| Workshop 6a | |
|---|---|
| Course | Arch 200c |
| Date | 2012/11/13 |
| Learning Objectives | Introduction to InDesign |
| Agenda |
|
| Uses Tool(s) | InDesign CS5 |
Overview of InDesign
Uses & Limitations
Portfolios, Presentation Boards, and Digital Presentations
Color Space
Basic Concepts
Master pages
In contrast to Photoshop and Illustrator, in Indesign you can work on documents that consist of several pages. These pages can be duplicated, moved around, and edited individually. It is even possible to combine several documents into a book – where these so-called chapters and their numbering can also be managed.
Using Master pages, layout templates can be made that can be applied to several document pages at once. On a Master page, you define a layout by placing text frames and graphic objects. It is possible to insert variables like the current date and chapter title, and special characters like page numbers that adjust automatically on the document pages. Several different Master pages can be made for one document if necessary. On the individual page in the document, the layout can then be edited and filled in with text and pictures.
Grids
There are two grids in Indesign that help with making layouts: a baseline grid for aligning columns of text, and a document grid for aligning objects. Their settings can be changed in the preferences.
Pages and Margins
Placing Images
When inserting an image, the image becomes linked to the original location of the file. Any changes made to the image from outside InDesign (such as in Photoshop) will be reflected inside the InDesign document. Embedding a file will not allow for future updates to the file to be shown in InDesign. Linking images also keeps file sizes down, and allows for relinking to different sources.
Text & Typography
Text frames
Text always needs a text frame, and can be inserted into any closed shape. Text frames can be linked together, allowing text to flow into the next frame when the previous frame is filled.
Styles
Formatting is saved as a style that can be easily applied to text or objects. Another advantage is that if a style is changed, all instances of that style will change accordingly.
Paragraph styles define the formatting of a whole paragraph of text. Things like alignment, justification, leading (distance between lines), bullets and numbering and font size can be defined here. Hence, you can make styles for all the different text formats in your document like titles, the main body of your text and lists. The style can then easily be applied to a piece of text.
Character styles can be applied to single characters in addition to a paragraph style. They define a character property or a combination of character properties like color, size and tracking. For example, to make a single word bold, you can make a character style with the single property bold and apply it to any text, even if it already has a paragraph style, to make it bold.
Resources
For InDesign Tutorials
For Printing & Binding
- Print Handbook Binding Guide
- Understanding different binding types
- Printing File Types
- Help with which types of images to use for printing
For Typography
- Lost Type Co-op
- Pay -what-you-want model for mostly display typefaces. Limited selection, but well made.
- The League of Moveable Type
- Free typefaces with donation option. Limited selection, but have many varieties for different uses.
- Hoefler & Frere-Jones
- Makers of some of the most well known typefaces today. If you are willing to pay, you will not be disappointed.