From UX design to web design, app design to social design, there’s a whole range of design fields that have emerged in the digital era. Of course, this doesn’t mean graphic designers have to know how to code. However, having some idea about digital design can help you to create designs for print that translate to screens seamlessly, while a little knowledge of the basics of digital design can help you to broaden your skillset and offer your clients a little something extra.

If you’re starting out in graphic design, or are a seasoned print designer looking to learn a little more about the world of online design, this quickstart guide will help you to find your feet in the digital world.

What is Print Design?

Traditionally (i.e. before the birth of the internet), graphic designers were print designers and the two were synonymous. Print design includes, but isn’t limited to:

• Branding for print
• Packaging design
• Publishing and editorial design
• Stationery design
• Exhibition and signage design
• Poster design

Today, many graphic designers will find that the designs they create for print must also translate effectively to digital screens. While some graphic designers find that they can get by with knowing the basics (scroll down to Digital Design Tips for Graphic Designers, below), others might become full-time digital designers, applying their skills to web design, UX design or social media design.

What is Digital Design?

Although the majority of print design work is created using digital software, digital design refers to design which is created solely for digital purposes and devices. If you can see and interact with a design on a screen—whether it be on a phone, desktop or digital billboard—this is a form of digital design.

The main digital design disciplines are:

1. Web design

The original digital design discipline, web designers create the layouts and styling of websites, often with the help of a web developer.

While developers ensure the website is built, hosted and maintained, a web designer’s job is to define the aesthetic of the site. From selecting web fonts to formulating color palettes, defining photography styles to creating a wireframe (a sort of blueprint for the layout of the site’s pages), a web designer might create a live demo of the site before the developer takes over, or use web design software like Adobe Dreamweaver, Canva or Google Web Designer.

2. App design

Similar to the above, except that the designs are optimised for apps. App designers may have to take into account the limited screen size used by most app users, as well as give more consideration to icons, accessibility and UX design (see below).

3. UX and UI design

User experience (UX or UE) design is a relatively young discipline, and combines aspects of graphic design with psychology, interaction design and anthropology, as well as other fields. At its core, UX design aims to provide users of websites and apps with the best possible experience, allowing them to have a seamless and efficient journey through a digital design.

UI (user interface) design is different to UX in that it tends to focus more on the design and aesthetics of a digital design, and how this can be enhanced to achieve a better user experience.

4. Branding for web

Brand design is a more familiar subject for graphic designers, who are used to creating logos and identities for print media (see What is Print Design, above). Branding for web simply refers to how that brand design translates to digital media, such as websites and apps. For example, a graphic designer might need to provide a brand color palette with HEX swatches as well as printable CMYK versions, or optimise a logo design as a much smaller favicon for a browser tab.

5. Social media design

Social media design refers to designs created for social media, including but not limited to, posts and stories on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and TikTok, as well as social media advertising. Once the domain of social media marketers, businesses are increasingly seeking out specialised designers to create content for social media that uses creative designs for static and video content.

Now you know a little more about what the main digital design disciplines are, you might be wondering how you can start to use digital design in your own projects. Scroll down to learn  how you can adapt your design work for screens and discover tips and tricks for making your print designs digital-ready in no time!

Digital Design Tips for Graphic Designers

If the thought of UX design makes you turn pale, don’t panic! There is a good reason why these specialist disciplines have emerged over the past decade—each aspect of digital design requires particular experience and specialist knowledge. Of course, it’s very likely graphic designers—including traditional print designers—will have to interact with digital design at some point. The tips below are intended to help graphic designers engage productively with digital designers, and help adapt your print projects to screens.

Tip 1: Convert to HEX colour

While CMYK, spot colours and Pantone are the language of print designers, for digital designers RGB swatches are the standard, with HEX codes—which render RGB values as a hexadecimal code, e.g. #ff8e00 (dark orange)—used ubiquitously across web and app design.

Tip: If you create a CMYK palette, it’s not always a good idea to use automated conversion to create an RGB palette (i.e. by simply switching the colour to RGB using Adobe software or an eyedropper tool). RGB colour works by emitting light, making them appear very differently (and brightly in comparison) to their CMYK counterparts. You can use a colour tool like Adobe Color to convert and tweak colour swatches between CMYK and RGB modes.

• Read more about the difference between CMYK and RGB colour types here.

Tip 2: Design with interaction and animation in mind

As video content becomes increasingly normalised across websites and social media platforms, designers are becoming more used to adapting their static content for animation. While graphic designers don’t have to become animators overnight, it can be useful to consider how your design could be animated or incorporated into a video. Whether it’s a logo that could transform from one thing into another, or an illustration that could be animated as part of a simple GIF, think about how your static work could be given motion and dynamism.

Tip: You can use Adobe Photoshop’s Timeline feature to create quick video animations from static images (Window > Timeline).

Tip 3: Use typefaces that include web fonts

Graphic designers are always falling for the latest lust-worthy typeface…but take a moment to find out whether your typeface of desire is available as a webfont. Webfonts are fonts which have been specially created for use on websites and apps, and contain CSS code to allow the font to be rendered on your website for viewers to see.

While you can use OTF (OpenType Font) and other types of font files on most web applications, WOFF (Web Open Font Format) is the standard file type for use online.

Tip: Note that you will also usually require a separate webfont licence to use your chosen font on websites and apps.

Tip 4: Rethink sizing

A billboard is huge. A poster is big. A mobile phone screen is teeny tiny. Graphic designers who are used to creating layouts for large-scale media will need to get used to working in miniature when working on digital designs.

Tip: Reconsider the sizing of elements such as type, graphics, icons and buttons (hint: they will need to take up more space on your layouts to be legible). Develop a habit of viewing completed designs on your phone screen—this will give you a good sense of how legible elements are when set at a particular scale.

Tip 5: Consider accessibility and usability

While UX and UI designers are habituated with considering these issues, print designers are not always as well initiated when it comes to accessibility.

Why is accessibility important on screens? First of all, as pointed out above, screens are often much smaller than printed layouts, meaning that text and other elements are already more difficult to read and see. In addition, the brightness of screens can diminish the visibility and legibility of text for visually-impaired users.

Consider the effect of colour contrast, text size and layout design on how users can view and interact with your design. Vision simulator tools like Web Disability Simulator can help you to assess how a design would appear to users with different vision impairments.

Conclusion: Time to Go Digital?

While digital design is ever-evolving and ever-expanding, there will always be a place for print design in the industry. Nonetheless, print designers will undoubtedly have to consider how static, printable designs can be adapted for screens.

Armed with a little know-how about HEX colours and webfonts, even the most committed of print designers might be tempted to explore the exciting possibilities of digital design.

Want to keep a footing in the tangible world? These print design tutorials will help to hone your hard-copy skills:

• The Essential Guide to Print Finishes
• The Most Popular Standard Book Sizes in the US and UK
• How to Make a Zine in Adobe InDesign

Illustrations used throughout by Kate Pilko.

The post What’s the Difference Between Digital Design and Print Design? A Helpful Guide appeared first on InDesignSkills.

With many of us staying at home for the next few weeks, we wanted to help you dedicate some of that time to learning a new skill. Plus, we thought a bit of structure would help too!

We’ll work towards creating a business card in InDesign, in 5 bitesize tutorials over the course of the week. By Friday you’ll have an ultra-professional business card design, as well as having picked up key print design skills in InDesign, including:

Over the next week, we’ll help you create a professional business card from scratch. Each day, there’ll be a short video that takes you through document setup, layers, fonts, colour, and exporting your final design.

• How to Make a Document for Print
• How to Use Layers
• How to Use Fonts and Format Typography
• How to Apply Color
• How to Export Your InDesign Document Ready for Print

We really hope you enjoy it, and would love to see what you come up with. 

PLUS Adobe is offering 2 months of free Creative Cloud. Yup, that’s right, totally free. Find out more here.

Take advantage and seize the chance to up your InDesign Skills!

The post Go InDesign Pro in 5 Days! appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Great for magazine and poster design, this effect works best when you have dense text on a page. If you need to, brush up on the basics of creating a text wrap in InDesign here.

What You’ll Need to Create Your Text Wrap Effect

You’ll need access to a trio of Adobe programs—Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and, of course, Adobe InDesign.

You’ll also need a photo or vector graphic with a strong silhouette and preferably no background or a white background, so it can be easily removed. 

Here, I’ve already created a layout for a magazine, complete with columns of text. You can easily apply this effect to any similar layout you have created.

1. How to Prepare Your Image

You can use either a photo or vector image to create your text wrap effect, but if you’re using a photo you will need to follow a few extra steps using Photoshop and Illustrator. To allow text to wrap around a silhouette, you will need to create a vector shape. 

If you have a ready-to-use vector shape, skip ahead to Step 4.

Step 1

You might have a part of the image you’d like to maintain in the final effect, such as the umbrella handle. In this case, you will need to isolate the handle in Photoshop. To begin, open the original photo in Photoshop. 

To remove a white or plain colour background, go to Select > Color Range. Click once on the background to pick up the colour, before adjusting the Edge Detection slider in the Properties panel that opens. 

