InDesign Lesson 04
The next page in layout design
Embedded Files
Use core tools and features to lay out visual elements.
Use core tools and features to lay out visual elements.
Draw basic shapes and lines
Draw basic shapes and lines
In the toolbox, you have several options:
Creating Placeholder Graphics Frames:
- Choose the Ellipse Frame tool, Rectangle Frame tool, or Polygon Frame tool.
Drawing Lines or Shapes:
- Select the Line tool, Ellipse tool, Rectangle tool, or Polygon tool.
- (Hold and click the Rectangle tool to switch to the Ellipse or Polygon tool.)
Creating Multiple Shapes in a Grid:
- Press the arrow keys while holding down the mouse button.
Adjusting Polygon Sides:
- Begin dragging, then press Spacebar.
- Use Up and Down arrow keys to change the number of sides.
- Use Left and Right arrow keys to alter star inset.
- Press Spacebar again to return to grid mode.
And of course, in InDesign, there's also a Pen tool for drawing your dynamic shapes. Super handy, because this tool actually works pretty much the same as in Illustrator. Take your time to check out this video.
Libraries
Libraries
Using an InDesign library to manage object
InDesign libraries enable you to store and arrange graphics, text, and design elements that you frequently use. These libraries are saved as files on your computer's hard drive or a shared device. You can also add ruler guides, grids, shapes that you draw, and grouped images to a library. Each library appears as a separate panel that you can arrange with other panels as you wish. You can create as many libraries as you need, such as different libraries for each of your projects or clients.
Creative Cloud Libraries allow you to access your preferred assets from anywhere. You can generate and distribute colors, character and paragraph styles, graphics, Adobe Stock assets, and more through your preferred Creative Cloud desktop and mobile applications.
Subsequently, you can retrieve them across other Creative Cloud applications whenever necessary. You also have the option to share libraries with individuals with a Creative Cloud account, facilitating collaboration, maintaining design coherence, and establishing shared style guides for application across various projects.
Fitting Images
Fitting Images
There are multiple ways to fit your images within the Graphic Frames. It's always best to make sure that your image stays in proportion. Make sure that you know which option does what to speed up your process of placing images in a document. Even better... know the shortcuts by heart.
Opacity... Transparency?
Opacity... Transparency?
What Is Opacity?
What Is Opacity?
Often referred to as “transparency” in print design, opacity is the level of light allowed to travel through an object. Adjusting opacity allows you to fade, blend, brighten, or layer within a project.
By default, all graphics and text elements will appear solid in InDesign, with an opacity of 100%. From there, you can change the percentage to make the object appear fully opaque (100%), fully transparent (0%), or somewhere in between.
Here’s the simplest way to change opacity in InDesign:
Select your object from the canvas.
Click into the dropdown menu that says 100% (located to the right of the fill and stroke settings). Then use the slider to adjust the opacity.
This is also possible from the Effects Panel and allows you to do even more. Go to Windows > Effects from the main menu and adjust the transparency settings of the object.
There are a wide range of opacity options in InDesign’s Effects panel:
Blending Mode: Adjusts how an object’s colors blend with other objects.
Opacity: Changes the object, stroke, fill, or text transparency.
Isolate Blending: Applies blending to an object group.
Knockout Group: “Knocks out” or “blocks out” underlying objects, based on the opacity and blending settings.
FX: Shows a list of all transparency effects.
Text and typography
Text and typography
Use Character and Paragraph styles (also known as Text styles) to keep your document looking the same all the way through. These styles help you save time when you're working on big documents. Keep reading to find out how to make, change, use, and get rid of paragraph and character styles in InDesign. You can also control how styles change.
Difference between Character and Paragraph Styles
A Character style is like a set of different ways to make text look special. You can use it to change how some text looks.
A Paragraph style is like a set of different ways to make both text and paragraphs look special. You can use it to change how one paragraph or many paragraphs look.
Working with text: Placing, Threading, Spell Check
Working with text: Placing, Threading, Spell Check
In InDesign, you need to create a text frame to add text. Click the text tool or press 'T', then drag to draw the frame. You can adjust the frame size even after adding text.
