or graphic link and find more info about that

file.

The Content Indicator and Links Panel (2 of 2)

Placing Text The Type commands on the Control panel have

character formatting in the “A” icon, and paragraph

formatting using the paragraph icon (backward “P”).

Text Frame Options To create space or inset within a frame, use the Text

Frame Options command in the Object menu.

Formatting Type Lines Formatting the type in each coupon and justifying vertical

alignment.

Baselines, Superscripts, and Subscripts

• All type sits on an invisible line called a baseline. As you look

at this line of type, you are reading along the baseline that the

type sits on.

• A designer can use certain formatting techniques, like

superscript and subscript, to shrink to a percentage of the font

or to change how the font is positioned in alignment with the

top of the font or on the baseline.

• A superscript is a percentage of the original font size and will

display aligned with the top of the font.

• Subscripts are also percentages of a font that are displayed

on or below the baseline of the font.

Creating Superscripts

Applying the superscripts option to format the cents of each

price.

Swatch Color Libraries

• When sending a document to press, all colors need to be CMYK process colors.

• The swatch libraries contain libraries specific to print media like Pantone and also for web media.

• These colors are premixed, much as you would get at the paint store and use a numbering system to identify each specific color.

• You can then choose a color and save it in the Swatches panel for future use.

Choosing Pantone Colors for Swatches Panel

Choosing Pantone process colors for selected type and dashed

lines in the coupons and adding those colors to the Swatches

panel.

Completed Ad with Graphic Placed Behind All

Objects as the Background

InDesign’s Layers Panel to Lock Graphics

Saving as InDesign Template (INDT)

Advanced Users: Preflight,

Packaging, and Preparing for Press

• The Preflight utility warns of problems, such as

missing files, graphics, or fonts.

• It also provides helpful information about your

document or book, such as the inks it uses, the

first page a font appears on, and print settings.

• You can perform preflight during various stages

of your project.

Checking for Errors (1 of 2)

• Preparing your project for publishing involves

the task of examining all elements and items of

the project for spelling, layout, and updating of

any graphics or text files to catch the common

errors that lead to most delays and additional

expense.

• Problems encountered during production can

disrupt a whole schedule.

Checking for Errors (2 of 2)

• This is why it is important to prepare files correctly by examining all components and submitting all necessary documentation to the service provider before production to avoid additional costs set by disrupted production, scheduling, and time wasted tracking down missing files and fonts.

• InDesign comes with an array of utilities to check for errors and prepare files, reports, and documents to the service provider.

Check Spelling Utility InDesign has a spelling checking feature in the Edit menu that

not only allows you to check for spelling errors, but also to

autocorrect and add special words in the dictionary.

Links Panel • Before sending any file or completed document, always check

to see if your links are up to date.

• By double-clicking the file you are checking on the Links panel,

you will find plenty of information, including file size and color

mode, so you can make your edits accordingly.

• Each object in the Links panel is represented with a thumbnail

that provides more detailed additional information when

clicked, such as scale, rotation, and resolution, among other

attributes.

• You can use the Links panel to find, sort, and manage all of

your placed objects.

Links Panel to Check File Link Information

You can use the Links panel

to find, sort, and manage all

of your placed objects. You

can select the Relink icon to

find where you put the file

that is linked in the

document. The Go To Link

icon shows you the actual

graphic’s location in your

document. The Update Link

icon lets you update the link

location.

InDesign Preflight Utilities • Before you send any work to a client or the service provider, which can be

your commercial printer, web developer, or other professional who will

provide a service for setting up your document for whatever output media

you intend to use, you need to go through a process called preflight to check

for any errors.

• The default preflight settings are to "Enable Preflight for All Documents" and

"Preflight Document," which are located at the bottom of the window display,

which is used for checking graphics and text behind the scenes while you

work.

• InDesign also has a live Preflight panel to work along with the Links panel in

identifying and correcting errors on the fly. With this new feature, a designer

does not have to wait until the document is near completion before finding

errors.

• InDesign’s Preflight utility (File > Preflight) warns of problems, such as

missing files, graphics, or fonts.

Live Preflighting to Check

Files, Fonts, and Images

Preparing for Press (1 of 2)

• With the work completed, it is time to create a proof that

can be used as a communication tool between you, your

client, and the service provider with which you are

working.

• Usually a proof contains the printer settings or printer’s

marks for you to communicate the layout of the

document, color accuracy, registration marks, and trim

marks.

• Before final packaging, you need a final soft proof to be

approved by designer, client, and service provider.

Preparing for Press (2 of 2)

• Printer’s marks include registration marks that provide a place

for pin registration of plates for the press (they look like bull’s

eyes) and color bars to balance and check the color.

• Crop marks indicate where the cutting of the paper will be. If

you are setting crop marks and want the artwork to contain a

bleed or slug area, make sure that you extend the artwork past

the crop marks to accommodate the bleed or slug.

– The bleed area is the part of text or objects that extend

beyond the page boundaries after trimming.

– The slug area is an area outside the page and bleed that

contains printer instructions or job sign-off information.

Creating a Proof With Printer’s Marks

Packaging

• InDesign has a handy utility called Packaging that will

complete final packaging for you.

• When you package a file, you create a folder that

contains the InDesign document, any necessary fonts,

linked graphics, text files, and a customized report.

– This report, which is saved as a text file, includes

the information in the Printing Instructions dialog

box (from the Preflight dialog box); a list of all used

fonts, links, and inks required to print the document;

and print settings.

Packaging Utility

Creating PDFs for All to Read

• If a client does not have the current version of InDesign installed,

a universal proof is needed that embeds all fonts and graphics to

provide to a printer. A designer can use the Export command

(File > Export) in InDesign to create a PDF document.

• This can be read by the free Adobe Reader available on the

Adobe site and other graphic applications as well.

• InDesign also allows you to select the quality of the PDF file you

wish to create. Press Quality is always the best for distributing to

a commercial press, but if you want to send a document through

e-mail for a preliminary proofing, you may want to choose

Smallest File Size under the Adobe PDF Preset pull down menu.

Setting Up PDF Press Quality

What the Service Provider Needs: Summary • Updated electronic files in organized folders.

• All items should be set in CMYK color mode for press inks. Native PSD and AI documents can also be used. Photographs, painted images, and detailed drawings can be saved as TIFF images, while illustrations and images with text can be saved as EPS files. High-resolution PDF files are also acceptable and keep formatting consistent.

• The most up-to-date laser proof needs to be included, labeled with name and date to provide hard copy confirmation of how the final layout should appear (before using the InDesign’s Package utility). It should also include trim and registration marks for the pressman to follow.

• Folder and files, the document, and a report file that can be generated by InDesign’s Package utility to provide all files, fonts, and basic job information needed and print specifications.

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