When you’re happy with the tightness of the selection around the edge of the shape, click OK. Then hit Delete on your keyboard to remove the background. 

Step 2

Use the Lasso Tool (L) to loop off any part of the image that is not the handle (the part you’d like to keep as a photographic image in the final result). 

Then hit Delete to remove the selection. 

File > Save As the image as a Photoshop file, which will preserve the transparent background. 

Step 3

Open Illustrator and File > Place, choosing the original photo, as before, and opening it. 

Go to Window > Image Trace. 

In the Image Trace window, set the Mode to Black and White. Check the Ignore White box at the bottom of the window.

Check the Preview button, and then experiment with the Threshold, Paths and Corners sliders, until you’re happy with the traced result. 

When you’re done click Trace to exit the window. 

Go to Object > Image Trace > Expand. 

Select the Eraser Tool (Shift+E) and use this to separate any parts of the image that you won’t want to use in the text wrap effect. In this case, this is the handle of the umbrella, which will be substituted with a photo version. Delete any parts of the graphic you won’t use. 

Step 4

Your vector shape is ready to use—you can either save this as a vector file (e.g. Illustrator, EPS), or Edit > Copy the vector directly in Illustrator, ready to Paste into your InDesign document. 

2. Create the Text Wrap Effect in InDesign

Step 1

In InDesign, expand the Layers panel, and lock the layer which contains all the text in your document. 

Go to New Layer from the panel’s main menu, and create a new layer for the text wrap image to sit on. 

Step 2

If you have a photo element to your image, use the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) to create an image frame on the layout. 

File > Place the edited image you created earlier [in 1.1, above]. 

Step 3

File > Place or Edit > Paste (if you’ve copied the vector in Illustrator) the vector shape, and position it on the page. Use Shift and your mouse to scale it proportionally.

Expand the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches), and set the Fill Color of the vector shape to [None].

Step 4

Go to Window > Text Wrap to open the Text Wrap panel.

Select the shape and choose the third option along, Wrap around object shape, from the set of icons at the top of the panel. You can experiment with the Offset value to make the text wrap tighter or looser. 

For these ‘invisible’ wrap effects, it’s usually better to have a tighter text wrap, and therefore a low offset value, such as 0 mm. 

Pro Tip

You may also want to create a subtle text wrap around some photographic elements on your layout. 

To do this, you can create a quick vector shape directly in InDesign using the Pen Tool (P). Trace your way around the element you want to wrap text around, lopping it round to create a complete shape. 

Then apply the Wrap around object shape option in the Text Wrap panel, and ensure the Fill Color of the shape is set to [None]. 

Great Job!

Your ‘invisible’ text wrap effect is finished. 

Why not try using this technique for a variety of different shapes to create interesting and stylish concepts in your magazine and poster designs?

Ready to get creative? Discover more great InDesign tutorials here, or brush up on your type skills with these typography tutorials.

The post How to Create Invisible Text Wraps in InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

By the end of the tutorial you’ll have a zine template you can customise to make a more unique design.

Suitable for relative beginners to InDesign, this is a great all-round introduction to basic print design techniques.

What You’ll Need to Create Your Zine

As well as access to Adobe InDesign, you’ll need a selection of images and fonts to use in your zine.

To recreate the design pictured here, you can download the following photos and fonts:

• Traditional bohol

• Woman smoking cigar

• Market vendor

• Double exposure portrait

• Cormorant font

Install the font onto your computer and you’re ready to start designing.

How to Set Up the Zine Document in InDesign

Step 1

Open InDesign and go to File > New > Document.

Set up the document for Print, with an A5 page size (148 x 210 mm). Set the number of pages to 10 and make sure Facing Pages is checked.

Add a Top and Bottom Margin of 19 mm, set the Inside Margin to 21 mm and the Bottom Margin to 25 mm.

Finally, add a 5 mm Bleed to all edges except the Inside edge, and click Create.

Step 2

Expand the Layers panel (Window > Layers).

Double-click on Layer 1 and rename this Color.

Create two more new layers — Photos, and Type.

Step 3

Expand the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches).

Choose New Color Swatch from the panel’s drop-down menu (at top-right).

With the Type set to Process and Mode to CMYK, set the levels below to C=96 M=82 Y=3 K=0. Click Add and Done.

Create a second new swatch, C=0 M=86 Y=89 K=0.

Step 4

Choose New Gradient Swatch from the Swatches panel’s menu.

Name the swatch Gradient Swatch. Click on the left-hand stop on the Gradient Ramp, and choose your blue swatch, C=96 M=82 Y=3 K=0, from the Stop Color menu.

For the right-hand stop choose your red swatch, C=0 M=86 Y=89 K=0.

Click Add and Done.

2. How to Edit Your Zine’s Master Pages

Step 1

Double-click on the A-Master icon at the top of the Pages panel (Window > Pages) to bring up the master on your screen.

Use the Type Tool (T) to create a text frame across the bottom of the left-hand page.

Here you can place page numbers. With your type cursor in the frame, go to Type > Insert Special Character > Markers > Current Page Number.

You can format the page number using the Swatches panel and Character and Paragraph panels (Window > Type & Tables > Character / Paragraph).

Step 2

Edit > Copy and Edit > Paste the page number text frame, moving this over to the right-hand page.

Step 3

Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to create a tall, narrow shape across the left edge of the spread, taking it up to the bleed, and allowing a small area to extend onto the page.

Set the Fill Color of this to Gradient Swatch.

Copy and Paste the rectangle, and on the copy, Right-Click > Transform > Flip Horizontal.

Move this over into a mirrored position on the right-hand page.

Step 4

In the Pages panel, Right-Click on the A-Master icon, and choose Duplicate Master Spread “A-Master”.

On the new B-Master, select and delete the page number text frames.

Step 5

In the Pages panel, select the top [None] master page, and choose Apply Master to Pages from the panel’s drop-down menu.

We want to have no master applied to the front and back cover of our zine, which is on pages 1 and 10 of our document. So type in 1, 10 and click OK.

Select the B-Master icon in the Pages panel, and, as before, choose Apply Master to Pages. You want to apply the B-Master to any pages which you don’t want to have page numbers. In this case, I type in 2, 6, before clicking OK.

3. How to Section Your Zine

Step 1

In this zine, I want to split the document into two sections, with page 1 beginning on what is currently page 3 of the document.

To begin a new section, Right-Click on the page you want to start as page 1 (in this case page 3), and choose Numbering & Section Options.

Step 2

In the New Section window that opens, check Start Page Numbering at, and set this to 1.

Then click OK. You’ll get a warning message, but don’t worry about that. Just click OK.

Step 3

On the first page of the document, Right-Click > Numbering & Section Options.

As before make sure Start Page Numbering at is selected and set to 1. But this time choose a different Style for the Page Numbering, such as lowercase roman numerals. Then click OK.

4. How to Create a Front Cover for Your Zine

Step 1

Working on the first page (i) of your document, and on the Color layer, use the Rectangle Tool (M) to create a shape across the whole page, extending the edge up to the bleed on the top, right and bottom sides.

Set the Fill Color to Gradient Swatch.

You can adjust the strength of the gradient from the Gradient panel (Window > Color > Gradient). Here I want to make the gradient blend more abruptly in the center of the page.

Step 2

Copy and Edit > Paste in Place the rectangle shape, adjusting the Fill to your blue swatch, C=96 M=82 Y=3 K=0.

With the blue shape selected go to Object > Effects > Transparency, and bring the Opacity down to 30%.

Click on Inner Glow in the panel’s left-hand menu. With the Mode set to Normal, click on the colored square to adjust the Effect Color to your red swatch, C=0 M=86 Y=89 K=0.

Increase the Opacity to 100%.

Set the Source to Centre, Size to around 55 mm, Choke to 50% and Noise to about 45%. Then click OK.

Step 3

Working on the Type layer, use the Type Tool (T) to add text to your cover, setting the Font to Cormorant and Font Color to [Paper].

5. How to Build Up Content on the Inside Pages of Your Zine

Step 1

Select both rectangle shapes sat on the Color layer on the front cover, and Copy them.

Scroll down to the first inside spread of your zine, and Paste the shapes, moving them over onto the left-hand page.

Step 2

Edit > Paste a second time, and with this copy selected, go to Object > Convert Shape > Ellipse.

From the top Controls panel adjust the Width and Height of the circles to 108 mm.

Then move these over the top of the left page, positioning them centrally. Shift the top circle slightly up and to the right to create a slightly blurry effect.

Step 3

You can add text to your zine using the Type Tool (T), and working on the Type layer.

Here, I’ve added text set in Cormorant and a blue, C=96 M=82 Y=3 K=0, Font Color, to the right-hand page of the spread.

Step 4

Use the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) to create image frames on some of the pages of your zine.

Go to File > Place to drop images into the frames.

Step 5

Use the swatches you’ve already created to format text, adding a touch of color to your typography.

Here, I’ve also set the text to Align towards spine (which you can find in the top Controls panel with the Type Tool selected).

Step 6

Use elements you’ve already created, such as the colored rectangles and circles on the first spread, to create a quick and simple design for your back cover, on the final page of the document.

