Adobe InDesign Basics

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

Bitmap(Raster) vs. Vector Graphics

­ Bitmap (also known as Raster) Graphics: Image is made up of tiny pixels, each of which has a color

and sometimes an alpha (transparency) value ­ Photoshop is primarily bitmap­based ­ Increasing or reducing image size affects visual quality

­ Vector Graphics: Image is generated by mathematical formulas

­ Infinitely upscale & downscale graphics to display or print at any resolution ­ Shapes are comprised of Points connected by Lines & Curves ­ Fonts are saved as vector files ­ InDesign is primarily a vector­based text and graphics editor, but can import and work with

bitmap graphics ­ Vector file formats:

­ .INDD ­ Adobe InDesign document ­ .AI ­ Adobe Illustrator file ­ .EPS ­ Encapsulated PostScript ­ .SVG ­ Scalable Vector Graphics

InDesign

­ File > New > Document: ­ Preview Checkbox: Turn on to preview document

before creating it ­ Intent: Print, Web & Digital Publishing

­ Sets the Page Size Preset & Working Units (points/picas, inches, pixels, etc.)

­ 1 inch = 72 points (pt) ­ 1 inch = 6 picas (p) ­ 1 pica = 12 points

­ Number of Pages, Start Page #, Facing Pages & Primary Text Frame

­ Page Size: Width & Height values ­ Columns ­ Gutter: Space between columns ­ Margins: 3p0 / ½” by default

­ Press OK to create your new InDesign Document (.INDD) file

­ You can change all of these settings later under File > Document Setup and Layout > Margins & Columns

InDesign Interface Basics

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

Digital Publishing, Typography…)

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

­ All panels are available from the Window menu at the top of the screen ­ 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 ­ A blue line or blue box appears when you can attach a panel to a part of the interface ­ The Workspaces menu in the top right has preset panel configurations based on different

workflows

Pages

­ 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

­ Pages are organized by default into a Two­Page Spread, with left and right facing pages as you see in a book

­ Go to File > Document Setup and uncheck Facing Pages to switch to disable Page Spreads ­ ­ The Pages Panel is where you can organize and add/remove pages:

­ Click on the Page Icon to add a new page ­ Click on the Trashcan Icon to delete the currently selected page(s) ­ Double­click on a page in the Pages Panel to navigate to that page ­ You can duplicate the currently selected page(s) by Dragging that page onto the Page Icon

­ A­Master is your default Master Page Spread:

­ 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..

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

­ 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..)

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

Basic Object Manipulation

­ There are two basic types of objects you can have in your document: Shapes & Frames

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

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

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

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

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

­ Click and drag with any of the Frame or Shape Tools to create a new object

­ Hold Shift while dragging to create an object with equal horizontal & vertical dimensions

­ You can move and transform entire objects with the Select Tool (V): ­ Select an object: Single­click ­ Move an object: Click and drag

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

­ Scale an object uniformly: Hold Shift, then Scale ­ 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 ­ Every object in InDesign (Frames, Shapes, Paths) has two basic color attributes:

­ Fill: Inside color of object ­ Stroke: Outside edge color of object

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

­ 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)

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

­ Trashcan Icon: Delete a Swatch

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

­ 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 ­ Your cursor now displays a preview of the piece of content to be inserted ­ 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

­ 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.

­ 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.

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

Links Panel

­ The Links Panel will display all files you placed into your document ­ Image Files, Layered Documents, Multimedia. PDFs, etc. ­ Link Info displays useful information about your file ­ 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.

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

­ 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

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

­ Frame: The container in which the image lives ­ 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

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

­ You can also double­click in a Frame to switch between editing its Frame or its Content ­ With an Image Frame selected, go to Object > Fitting for different options on having your

content displayed correctly: ­ Fit Frame or Content Proportionately ­ Fit Content to Frame, or Fit Frame to Content ­ Center Content

­ Object > Fitting > Frame Fitting Options: ­ Turn on Auto­Fit and set your Content Fitting Rule to have the Content fit the Frame at

any size or dimensions

­ With either the Frame or Content selected, you can adjust properties such as the Position, Scale, Rotation, etc. from the Control Panel

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

­ Double­click: Select a single word ­ Triple­click: Select a single line ­ Quadruple­click: Select a paragraph ­ Command+A: Select all type ­ Command+Shift+A: Deselect all type

­ 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: ­ Font, Font Size, Leading, Kerning, Tracking, Scale, Baseline Shift, Alignment, Indentation

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

­ Text frames have two Ports: An In Port in the top­left and an Out Port in the bottom right ­ An Empty Port Icon indicates the beginning or ending of the text in that frame ­ 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 ­ 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

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

Text Icon. ­ 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

­ Adobe PDF ­ Interactive: Include bookmarks, hyperlinks, movies & sound clips ­ Print: format for printing ­ Opens separate Export dialog box, click OK

­ EPUB (Fixed Layout & Reflowable): Compatible with eReaders (Kindle, iPad, Kobo)

­ .TIFF:

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

­ HTML & XML: Save as a web page, for working with in Dreamweaver

­ Bitmap Image Formats: Flattens all layers down

­ .JPEG: ­ Low file size, but at the cost of introducing artifacts ­ Useful for photos ­ No Transparency

­ .PNG: ­ Useful for web graphics ­ Supports transparency