Thursday 17 January 2013

SOFTWEAR WORKSHOP 2 - INDESIGN

Firstly, i encountered a problem when re-opening my document from last week. The pictures links had broken, as i didn't keep all aspects of the publication in one file. To show that the links illustrator shows a red question-mark symbol.



If the image has been lost or deleted then they need finding or replacing, they cannot be left as the image shown is a low res. version of the actual image. Once the image has been found drag them into the same file and Indesign should re-join the links. 


This symbol is shown when the links are reconnected. When an image is placed into Indesign the program generates a low resolution version, so that it can continue to run at a reasonable speed. There is a link saved to the original image, when this is moved or deleted the question-mark symbol is shown. 


All aspects of an Indesign project must be kept in one folder.




If performance is an issue and the program is still running slow you can change how the images are displayed. By going to 'View' - 'Display Performance' and select 'fast display' no images are shown and are instead replaced with grey boxes. 




The two circles shown are the 'Contents grabber' by clicking this the image is selected (brown outline) it can then be moved, but not re-scaled as it will pixelate when printed.




To overcome this problem we can rescale the image in Indesign. If we scale the image to the size we want it and then select the 'Link info' it tells us the percentage the image has been scaled.



We then need to open the image in Photoshop, this can be done by right clicking 'Edit' opening 'Edit with' and selecting photoshop. 



Once the file is in photoshop we can use the scaling percentage to resize the image to the correct size. Moreover, we can save changes in Photoshop which will then be updated in Indesign.




Moreover, we can also import files with layers. Below is a picture where I quickly erased the background. To import the file, make sure it has been saved as a PDF. and use 'Place' to import the file. 


When the file has been imported it will initially still sit on top of the text. By selecting the 'Window' menu and selecting text wrap we can adapt the text around the image. 



In this case the third option needs to be selected.



The contour options then need to be adjusted or the text will only wrap around the box the image is placed in. By choosing the option 'Alpha Channel' the text will wrap around the object.  




Moreover, an empty frame can be used to shape and adjust text, by using text wrap we can shape the text into different compositions. Additionally, the shape will not be shown when printed. 




The pen tool can also be used to create text boxes and objects. 



Next, we were also shown what to do with regards to layering images and text. Object - Arrange - Send to back/front allows us to move an object up and down through the laters. The tool is the same as on Illustrator.








Finally, we learnt about adding colour, we first looked at the 'swatches' available to work with as a standard. 





Using the rectangle frame tool I created a small shape, the swatches menu then leaves us with the option to 'Fill' or 'Stroke', the same options that are available on Illustrator.



When the same technique is used on a box containing type, only the background is coloured.



We also learnt how to create a new swatch as we would be very limited using the ones standardly available.




Finally, we reviewed the print menu, unless professionally printing only the printer and paper size settings need to be adjusted.






















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