Make sure to add your website to the back cover too.

6. How to Export Your Zine for Print

Step 1

File > Save your artwork, then go to File > Export.

Choose Adobe PDF (Print) from the Format menu, name your file, and then click Save.

Step 2

In the Export Adobe PDF window, choose Press Quality for the Adobe PDF Preset, at the top.

Make sure the pages are set to Export As: Pages (not spreads).

Click on Marks and Bleeds in the left-hand menu. Check All Printer’s Marks and Use Document Bleed Settings, before clicking Export.

You can send off this PDF document straight to the printers, great job!

Eager to pick up more print design skills? Check out our magazine design tutorials, or download free magazine templates for InDesign.

The post How to Make a Zine in Adobe InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

It’s quick and easy to create pull quotes in InDesign once you know a few tips. In this bitesize tutorial we’ll look at two ways of creating pull quotes that are simple to do and look really effective.

Method #1: Wrap Text Around Your Pull Quote

If you want to add pull quotes over the top of existing paragraphs of text, applying a text wrap is an easy way of ensuring quotes and body text work seamlessly together.

Step 1

Use the Type Tool (T) to create a text frame near to or over the top of the body text where you want the pull quote to appear.

Type in the quote, and use either the top Controls panel or the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character) to format the text. Here I’ve set the font to Cardo Italic.

Step 2

With the text frame selected go to Window > Text Wrap.

Choose Wrap around bounding box from the options at the top of the window, before adjusting the Offset values until the body text around the quote is pushed away equally from the edges of the text frame.

You may need to apply subtly different Offset values to create an evenly spaced look.

Step 3

If you want to create multiple pull quotes across columns sitting next to each other, you can ensure the baseline of the body text remains consistent by copying and pasting the pull quote frame, preserving the same text wrap settings.

Method #2: Adjust the Inset Spacing of Your Pull Quote

If you want to layer a pull quote over an image, you can give your text frame a color fill and adjust the inset spacing to create a seamless effect. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1

Use the Type Tool (T) to create a text frame for your pull quote, and type up the quote.

Format the quote using the Controls panel or the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character). The font I’ve used here is Futura Extra Bold.

I’ve also used the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) to add a different Font Color to the quotation marks.

Step 2

Go to Window > Type & Tables > Story.

With the text frame selected check the Optical Margin Alignment box. This will shift outlying elements of text like quotation marks to the outside of the text frame, creating a tidier look for your quote.

Step 3

Use the Swatches panel to add a Fill Color to your text frame.

If, for example, you were creating a layout set on blank, white paper, you could set the Fill to [Paper] to match the background and create a seamless overlapping effect.

Step 4

With the text frame selected go to Object > Text Frame Options.

Adjust the Inset Spacing values so that the text frame has a generous margin around the outside. Make sure the Preview box is checked, to allow you to see how much spacing you are adding. This will frame the quote nicely, and create a more attractive final result. When you’re happy, click OK to exit the window.

And there we have it! Two quick and easy techniques for creating magazine pull quotes. Really simple, and really effective.

Eager to pick up more print design skills? Check out our magazine design tutorials, or download free magazine templates for InDesign.

The post How to Create Stylish Magazine Pull Quotes appeared first on InDesignSkills.

These book sizes are guaranteed to fit snugly on the bookstore’s shelf, and you’ll also find suggestions for choosing a suitable size for your chosen genre.

The Top 4 Most Popular Book Sizes in the US

Pocket Book: 4.25 in x 6.87 in

Best for: Low-cost paperback fiction

Pocket books are sized to do just that—fit nicely in a back pocket. This format is cheap to print and convenient to carry around, so it makes a great fit for cheap paperback fiction. You’ll see this size sold in newsagents and airports, as well as bookstores.

Digest: 5.5 in x 8.5 in

Best for: Paperback fiction and non-fiction

The Digest format is the smallest of what are termed ‘trade’ sizes in the States.

These are amongst the most widely circulated paperback sizes in the country, and suit both fiction and non-fiction titles.

US Trade: 6 in x 9 in

Best for: Paperback fiction

The more common of the trade sizes is US Trade, a slightly larger format often used for paperback fiction. This is a failsafe size to pick for fiction, and is the most common standard size offered by print-on-demand services for both self-published authors and publishing houses.

Hardcover: Ranges from 6 in x 9 in to 8.5 in x 11 in

Best for: Premium fiction and non-fiction

Hardcover (or hardback) sizes vary widely in the US, but generally the size of these books tends to fall somewhere between 6 x 9 in and 8.5 x 11 in.

Self-publishers tend to avoid hardcovers in favor of cheaper paperbacks, but with more POD sites offering hardcover print runs at increasingly better value, it’s starting to become more of a realistic option for self-published authors.

The Top 4 Most Popular Book Sizes in the UK

A-Format: 178 mm x 111 mm

Best for: Airport fiction

A-format books are dinky, and perfect for readers on the go. This format used to be the standard for airport fiction, but now you’ll also see it used widely for reprints of classic novels and niche fiction, like self-help or humour.

B-Format: 198 mm x 129 mm

Best for: Paperback fiction

B-Format books are probably the most widely circulated in the UK, being the industry standard for most paperback fiction. If you’re unsure about which size to choose for your book, B-Format is a pretty safe bet.

You’ll see this stocked widely across both physical and online bookstores, and most print-on-demand sites will feature the B-Format as one of their recommended sizes for self-publishers.

Demy: 216 mm x 135 mm

Best for: Large-format paperbacks

Larger paperbacks are being increasingly used in the UK in place of more expensive to produce hardbacks. The Demy format is commonly used for airport fiction these days, often replacing the more traditional and smaller A-format size.

If you’re looking to create a mass-market book, either in the self-help or fiction genres, a Demy size is a good option for attracting maximum attention on the shelf without the expense of printing a hardback.

Royal: 234 mm x 156 mm

Best for: Hardback novels

A Royal is a large-format size suited to novels and some non-fiction (such as high-volume biographies). Because Royals are larger than Demys, B-formats and A-formats, you’ll often see them in hardback (hardcover) format.

These are the books you’ll see showcased in the ‘New Hardback Fiction’ section of the bookstore, arranged so that the front covers face the browser. Being the largest of British fiction sizes, Royals aren’t the cheapest to produce, but they make a big visual impact.

Designing your own books doesn’t have to be scary. Get started on the right foot with more handy tutorials for self-publishing and book design here.

The post The Most Popular Standard Book Sizes in the US and UK appeared first on InDesignSkills.

But there’s no need to splash out on expensive invites when you can create your own in InDesign, and have them printed cheaply through a POD (print-on-demand) site.

So save those precious wedding pennies, and follow this tutorial on how to create your own nature-inspired invitations.

What You’ll Need to Create Your Invite

To create the design pictured here you’ll need to download the following image and font files:

• Olive leaf wreath
• Sen font
• Cormorant font

As well as access to Adobe InDesign you’ll also need to have access to vector software like Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape for editing the olive leaf graphics.

1. How to Set Up Your Invite Document in InDesign

Step 1

Open InDesign and click on Create New (or go to File > New > Document).

Click on Print at the top of the New Document window. Switch the Units to Inches, and set the Width of the page to 5 in and Height to 7 in.

Add a Bleed of 0.125 in, and click Create.

Step 2

Expand the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and double-click on the Layer 1 name. Rename it as Background and click OK.

Choose New Layer from the panel’s top-right drop-down menu. Name this layer Leaves and click OK. Create two more layers—first, Type Border, and, finally, Type at the top of the sequence.

Lock all layers except Background, which we’ll work on first.

Step 3

Expand the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) and choose New Color Swatch from the panel’s menu.

Choose New Color Swatch from the panel’s menu. Name the swatch Off-White, and with the Type set to Process and Mode to CMYK, set the levels below to C=4 M=3 Y=5 K=0. Then click Add and Done.

Create a second new swatch, naming it Peach and setting the levels to C=6 M=41 Y=37 K=0.

2. How to Build Up Color on Your Invite

Step 1

Working on the Background layer, take the Rectangle Tool (M) and drag across the page, extending the shape up to the edge of the bleed on all sides.

From the Swatches panel set the Fill of the shape to Off-White.

Step 2

Lock the Background layer and unlock the Type Border layer.

Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to create a second shape over the top of the first, also with an Off-White Fill.

Make this shape smaller, 3.5 in in Width and 4.5 in in Height, and position centrally on the page.

Step 3

With this smaller rectangle selected, go to Object > Effects > Drop Shadow.

Click on the colored square to the right of the Mode menu, and switch the Effect Color to Peach, before clicking OK.

Bring the Opacity of the shadow down to around 25%, increase the Size to 0.625 in and add about 10% Noise. Then click OK to exit the window.

Step 4

Create another rectangle shape over the top of this one, making it slightly smaller and leaving a small margin between the two.

From the Swatches panel set the Fill of this shape to [None] and the Stroke Color to Peach.

From the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke), increase the Weight of the shape’s edge to 2.25 pt.

3. How to Format Typography on Your Invite

Step 1

Lock the Type Border layer and unlock the top layer, Type.