There are many ways to format text in InDesign. You can find basic tools in the top toolbar when the cursor is in the text box. The Character fly-out menu in the right toolbar is useful for adjusting font, size, spacing, etc. If you can't see it, go to Window > Type > Character. The Paragraph fly-out menu, found in Window > Type > Paragraph, helps with paragraph settings like justification and spacing. Both menus have additional customization options in their corner drop-down menus.
Character styles
Character styles
The following options are common for both character and paragraph styles. Add or adjust the following options to create a new style or modify an existing one:
General
Select Based On character style and add a Shortcut. You can also view the style settings of the selected style and Reset to Base.
Basic Character Formats
Change the Font Family, Font Style, Size, Leading, Kerning, Tracking, Case options, and Position. You can also check Underline, Ligatures, No Break, and Strikethrough.
Advanced Character Formats
Adjust the Horizontal and Vertical Scale, Baseline Shift, and Skew options. You can also select a Language.
Character Color
Change the Character Color, Tint, Weight, Miter Limit, and Stroke Alignment. You can also check Overprint Fill or Overprint Stroke.
OpenType Features
Check Tilting Alternates, Contextual Alternates, Swash Alternates, Ordinals, Discretionary Ligatures, Fractions, and Slashed Zero. You can also select Figure Style, Positional Form, and Stylistic Sets.
Underline Options
Check Underline On to add Weight, Type, Offset, Color, Tint, Gap Color, and Gap Tint. You can also check the option to Overprint Stroke and Overprint Gap.
Strikethrough Options
Check Strikethrough On to add Weight, Type, Offset, Color, Tint, Gap Color, and Gap Tint. You can also check the option to Overprint Stroke and Overprint Gap.
Export Tagging
Select Tag, add Class, and check Include Classes in HTML, and Emit CSS. You can also see the Export Details of the selected character style.
Paragraph styles
Paragraph styles
Here are the additional options available for Paragraph Styles. Add or adjust the following to create a new Paragraph style or edit an existing one:
General
Select Based On paragraph style, add Next Style, and Shortcut. You can also view the style settings of the selected style and Reset to Base.
Indents and Spacing
Adjust Alignment, Indents, and Space Before, Space After, and Align to Grid options. You can also check the options to Balance Ragged Lines, and Ignore Optical Margin.
Tabs
Set Tab, X, Leader, and Align On options.
Paragraph Rules
Check the Rule On, and you can select Rule Above or Below, add Weight, Type, Color, Tint, Gap Color, Gap Tint, Width, Offset, Left and Right Indents. You can also check the options to Overprint Stroke and Keep In Frame.
Paragraph Border
Check Border to add the following options:
Stroke: Add Top, Left, Bottom, and Right strokes, select stroke Type, Color, Gap Color, Tint, Gap Tint, Cap, and Join.
Corner Size and Shape: Add a corner size and select a shape from None, Fancy, Bevel, Inset, Inverse Rounded, and Rounded.
Offsets: Add Top, Left, Bottom, and Right offsets, and select Top Edge, Bottom Edge, and Width.
You can also check Display Border if Paragraph Splits Across Frames/Columns, and Merge Consecutive Borders and Shading with same Settings.
Paragraph Shading
Check Shading to add Color and Tint along with the following:
Corner Size and Shape: Add a corner size and select a shape from None, Fancy, Bevel, Inset, Inverse Rounded, and Rounded.
Offsets: Add Top, Left, Bottom, and Right offsets, and select Top Edge, Bottom Edge, and Width.
You can also check Overprint, Clip To Frame, and Do not Print or Export.
Keep Options
Check the Keep with Previous, and add Keep with Next (number of) lines. Check Keep Lines Together to select either of the following options:
All Lines in Paragraph
At Start/End of Paragraph: Add the number of lines for Start and End.
You can also select Start Paragraph options from Anywhere, In Next Column, In Next Frame, On Next Page, On Next Odd Page, On Next Even Page.
Hyphenation
Check Hyphenate to add Words with at Least, After First, Before Last, Hyphen Limit, and Hyphenation Zone. Select the slider between Better Spacing and Fewer Hyphens. You can also check Hyphenate Capitalized Words, Hyphenate last Words, and Hyphenate Across Column.
Justification
Adjust settings for Word, Letter and Glyph Spacing, Auto Leading, and Single Word Justification.
Span Columns
Select the Paragraph Layout from Single Column, Span Columns, and Split Column. You can further customize them with the following options:
Span Columns: You can add the Span columns number, Space Before Span, and Space After Span.
