When I hear authors who are contemplating self-publishing talk about InDesign, it makes me uneasy.
It’s truly a jack-of-all trades and the software on which my business runs. To the novice, it can be overwhelming due to the sheer number of control palettes, options, refinements, features, and settings that are available.Īlmost all I use it for is book and cover design, and the amount to learn in just this one application of InDesign is formidable. I have to admit that I have no idea how wide the scope of this program is, because I will likely never use many of its features-maybe no one person could. When designing catalogs and listings, this is an incredible time saver. Recently they added the capability to automatically format repetitive copy, assigning styles to subsequent pieces of copy based on conditions you establish. Vast Array of Features and Capabilities, with AutomationĪdobe keeps putting more and more automation into InDesign as well.
We can now export in the ePub format, send layout pages to clients as JPG files, or create numerous different PDF formats. Now InDesign increments spacing at ten-thousandths of an inch, can use thousands of fonts, and can just as easily be used for a fine-art book as for a catalog or magazine.Īs InDesign has matured, it has kept adding features and capabilities literally unknown just a short time ago. In the old days, we struggled to align little bits of paper so they would look straight. InDesign excels at handling all these kinds of files, and at giving the layout artist tremendous precision and control. Standard layout elements like image files of company logos, stock photography, patterns, frames, backgrounds and so on.Graphics files, sized and prepped in Photoshop or Illustrator,.The text files, cleaned and prepped for import,.Here I gather the various pieces of the publication on which I’m working: Now We Have SoftwareĪlthough some people use InDesign as a place to create artwork, its most common function mirrors that of the layout artist. Then, armed with light tables, t-squares, glue pots and razor blades, the mechanical artwork would be painstakingly assembled and sent to the printer or litho house to be photographed for reproduction. Standard layout elements like company logos, taglines, typographic ornaments or company branding.Artwork and photostats sized to the final reproduction size, from the stat house as well as the client’s art department,.Photographs and photostats sized to the final reproduction size,.The layout artist of old would gather the necessary elements for his project from their originators, before sitting down to prepare his artwork. It’s generally referred to as a page layout program. Since building InDesign to compete with Quark Xpress, Adobe has integrated the program tightly with its CS teammates, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat Pro. If you design books, you need this (affiliate)The most popular program for preparing materials for print is Adobe’s InDesign, part of the Adobe Creative Suite (CS) version 4.