Switch to the Type Tool (T) and drag across the border shapes, creating a text frame about a third of the way down.

Type in ‘Name 1’, and from either the top Controls panel or the Character and Paragraph panels (Window > Type & Tables > Character/Paragraph), set the Font to Sen, Size 19 pt, Tracking (letter-spacing) to 300, All Caps and Align Center.

Copy and Paste the text frame, to create a copy below, editing the text to read ‘Name 2’.

Step 2

Create another text frame between the two names, typing in an ampersand, ‘&’, and setting the Font to Cormorant Garamond, SemiBold Italic, Size 18 pt, Align Center.

From the Swatches panel adjust the Font Color to Peach.

Step 3

Create a text frame above the names, typing in intro text like ‘join us to celebrate / the union of’.

Set the Font to Cormorant Garamond Regular, Size 7 pt, Leading (line-spacing) to 15 pt, Tracking 300 and Align Center.

Copy and Paste the text frame a couple of times, positioning these below the names and editing the text to read the date, time and location of the event.

Set another text frame with ‘reception to follow’ at the bottom, set in Cormorant Garamond Italic, Size 8 pt, Tracking 200 and Align Center.

Step 4

You can divide up sections of information by setting a text frame between them and setting the Font to Cormorant Garamond Regular and Font Color to Peach.

Go to Window > Type & Tables > Glyphs. Set your Type Tool cursor in the text frame, and identify a bullet glyph from the list of glyphs in the panel. Double-click to insert it into the frame.

4. How to Add a Botanical Touch to Your Invite

Step 1

Open up the olive wreath vector illustration in Adobe Illustrator, or other vector software of your choice.

Isolate individual leaves and Copy and Paste them into new documents. File > Save As each as it’s own Illustrator or EPS file, with a transparent background.

Step 2

Head back to your InDesign document.

Lock the Type layer and unlock the Leaves layer below. Create a small image frame using the Rectangle Frame Tool (F), over the top-right corner of the type border.

File > Place, choosing one of your individual leaf images and clicking Open. Allow it to fill the frame completely, and scale and rotate to allow it to frame the corner of the rectangle shape nicely.

Step 3

Repeat the process, creating more individual image frames over both the top-right and bottom-left corners of the type border, and placing individual leaf images into each.

5. How to Export Your Finished Invite for Printing

Step 1

Go to File > Export, and choose Adobe PDF (Print) from the Format menu at the bottom of the Export window. Name the file and hit Save.

In the Export Adobe PDF window that opens, choose [Press Quality] from the Adobe PDF Preset menu at the top.

Step 2

Click on Marks and Bleeds in the window’s left-hand menu.

Some print services will prefer you to either include printer’s marks and a bleed, or only to include the bleed, so make sure to check your printer’s preferences beforehand.

Here, I’ve checked both All Printer’s Marks and Use Document Bleed Settings

Click Export to create your print-ready file.

And you’re done! Great job! You can send this PDF file straight off for printing.

Free template version of this tutorial coming very soon…

Hungry for more InDesign tips and tutorials? Click this way.

The post How to Create a Botanical Wedding Invite in InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

But how to get started? Here we look at eight quick-start tips for beginning a new career in graphic design. You’ll also find our edit of the best beginner tutorials and sources of inspiration to get you started on the right footing.

1. Start With the Basics

To become a graphic designer you need to know how to use computers to create layouts for both print and online. However, it can be difficult to know which software to invest in, given that there are tons of options available.

Although there are some good free alternatives available, most professional designers will use Adobe software. The core trio is Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

InDesign is a publishing program, tailored for creating layouts and multi-page documents, such as posters, magazines and flyers. Designers use Photoshop to edit photos or largely raster image-based layouts. Illustrator is used to create vector graphics, such as illustrations and logos.

You can learn more about the difference between design programs, and how to make the best choice for your own needs here.

You’ll find that designers’ preferences for software vary, but generally each designer has their own favorite program which they use on a daily basis. For most print designers, this will be InDesign, which is perfectly suited for print work. Digital designers might also use InDesign, but they may prefer the arguably more digital-friendly capabilities of Photoshop or Illustrator.

The interfaces of InDesign and other design-specialist software can seem a little intimidating at first, but once you know a little more about the basics—such as tools and panels—it’s easy to get the ball running.

Learn how to get started with InDesign here.

Still not sure where to make a start?

Make sure to check out these InDesign beginner’s tutorials to get a flavor of the software. 

2. Fall in Love With Typography

Typography, which describes how type is formatted and arranged on a layout, is an essential building block of graphic design. Every designer has their own fondness for typography, which in some runs to obsession.

With a little know-how, it won’t be long before you too develop a deep and meaningful attachment to all things type. Once you start animatedly telling your friends what the difference between a sans serif and a serif is, you know you’ve been bitten by the bug.

Get started with this helpful guide to formatting type in InDesign, which covers all the basics.

When you’re ready to dive in a little deeper, you can find a range of typography-centric tips and tutorials here.

Soon, you’ll want to develop your typography skills further with more specific training, like this tutorial on how to create simple and more complex drop caps.

3. Become a Master of Working With Images

Images bring an immersive quality to your designs, and can provide inspiration for the typefaces and colors you want to use on your layout.

To get started with using images in your designs, you need to know how to make them work for you. You can edit images using Photoshop but you don’t need to be a Photoshop whizz to get started with using images in your designs. You can place, size and rotate images within InDesign directly, allowing you to use photos in your layouts instantly.

Here you’ll find a beginner’s guide to using images in your InDesign layouts.

Some kinds of layout really allow you to make photography a key part of your design. Magazines are a great place to start honing your image layout skills.

Check out this trio of tutorials on how to incorporate photos into magazine spreads in new and interesting ways.

Vector graphics also play a significant role in graphic design. Vector illustrations can take the place of photos, and vector graphics, like logos and shapes, can bring scalable impact to your designs.

Dip a toe into vector with this introduction to creating shapes and illustrations in InDesign.

4. Understand Color

Type, graphics and color make up the holy trinity of graphic design. You can use these three elements as a foundation for creating any layout.

Color defines the mood and personality of a layout. It’s important to not only develop a good understanding of how colors complement or clash with one another, but also how to set up color on your designs at a technical level too.

This beginner’s guide to color spells out the difference between RGB and CMYK color, as well as advice for using Spot and Pantone colors.

Adobe’s handy Adobe Color CC app allows you to experiment with color combinations and create unique palettes from photos, which you can use directly in InDesign.

5. Learn How to Prepare for Print…

Even if you’re set on digital design, it’s important to have a solid foundation of print design skills. Why? Understanding print design basics will teach you key techniques you can carry forward into digital work, such as how to craft beautiful layouts and how to work with grids.

If you ever want to be able to create print work, such as stationery, signage or publications, it’s essential that you take a little time to read about how to prepare documents correctly for print, such as including bleeds and setting up color spaces correctly.

This indispensable guide shows you how to prepare your designs for print faultlessly every time.

6. …and For Online, Too

Print and digital design share common traits, but generally designers choose to specialise in one or the other. Where print design is in some ways very traditional (which is both its charm and its curse), digital design is ever-changing and exciting.

If you want to dip a toe into the world of digital, learning how to create simple designs for online use is a good place to start.

Learn how to create your own eBooks and eMagazines with this EPUB tutorial.

Or source digital inspiration from our edit of the best email marketing examples.

7. Become a Specialist in one area

Most designers get a sense of whether their strengths and interests lie more with print or digital design, but within these broader disciplines you can also choose to specialise further.

Within print design, for example, you will find designers who focus on branding, book design or typography.

Get started with book design, with this tutorial on how to create a book cover.

Within the expanding field of digital, many designers choose to specialise in app, website, EPUB or UX design.

8. Keep Inspired!

No graphic designer can flourish in a vacuum, and seeking inspiration by looking at the work of others is an incredibly important part of your development as a designer.

Keep your motivation up and your creative juices flowing by looking at our round-up of the best design inspiration.

Balancing trend-driven design with your own style is the key to creating designs that feel fresh and unique.

Make sure to keep abreast of the latest trends across the graphic design world by clicking here.

De 36 frågorna packaging by Martin Ohlsson

The post The Quick-Start Guide to Graphic Design appeared first on InDesignSkills.

While they may look elaborate, these text effects don’t take long to put together using Adobe InDesign. This method also keeps the text editable, so you can quickly and easily change the letter while preserving colors and effects.

Ready to get started? Let’s dive in…

What You’ll Need to Create Your Decorative Letter

All you need is access to Adobe InDesign and a font of your choice.

Serif fonts with a more traditional style tend to work best with this vintage-inspired look. For the lettering designs pictured here, I’ve used Didot (Bold) and Mr Darcy (Regular).

Here’s what we’ll be creating*.

*You can adapt the design to a letter of your choice; simply follow the same steps below, tweaking details to suit your letter choice.

Step 1

Open up InDesign and go to File > New > Document.

Create a new document to any size you prefer. Here, I’ll be working on an A3 single page. Click OK to create your document.

Step 2

Begin by using the Type Tool (T) to create a large text frame in the center of the page.