Split Column: You can add the number of Sub-columns, Space Before Split, Space After Split, Inside Gutter, and Outside Gutter.
Drop Caps and Nested Styles
Add or update the following options:
Drop Caps: Add Lines and Characters, and select Character Style.
Nested Styles: Add New Nested Style or Delete an existing one.
Nested Line Styles: Add New Style or Delete an existing one.
You can also check Align Left Edge and Scale for Descenders.
GREP Style
Add New GREP Style or Delete an existing one.
Bullets and Numbering
Select the List Type from None, Bullets, or Numbers, and customize them further:
Bullets: Select the Bullet Character, Add new Bullet Character, Text After options, Character Style.
Bullet or Number Position: Select Alignment, and add Left Indent, First Line Indent, and Tab Position.
Numbers: Select the Default List, create a New List, and add Level.
Numbering Style: Select the Format, Number, Character Style, and Model.
Bullet or Number Position: Select Alignment, and add Left Indent, First Line Indent, and Tab Position
Object styles
Object styles
Object styles are like paragraph and character styles but for graphics and frames. They help you quickly format shapes, pictures, and text boxes. With object styles, you can set things like borders, colors, transparency, shadows, and how text wraps around an object.
You can apply object styles to individual items, groups of items, and frames (including text frames). Object styles can completely replace all the settings of an object or just change specific things, keeping the rest the same. You can choose which settings are affected by including or excluding them in the style.
You can also use object styles for frame grids. When you make a frame grid, it starts with a basic style. But you can change it or apply different styles. When you make or edit a style for a frame grid, you can choose things like how text flows, what kind of frame it is, and what grid pattern it uses.
When you're making styles, if many of them are similar, you can save time by basing one style on another. If you change the main style, any shared traits in the new style change too.
To make sure your style only changes certain things and keeps others the same, check or uncheck the boxes next to each category. You can do this in three ways: turn it on, turn it off, or ignore it. For instance, if you check the "Drop Shadow" box, the style will include drop shadow effects. If you uncheck it, drop shadow won't be part of the style but can be added separately. If you set it to "ignore," drop shadow won't be affected by the style at all.
Assignment 4: Paragraph and Character
Assignment 4: Paragraph and Character
Download the assets from Google Drive Lesson 04 folder.
Follow the steps demonstrated in the video to construct a grid arrangement essential for efficiently designing a magazine spread.
Set units to mm
Template A4 document
Spread starting at page 2
Columns 5, gutter 4
Margins 8 mm
Bleed 3 mm
Slug 6 mm
Graphic frame covering all columns
Change the outside margin to 16
Add two extra horizontal guides, dividing the page into three segments.
Add the following elements to the spread making use of the grid you've made with help of the tutorial. Again the measurements, when given, are made with the Reference Point in the top left corner.
A Graphic Frame
X = -3 mm, Y = 39 mm, H = 120 mm
B Graphic Frame
Y = Half of the page
C Text Frame
H = 42 mm
D Text Frame
H = 70 mm
Columns = 2
E Text Frame
...
Note: The text flows from D to E.
Ensure that the text is properly positioned and that the images are included. Please be aware that there is an additional text frame for both the heading and the image description.
In this second tutorial you'll learn how to create paragraph styles, character styles and object styles.
Heading
Montserrat, Black, 42 pts
Also a character style with the color Magenta
Sub heading
Montserrat, Bold, 9 pts, leading 14 pts
Body Text
Montserrat, Regular, 9 pts, leading 14 ptx
Self Study 4: LinkedIn Learning
Self Study 4: LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn Learning
As a GLR student, you can continue to develop yourself 24/7. The online platform LinkedIn Learning offers thousands of video tutorials and online training sessions, to which you have free access with your GLR email address.
Once you have completed the virtual training, LinkedIn Learning grants you access to a certification. You can then showcase your success on your LinkedIn newsfeed.
Hurry and visit LINKEDIN LEARNING, log in with your GLR email address, and get started.
Watch the videos from "Cert Prep: Adobe Certified Associate - InDesign" chapter 4.
Note: At the end of SOFT2C, you need to submit the certificate you receive from LinkedIn Learning to your teacher. Watch the assigned chapters every week.
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