Indesign Workshop

Adobe InDesign is an industry standard page layout software, primarily used in the print industry and mass production companies. Commercially printed.

It is better to enter the dimensions for a book rather than select a4, a3 etc.
The page size is the printed finished trimmed size of what you want to use. You cant create things and enlarge them when we decide to print due to image quality settings.

Document Setup

When creating a new document it is best to go to open a new document, instead of something specific like a book etc.

When opening a new document there are a few things to set up:

Columns and margins- things that we can add to a page to assist us in creating our layout. Guidelines. E.g. columns for a magazine kind of layout.
Gutter- space between columns.
Bleed and slug- additional options, more important than columns and margins. 
Bleed- compensates for inaccuracies during the trim of our print. The average amount to use is three millimeters.
Slug- the area outside the page that we can define. It has more of a specialist application. Generally much larger than the bleed area. 2 centimetres. Used for things like crop marks and registration marks.

Facing pages are double page spreads, although page one is always by itself. Is the finished format of what you're going to be created going to be a book? If so click it.

This is set up in what is often called a readers spread, so the pages appear as the book would appear once its printed and bound and you are reading the book.

There is also a setting for non-facing pages. You can view the page setup in the 'pages' pallet on the right hand side of the screen. It shows four thumbnails which can be selected by clicking on them. You have the option to add or remove pages here too.

Document setup allows you to make changes if you have already set up a document.

Adding Content

Like most other programmes, content has to be contained within a frame and these are created by clicking and dragging.

Placeholder text (gobledegook)is used to see what text will look like within the document. When dealing with the content of text, it has to be edited within the frame. Smart guides appear to help align frames together with margins and columns.

You still need to edit in photoshop due to specifications for commercial print. (technical specs) 

1. Pay attention to resolution. 300 dpi.
2. What format you save it as .tif .psd NO JPEGS
3. Images are actual size. 
4. Image mode- CMYK or Greyscale 

To insert a picture, click on File and Place OR use the rectangle tool.

The circle in the middle of the image is the content grabber, if you enlarge this image on this page then the we are lowering the quality of the image.

Links pallet/ Other tools

The links pallet is a useful tool to select images within the document and show information about it.

It shows the ppi (same as dpi)shows the resolution before and after potential enlargement. This is a useful tool to check image quality. It also tells you where the image is located.

Working with colour uses the same principle as text and image; it uses the same principle or working within a frame.
Use the rectangle tool to contain an area.
There are two ways to add colour, the fill or the stroke tool (outline of the frame).