Type in your letter, here ‘C’, and set the Font to your chosen style (here, Didot Bold) from either the Controls panel running along the top of the workspace or the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character).

Make sure the Font Size is generous, here I’ve increased it to 600 pt*.

*If you want to incorporate your letter into another design, you can later vectorize your letter by going to Type > Create Outlines, and scale the whole design more easily.

Step 3

You’ll need a palette of four color swatches to create your decorative letter. For this particular design, I’m going to use four of the default colors already provided in the Swatches panel.

But if you’d like to use different colors for your design, you can create new swatches by selecting New Color Swatch from the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches).

Step 4

Select the letter by highlighting it with your Type Tool cursor, or use the Selection Tool (V, Escape) to select the text frame. Head up to Object > Effects Inner Glow. This will add an inner color to your letter.

Click on the colored square to the right of the mode menu at the top of the window that opens. From here, you can choose one of your color swatches to apply to the glow. Here I’ve gone for red.

Back in the Effects window, under the Options section below, set the Technique to Precise, Source to Center, Choke to 100% and Noise to 20%. You can tweak the Size of the glow depending on the size of your text.

Step 5

Click on the Drop Shadow option at the top of the Effects window’s left-hand menu. This will add a colored shadow to the outside of your letter.

Choose a contrasting color for the Effect Color. Here I’ve gone for cyan.

Tweak the Distance, Angle and Size until you’re happy with the position of the shadow. Increase the Spread to 100% and add about 10% Noise.

Step 6

Click on Outer Glow in the Effects window menu. This will add a highlight shadow to the outside of your letter.

Adjust the Mode to Normal, and you can either keep the Effect Color set to the default [Paper] (white) swatch, or choose a different contrasting swatch.

Add about 20% Noise and increase the Spread to 100%, before clicking OK to exit the window.

Step 7

You can add extra decorative elements to your letter by using the drawing tools in InDesign’s Tools panel, which is docked to the left-hand side of the workspace.

Use the Pen Tool (P) to create curved elements, holding down your cursor to create curved lines, and allowing the shape of the letter to guide the design.

To tweak the shape of your drawing, use the Smooth Tool to smooth out kinks, and the Direct Selection Tool (A) to directly select anchor points and adjust their position.

Step 8

You can combine shapes to create decorative elements. Here, I’ve used the Ellipse Tool (L) to draw a circle over the top of the letter, meeting the curved line I’ve already created, creating a simple tear shape where the two shapes meet.

Use the Scissors Tool (C) to cut away unwanted parts of shapes…

…and go to Object > Paths > Join to unite shapes.

Step 9

Give your shape a contrasting Fill Color (here, cyan) from the Swatches panel.

Go to Object > Effects > Inner Glow to add an inner color to the shape. As before, set the Choke to 100%, and Source to Center. Tweak the other options until you’re happy with the effect.

Step 10

You can Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste shapes and flip or rotate them by Right-Clicking > Transform.

You can also use the Ellipse Tool (L) to create quick and easy polka dot decorations for your design.

Step 11

Your decorative letter is finished! Great job!

You can easily change the letter and preserve the colors and effects by typing in a different letter into the text frame. All you have to do is adjust the decorative elements on top to complete the effect.

Here are a few other letter designs I created using the same technique.

This ‘S’ uses a bold color combination of cream, mustard, pink and green. The Font used is Mr Darcy Regular. I’ve used the Pen Tool (P) to create arrow embellishments, and the Ellipse Tool (L) to create a polka dot effect.

This ‘E’ is set in Didot, with a color palette of cream, orange, pink and white. I created the inner stripe on the design using the Rectangle Tool (M).

Next in this series

Looking for more typography tips? These quick and simple tutorials will turn you into a typography pro in no time.

The post Quick and Easy Decorative Lettering in InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to draw shapes and silhouettes in InDesign, and apply stylistic effects, like noise, shadows and gradients, to create a vintage-inspired, screen-printed effect.

Suitable for beginners, this is a handy little introduction to drawing with shapes in InDesign.

Why Draw in InDesign?

InDesign isn’t always the first software option that springs to mind for creating vector graphics, but it’s actually a fantastic choice if you’re looking to create quick illustrations to incorporate into other InDesign layouts, such as flyers, magazines or posters.

InDesign brings together the best of both worlds for illustration—a set of vector drawing tools you would normally find in Illustrator as well as the advanced effects you would usually only be able to apply in Photoshop.

Geometric shapes, simple silhouettes, logo designs and patterns are all easily achievable with the tools available to you in InDesign. You’ll also end up with a vector (not raster) graphic, which means you can scale your design as you wish without compromising on quality.

Here, we’ll work towards creating this winter tree illustration, to demonstrate a range of handy drawing techniques. You can apply the same techniques and principles to your own designs—the only limitation is your imagination!

Ready to get drawing? Awesome, let’s go!

1. How to Draw a Shape

Step 1

Open up InDesign and go to File > New > Document, creating a document at any size you wish. If you’re creating your illustration for print media (e.g. flyers, stationery etc) set the Intent to Print. Want to create a design for social media or attaching to an email? Choose Web instead.

With the document created, you’ll need to get familiar with the Tools panel to create your illustration. This is docked over on the left side of the workspace (or go to Window > Tools).

Even if you’re not using a graphics tablet, using the Pen Tool (P) to create shapes on the page will give you a high level of control. Click onto the page and move around to create your shape, before connecting the silhouette at the first anchor point.

Step 2

You can switch to the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select individual anchor points and tweak their position.

Once you’ve clicked onto an anchor point (it will switch to white once accurately selected), use your mouse or the arrow keys to shift the position of the anchor point, perfecting your shape.

Step 3

For illustrations made up of separate lines (i.e. not a complete shape), it’s best to use the Line Tool (\).

Click onto the page once, then twice, to create a single line. To create a completely straight horizontal or vertical line hold down Shift while you drag.

Here I’ve created a single central branch for the tree using the Line Tool, before creating individual branches reaching from the trunk to the outer edge of the tree using the same tool.

I switch to the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select individual anchor points and move them until I’m happy with their position.

2. How to Add Color and Effects

Step 1

Once you have your shape in place it’s time to get creative with color!

If you’re creating a simple logo or icon design you may want to use just one or two colors, but more complex illustrations might benefit from a palette of colors. To create a variety of color swatches to work with, go to the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) and choose New Color Swatch from the panel’s top-right drop-down menu. Play around with the CMYK (for print) or RGB (for web) percentage levels, before clicking Add and OK to add it to the Swatches panel.

Select the shape you’d like to apply the swatch to and set the Fill to your chosen swatch from the Swatches panel. For larger shapes it almost always looks best if you set the Stroke Color to [None].

Step 2

Now you’re ready to start applying effects to your illustration to bring in texture and depth.

If you have a group of elements you want to apply the same effect to you may find it easier to first Right-Click > Group them together, as I’ve done here with the branches of the tree.

Then head up to Object on the main menu bar running along the top of the workspace, and choose Effects and then select any option from that menu. Whichever option you click on will open the Effects window. From here you can apply all sorts of effects to your design, such as shadowing, gradients and glows.

Below you’ll find highlighted some of the effects which I think have the potential to bring out the best in your illustrations…

Drop Shadow

Adding a shadow to your graphics can give the design more depth and body.

Apply the effect subtly by adjusting the Effect Color from Black to be a closer match to the background color below (here, I’ve opted for a dark green to complement the tree foliage below). You can also bring down the Opacity and adjust the Distance, Size and Spread to make the shadow more subtle.

Step 3

Copying and pasting (Edit > Copy/Paste) certain elements on your design and shifting their position slightly can give your illustrations an authentic screen-printed or letterpress look. Here I’ve pasted a copy of the tree branches to create that effect.

In this design I’ve used the Pen Tool (P) to create individual sections of color across the tree.

Selecting each colored section I can also adjust the transparency settings by once again heading up to Object > Effects and choosing Transparency.

Transparency

Applying a Transparency effect to some or all of your illustration can really help the design to blend together and look more professional.

Choosing Normal from the Mode menu and reducing the Opacity will simply fade the element selected, allowing details from other elements sitting below to become more visible.

Applying an Overlay blending mode is a great way of preserving the impact and color of the element while still making elements below more visible.

Step 4

You can make vector graphics look more hand-drawn by adding grainy texture. The best way to do this is with the Inner Glow option in the Effects window.

Inner Glow

You can apply a glowy, light-up effect to the inside of your shapes by adding Inner Glow, but I tend to use this option for applying grainy noise instead.

To do this, adjust the Mode to Normal, and choose a color that is similar to, but not the same as, the color of the shape you are applying the effect to. Increase the Size and Choke to extend the effect across the whole shape, and then adjust the level of Noise until you are happy with the amount of grain.

Step 5

You can also make shapes appear as if they are glowing on the outside, which is a lovely effect for adding a lit-up effect to elements like stars, lightbulbs, suns or moons. Once you’ve created your shape (here, I’ve created a star shape using the Pen Tool), head up again to Object > Effects, and choose Outer Glow.

Outer Glow

With the Mode set to Screen, adjust the Size and Spread of the effect until you’re happy with the amount of glow around your shape. Adding a little Noise will soften the effect.

Conclusion: Illustrating Made Easy in InDesign

In this tutorial we’ve looked at a simple three-step process for creating illustrations in InDesign. Let’s take a quick recap:

• First, use the Pen Tool and shape tools (e.g. Line Tool) in the Tools panel to create simple shapes, lines and silhouettes.
• Next, create a range of color swatches in the Swatches panel and apply your palette to your drawing.
• Finally, style your illustration using the options available in InDesign’s Effects window, such as glows, shadows, noise and transparencies.

Hungry for more drawing tutorials? Check out this guide to creating arrow shapes in InDesign, or why not find inspiration for your next InDesign layouts here?

The post Drawing Shapes and Illustrations in InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Here at InDesignSkills we’re all about making your life easier, while picking up some awesome new design skills along the way. Read on to find out how you can create a light-up neon text effect directly in InDesign in under 5 minutes.

How to Create a Neon Effect

Light-up neon type is fantastic for adding nighttime glamour or a moody 1980s feel to your designs. This sort of text effect would look great on a poster or event flyer, and it’s so easy to do!

Step 1

I’ve set up the effect pictured here on a landscape A3 page (go to File > New > Document), though of course feel free to adapt the page size to suit your own purposes.

Expand the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and rename Layer 1 as Background. Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to create a shape that extends across the whole of the page.

For the text effect to have impact, you’ll need to give the rectangle a dark fill. Opt for [Black] in the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches), or to recreate the color used here, click on New Color Swatch in the panel’s drop-down menu. Double-click the new swatch to edit it, setting the CMYK values to C=85 M=76 Y=61 K=93.

Step 2

In the Swatches panel create a further two new swatches:

Dark Pink – C=10 M=100 Y=0 K=0

Pale Pink – C=5 M=12 Y=0 K=0

We’ll use these to layer up the dark and light tones of the neon effect. If you want the neon effect to be a different color, say blue, create two swatches in the same way, one dark blue, one pale blue.

Step 3

Head back to the Layers panel and lock the Background layer. Create a new layer above and name it Typography.

Take the Type Tool (T) and create a large text frame in the center of the page. Type in your text, and from either the Controls panel at the top of the workspace or the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character), choose your preferred Font. To create a more authentic neon sign effect, I’ve gone for a script font, Burtons Script.

From the Swatches panel, set the Font Color to Dark Pink. Once you’re happy with the size, position, font and color of the text, you’re ready to outline the text. Note that this means you won’t be able to adjust the formatting of the text, so Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste the text frame, moving the copy over to the pasteboard to preserve a copy of your text if you like.

Step 4

Select the original text frame and go to Type > Create Outlines, to vectorize the text.

Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste the vector, moving the copy over to the pasteboard. We’ll be using this a little later.

With the vector selected, go to Object > Effects > Outer Glow. Set the Mode to Screen, Opacity to about 20%, Noise to 3% and Spread to 70%. Click on the colored square to the right of the Mode menu to open the Effect Color window. Choose Dark Pink from your list of Swatches.

Click OK to exit the Effects window.

Step 5

Select the vector and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste in Place, layering it directly over the first vector.

Go to Object > Effects > Outer Glow and increase the Opacity to 80% and bring the Spread down to about 40%.

Step 6

You can now start to build up the lighter tones in your neon effect.

Head over to the pasteboard and select the vectorized version of the text you pasted over there back in Step 4. Select it and Edit > Copy it, moving the copy over onto the page and positioning it directly over the top of the other text vectors.

Adjust the Fill of this new vector to Pale Pink.

Then head up to Object > Effects > Transparency. Set the Mode to Screen and pull the Opacity down to 70%.

Click on Outer Glow in the window’s left-hand menu and set the Mode to Screen and Opacity to about 65%. Choose Pale Pink for the Effect Color.

Click on Drop Shadow at the top of the window’s menu and set the Mode to Multiply, Opacity to about 40% and the Effect Color to Dark Pink.

Add a final effect to this vector by clicking on Gradient Feather at the bottom of the window’s menu. Choose Radial for the Type, and then click OK to exit the Effects window.

Step 7

To make the neon effect really pop, we can add a final layer of light over the top of the text effect.

To do this go to Edit > Paste to drop another copy of the vectorized text onto the page. Position directly over the top of the other vectors, and adjust the Fill to Pale Pink.

Go to Object > Effects > Transparency, and set the Mode to Screen and Opacity to 50%.

Click on Outer Glow and choose Screen for the Mode and Pale Pink for the Effect Color. Reduce the Opacity to about 50%, and increase the Spread to 40%. Click OK to exit the window.

And you’re done! This cool neon text effect will really make your designs pop—why not try using it on a gig or club flyer for extra impact?

Want to pick up some new typography skills? Browse beginner tutorials to find simple tips and tricks to make your type designs look super professional.

The post Create a Neon Text Effect in InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Here at InDesignSkills we’re all about making your life easier, while picking up some awesome new design skills along the way. Read on to discover an incredible stone text effect you can create directly in InDesign in under 5 minutes.

How to Create an Engraved Stone Text Effect

Looking to channel Game of Thrones in your designs? This engraved stone effect brings drama and ancient appeal to text, making it a fantastic match for advertising and poster work.

Step 1

We’ll set up all of the effects here on a landscape A3 page (go to File > New > Document), though of course feel free to adapt the page size to suit your own purposes.

Expand the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and rename Layer 1 as Background. Use the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) to create an image frame that extends across the whole of the page.

For this effect you’ll need to find a stone background image, preferably one that’s not too dark, to allow the shadows to stand out. Here I’ve used this grey stone background image from Shutterstock. Go to File > Place, choose your image, and click Open, allowing it to fill the whole image frame.

With the frame selected, go to Object > Effects > Gradient Feather. Set the Type to Radial and allow the gradient to extend from darker around the outside of the image to lighter at the center.

Step 2

Lock the Background layer and create a new layer above, renaming it Typography.

Use the Type Tool (T) to create a large text frame on the center of the page, and type in your text.

From either the Controls panel running along the top of the workspace or the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character) choose a Font for your text (here I’ve used Simplo Bold) and set the text in All Caps.

Step 3

Select the text frame and Edit > Copy it, preserving a copy on the pasteboard.

With the text frame selected go to Type > Create Outlines to convert the text to a vector format. Then go to File > Place, choose your stone background image as before and Open it, allowing it to fill the outlined text.

Step 4

Now you can start adding effects to your text, to add depth, shadow and highlights.

Select the vector text and go to Object > Effects > Transparency. Set the Mode to Multiply.

Then click on the Bevel and Emboss option in the window’s left-hand menu. Set the Style to Inner Bevel and Technique to Smooth. Play around with the Size, Depth, Angle and Shadow and Highlight Opacities until you’re happy with the effect.

To give the impression that light is being cast from above over the stone, you can add an Inner Shadow. Click on this option in the window’s menu. Adjust the options until you’re happy with the depth, direction and strength of the shadow.

Click OK to exit the Effects window.

Step 5

If you want to make your effect even more graphic and strong you can add stronger shadow effects at the top and bottom of the type.

To do this, Edit > Paste in Place your earlier text frame on top of the existing type effect.

Use the Eyedropper Tool (I) to pick up one of the darker shades from the surrounding background image. Double-click the picked-up color which is now visible at the bottom of the Tools panel. Click into one of the CMYK text boxes, and then choose Add CMYK Swatch. From the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) you can now apply the swatch to the text color.

Select the text frame and go to Object > Effects > Transparency. Set the Mode to Multiply.

Click on the Gradient Feather menu option, and apply a Linear gradient at a 90 degree angle, extending from darker at the top of the text, to lighter at the bottom.

Select the text frame and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste in Place. Go to Object > Effects > Gradient Feather and click on the Reverse Gradient button to the right side of the Gradient Stops slider.

And you’re done! This high-impact stone text effect has a cinematic feel—why not try using it on a poster for extra drama?

Want to give your typography skills a refresh? Head to the beginner tutorials page to find fun and simple tips and tricks to give your text the wow-factor.

The post Create an Engraved Stone Text Effect in InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

How to Create and Format Vertical Text

Step 1.

I’ve prepared a single-page document in InDesign, set to a standard ‘Architectural D’ poster size, 610 mm (24 in) in Width and 914 mm (36 in) in Height, with a 5 mm Bleed around the edges of the page.I’ve also placed an image of a ballet dancer onto the page, and locked this layer, creating a new layer above from the Layers panel (Window > Layers). When creating your own vertical text effect, you may also want to edit this on its own layer, so you don’t mistakenly move around any other elements sitting below.

Image of a ballet dancer from Shutterstock

Step 2.

Once you have your page and layers prepared, you can get started with creating your vertical text effect.

From the Tools panel select the Line Tool (\) and, holding down Shift, drag your mouse down from top to bottom, creating a vertical line.

Step 3.

Select the Type on a Path Tool (Shift+T), which you can find in the Type Tool’s drop-down menu in the Tools panel.

Click once onto the top of the line to convert the line into a text path. Now you can type in the text you want to appear vertical.

Using the Type Tool (T), you can highlight the text and apply formatting like font, size and color from the Character Formatting Controls panel (running along the top of the workspace) and the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches). The font used here is Charlevoix Pro.

You can also remove the automated black color of the line by selecting the line with the Selection Tool (V, Escape), and choosing [None] from the Swatches panel.

Step 4.

Open the Paragraph panel (Window > Type & Tables > Paragraph), highlight the text with your type cursor and set the alignment to Justify All Lines. This will pull the text across to fill the full length of the line. You can adjust the height of the line by dragging the horizontal lines which appear at the top and bottom of the line when the Selection Tool is active.

Step 5.

To switch the text to a vertical orientation, head up to Type on the top menu and choose Type on a Path > Options.

Under Effect, choose Stair Step. From the Align options choose Center. Click OK to exit the window.

Step 6.

Now your text is aligned vertically you can tweak the formatting to suit your layout.

Here, I’ve adjusted the kerning between certain characters to reveal the dancer’s face on the poster and create a more interesting typographic effect. You can adjust this from the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character).

I’ve also created a faded effect to the text by repeatedly copying and pasting the vertical text line, and reducing the opacity by going to Object > Effects > Transparency.

I also applied a gradient (Object > Effects > Gradient Feather) running at a 0 degrees angle to enhance the fade effect.

Building a complete layout around your vertical text effect can be really fun—try teaming vertical text with rotated type and standard left-to-right text to create contrast and interest. Alternatively, creating a layout solely with vertical text can look amazing, and is a technique that was often employed by the Swiss School, who were interested in the qualities vertical text brought to grid-based layouts.

Want to update your typography skills? Our beginner tutorials page is a great resource for fun and easy-to-follow typography tips and tricks.

The post How to Create Vertical Text in InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Read on to find out how to create a simple drop cap in InDesign, and how to take your designs to the next level with stunning scale, color and graphics…

1. How to Set Up a Simple Drop Cap

Step 1

With your InDesign document open, you should first prepare a text frame on your layout using the Type Tool (T). Fill the frame with the paragraph of text you would like to add a drop cap too.

Highlight with your type cursor the first letter of the paragraph, or simply place your cursor somewhere into the paragraph.

From either the Paragraph Formatting Controls panel running along the top of the workspace or from the Paragraph panel (Window > Type & Tables > Paragraph), locate the Drop Cap Number of Lines option (indicated by an uppercase ‘A’ in the corner of a sequence of lines).

By clicking the arrows up or down, or by manually typing in a number, InDesign will set the drop cap to extend a specified number of lines, increasing the size of the character as it does.

You can also adjust the number of characters included in the drop cap by increasing the value of the Drop Cap One or More Characters, an option which you can find in the bottom-right corner of the Paragraph panel. This is perfect for when you want to pull out a whole word or phrase as part of your drop cap effect.

Step 2

A trio of simple tweaks will help you to get the most out of your drop cap and give it a professionally polished look:

First, go to Window > Type & Tables > Story, and check the Optical Margin Alignment box. This shifts any straggly serifs or apostrophes to outside of the text frame, giving the whole paragraph, including your drop cap, a cleaner appearance.

Is your drop cap crowding some of your paragraph text? Here, the tail of the ‘R’ is overlapping some of the body text. You can rectify this by placing your cursor between the drop cap letter and the first letter of the body text (here, between the ‘R’ and ‘o’ of ‘Romanticism’). Then, from either the Character Formatting Controls panel at the top of the screen or the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character), increase the Kerning value, until the drop cap is separated sufficiently from the paragraph text.

Finally, you can shift the baseline of the drop cap to allow it to be more nicely framed by the surrounding body text. Highlight the drop cap with your type cursor, and then increase the Baseline Shift from the bottom-left option in the Character panel.

And there we have it! A simple, super professional drop cap which looks fantastic. Try pulling out the drop cap in a contrasting color using the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) to add even more drama to the effect.

2. How to Create an Advanced Drop Cap Effect

Step 1

You can give your paragraph’s text frame more of a creative look by creating a custom shape for the text to fill. You can create a range of shapes using the shape or drawing tools in InDesign, or use Adobe Illustrator to create something more unique.

Here I’ve used the Arc Tool and Line Segment Tool in Illustrator to create a curved rectangle shape.

I then Edit > Copy the shape, return to InDesign and Edit > Paste the vector shape directly onto the page.

Right-Click (Windows) or Ctrl-Click (Mac) > Content > Text to transform any vector shape into a text frame.

Step 2

Fill your text frame with text, making sure to remove the first letter of the paragraph (so here, I type ‘omanticism’, dropping the first ‘R’).

Create a second square text frame using the Type Tool (T), and type your intended drop cap character into the text frame (here, ‘R’).

Enlarge the character to your preferred size, and move into position over the top-left corner of the body text frame.

Step 3

Highlight the drop cap letter, and then head up to Type > Create Outlines. The character will be vectorized.

Then, with the vector drop cap selected, go to Window > Text Wrap. Set the text wrap option to Wrap Around Object Shape and tweak the Offset values to push the text away a little from the very edge of the letter.

Step 4

If your letter has any completely or partially enclosed areas, like the round counter of the top of the ‘R’ or the gap left behind the sweeping tail of the bottom of the ‘R’ here, you will need to ensure the body text is pushed out of these areas. This will add to the overall look of the drop cap and improve the readability of the paragraph.

To do this, take the Ellipse Tool (L) and drag over the drop cap letter, roughly filling any gaps.

With the ellipse shape selected return to the Text Wrap window and set the option to Wrap Around Bounding Box.

Select the shape and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste if you need to push text out of any other gaps. Rescale and rotate the ellipse to fit the area best.

You might now need to move your drop cap letter (along with any ellipse shapes) up or down a little until the paragraph text flows around the shape evenly.

Step 5

Your advanced drop cap effect is basically finished, and if you choose to keep it set in a classic black color that can look very elegant.

However, you can also jazz up your drop cap with color by switching the Fill Color of the letter shape in the Swatches panel. This is a great way of making your drop cap the focal point of your layout.

Another creative technique is to fill your drop cap with an image, making it into an even more interesting feature of your design.

This is really quick and simple to do. Simply Right-Click (Windows) or Ctrl-Click (Mac) on the letter shape, and choose Content > Graphic. InDesign will now treat the letter as an image frame.

Then go to File > Place and choose an image. Patterns and landscapes look lovely, but close-up portraits of models and still-life shots can also look really impactful. Once you’ve chosen your image, click Open.

And there we have it! Drop caps are a fantastic technique for adding elegance and creativity to your magazine, stationery and book layouts.

Whether you opt for a simple style using InDesign’s inbuilt Drop Cap function or create your own custom design you’ll find that drop caps really are the cherry on the cake of a professional typographic layout.

Want to update your typography skills? Our beginner tutorials page is a great resource for fun and easy-to-follow typography tips and tricks.

The post Creating Beautiful Drop Caps in InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

To explain how it works, we’ll walk you through the process of creating a Table of Contents for a short book.

1. Prepare Your Page Numbers

Before you begin putting together the table of contents, you need to make sure you’re happy with your page numbering. InDesign will use your page numbering information to make your table of contents, so it’s important to get it accurate.

You may have already introduced page numbers into your InDesign document by placing markers onto the Master pages. If not, and you don’t know where to start, make sure to check out this quick tutorial first.

The page markers will reflect the page number as listed in the Pages panel (Window > Pages), and not necessarily the page number you want it to be. So this is the first thing to address before you put together a table of contents.

Step 1

I’ve created a document in InDesign, made up of facing spreads, for the inside pages of The Great Gatsby.

My document has three chapters, with each new chapter page defined by a chapter heading, graphic and half-page text frame.

At the moment the first page of Chapter One is on page 7 of the document, which the marker has rendered as a ‘7’ on the page. I want to change this and make this page show up as page 1 of the document.

Expand the Pages panel (Window > Pages) and Right-Click (Windows) or Ctrl-Click (Mac) on the page you would like the numbering section to start from, in my case Page 7. Then click on Numbering & Section Options.

Step 2

In the window that opens, select Start Page Numbering at: and type in 1. Under Style choose 1, 2, 3, 4… and then click OK.

A warning message will flag up, reminding you that by making this change you will have created a duplicate of pages 1-6 in your document. We can rectify that, so just click OK.

Step 3

In my book document, I have designed it so that no page numbers appear on the introductory pages of the book. This is quite common for novels, with numbered pages only beginning on the first page of the first chapter.

Irrespective of whether the page numbers are visible or not, to avoid duplicate page numbers in the document I can set these first few pages to have a different numbering system.

Right-Click (Windows) or Ctrl-Click (Mac) on Page 1 in the Pages panel > Numbering & Section Options.

Again, select Start Page Numbering at: and type in 1. Under Page Numbering, choose a different Style for the numbers—roman numerals are usually a good choice for introductory pages. Then click OK.

Now you have two separate numbered sections in your book. Once you have decided on all the numbering for your document (for example, you may also want to have a different numbering system for the final pages of the book, as part of an index or bibliography) you’re almost ready to create a table of contents.

2. Set the Style of Your Contents Title

There’s one more ‘prep’ stage before you create a Table of Contents and that’s to create a Style for the title of your contents list.

Step 1

You can do this either from the Paragraph Styles panel (Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles) or from inside the Table of Contents function directly. Let’s do the latter, so we can take a look at the TOC window.

Go to Layout > Table of Contents.

In the Table of Contents window that opens you’ll notice a Title text box at the top-left of the window. This is where you can set the text for the title of your contents. A simple ‘Contents’ is pretty failsafe, but you might want to customise this to fit your own project, such as ‘In This Issue’ or ‘List of Entries’.

Step 2

To the right of this text box is a Style drop-down menu. From here you can either choose a pre-created Paragraph Style or create a New Paragraph Style. In this case let’s create a new Style.

I’m going to name it ‘Contents Style’ (or something like ‘Contents Title’ might also be a good fit), and set the Font to Aleo Light, Size 12 pt to match the formatting I’ve used for headers in my book design.

Clicking on Indents and Spacing in the left-hand menu allows me to tweak the Alignment of the Style to Center. Then I click OK.

Back in the Table of Contents window there is a Styles in Table of Contents section in the center. You can see that we can’t create a new Paragraph Style for the body of the Table of Contents directly in this window. We’ll need to create them first, then return to the TOC window to add them to the Include… list. So click OK for now.

3. Set the Style of the Body of Your Contents

Styles are one of the most useful functions in InDesign, but are often underused. Creating a Paragraph Style allows you to reproduce the exact formatting of your text elsewhere in your document, so it’s a great timesaver when you’re creating text-heavy documents like books.

We can create a new Paragraph Style for only the chapter headings in the book, and then tell InDesign to only use these styled items of text to create the contents list.

Step 1

Click to select the Chapter One heading text frame in the body of your document. Open the Paragraph Styles panel (Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles) and click on the Create New Style button at the bottom of the panel.

Step 2

Double-click on the new Paragraph Style 1 name in the Styles panel to open up the Options window. Rename the Style as something like ‘Contents Headers’ and click OK.

Step 3

Scroll through your document, clicking on each new chapter heading and then clicking on the ‘Contents Header’ Style to apply it.

If you’ve already formatted all your chapter headings in the same way this won’t affect the look of the text, but it will tell InDesign that all the chapter headers now have their own distinct style which sets it apart from other content in the document.

4. Create your Table of Contents (TOC)

Now that you have your numbering system and Styles in place, you’re ready to create your contents list.

Step 1

Go back to Layout > Table of Contents. As before, set the Title and title’s Style, choosing the original Style you created for this (e.g. ‘Contents Style’).

Then from the selection of Other Styles below, click on the new Style you just created, the ‘Contents Header’ Style.

Click the Add button in the center of the window to add it to the Include Paragraph Styles list.

By clicking the More Options button you can customise your TOC as you like, defining how the Page Numbers appear, how these are styled and whether there appears any symbol, such as dashes or dots, Between Entry and Number.

Explore the options, and customise as you like it, before clicking OK.

Step 2

A small text preview will appear next to your cursor, indicating that the cursor is loaded with the created table of contents and is ready to place.

Navigate to the page of the document where you would like the contents to be and click once onto the page to create the contents list in a new text frame.

Step 3

Now you can tweak the formatting of the contents if you like, using the Paragraph panel (Window > Type & Tables > Paragraph) to adjust alignment.

Or use the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character) to adjust the Font Size, Leading or Font Weight (e.g. Light, Bold) of the text.

Format the rest of your contents page as you would for the rest of your book, and there you have it! A simple, quick-to-create table that shows all the page numbers of your chapters accurately without needing to manually type them all up.

Delve deeper into book design with our selection of publishing tutorials and inspirational articles for book fonts and book cover designs.

The post How to Create a Table of Contents in InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

You can achieve the effect directly in Adobe InDesign—here we show you how!

1. The One-Image/Multi-Frames Effect

This effect is beloved by professional designers for adding interest and creativity to photos.

Once you know the basics of creating the effect, you can build up the design to create incredibly intricate collage effects.

First, let’s start out simple…

Step 1

Open up Adobe InDesign and create a New Document.

Set the Page Size to A3, Portrait orientation. Deselect Facing Pages. Keep everything else set to its default values and click OK.

Step 2

Expand the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and double-click on the default Layer 1 name to open the Layer Options panel.

Rename the layer Guides and click OK.

Create a new layer so that it sits above Guides, and rename it Images. Lock the Images layer and stay on the Guides layer for now.

Step 3

You now need to choose a suitable photo for your design. Any high-resolution photo will do, but try and look for interesting details in the image—generally, portraits and close-up shots will work better for this effect than landscapes, which tend to lack strong detail.

I’ve gone for this image of a flamingo.

Take a look at the photo—is it more portrait or landscape, or even square? My photo is square, so I make a mental note of that, and head back to my InDesign document.

Take the Rectangle Tool (M) and drag to create a shape that’s either roughly portrait or landscape to match your photo (it doesn’t need to match the exact dimensions or proportions). I hold down Shift to create mine, to create a perfect square shape.

Center the shape on the page.

Step 4

Now it’s time to think about the kind of shape effect you want to create. Let’s start here with a basic example, using squares to create a ‘windowpane’ effect.

Return to the Layers panel and lock the Guides layer. Unlock the Images layer above.

Take the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) and, holding Shift, drag onto the page to create a square, and sit it inside the a corner of the rectangle guide.

Go to File > Place, navigate to your chosen photo, and click Open.

Double-click inside the image frame to directly select the photo and, holding down Shift, resize the image until it matches the proportions of the guide shape.

Step 5

Select the image frame and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste.

Place the pasted frame somewhere inside the guide shape, like in the top-right corner as I’ve done here. You can either resize the image frame to meet the edge of the first image frame, choose to leave a little gap between the frames or even overlap.

Whatever you go for, the guide shape is your constant. So, double-click inside the pasted image frame to select the photo and pull it into the same position as the guide shape sitting below.

You’ll start to see that the images are beginning to look correct, gradually making up a whole image.

Step 6

Repeat the process of copying and pasting image frames, and resizing the pasted frame if needed…

…then grabbing the image inside the frame and adjusting its position so it sits within the guide shape.

Once you have filled the whole area of the guide shape with image frames, you should see your whole image has taken shape.

 2. Creating Advanced Designs

Step 1

Once you’ve experimented with the effect using simple shapes you can start to get more creative. Circular image frames are accessible from InDesign’s Tools panel (Ellipse Frame Tool), and look great when layered over each other in a venn diagram style.

To recreate this design, as before create a square shape on the Guides layer below.

Use the Ellipse Tool to create a circular image frame which has the diameter of one quarter of the guide shape. Place in the corner of the shape and File > Place.

Repeat the process described above, copying and pasting circular image frames until you’ve filled the area of the guide shape.

To add an overlapping effect to the circles, go to Object > Effects > Transparency and set the Mode to Multiply.

You can build up this collage effect to create designs that are simple and striking…

…or intricate and ornate. The only limitation is your imagination!

In this tutorial you’ve learned how to create a collage-style effect in Adobe InDesign using multiple frames to assemble a single image. Awesome work!

Want free InDesign templates? Of course you do! Find a range of ready-to-edit templates for book covers, business cards and more on our Templates page.

Head over to our Inspiration page to browse stunning examples of professional design in magazines, books, stationery and packaging. Learn more about working with photos in InDesign or pick up top tips for improving your InDesign layouts instantly.

The post How to Place One Image into Multiple Frames in InDesign appeared first on InDesignSkills.

This straightforward guide will introduce you to some of the most popular print finishes, and how you can adapt your digital artwork for them.

What are ‘print finishes’? 

When you send off artwork to a professional printer, the process might not only involve printing your design. After the print job is finished, you might also want to add special effects to your printed product, such as bringing in metallic finishes or cutting your document to give it unusual edges. The printer will be able to create most of these print finishes (also known as post-print effects) in-house, or in some cases, can send your printed items off to a print finishes specialist.

Either way, it’s a great idea to wise up on the post-print effects you can ask for and what they might be suitable for. You’ll end up with a beautiful final print product…and a very happy printer!

Read on to learn more about the five most commonly used post-print effects…

1. Die Cutting 

Die cutting works in the same sort of way as a pastry cutter—the printer will create a custom die (or use a standardized one for popular cutting shapes, such as for rounded corners) and attach this to a die-cutting machine. The printed item is placed in the machine, and the die is pressed onto the item, creating a cut-out shape.

Dies are also used for other print finishes / post-print effects, such as embossing and scoring.

Use this print finish for: Business cards which require rounded corners; invitations and greetings cards with cut-outs, perhaps to allow the inside of the card to be partly visible when closed. Die cutting should be used for jobs which involve a particular cut-out shape to be repeated across a large batch of items, as the cost of producing a custom die can be high. For more flexibility, you should check out laser cutting instead (see below).

Design: Ryan Romanes

2. Laser Cutting 

Laser cutting is another method of cutting out shapes and edges, but instead uses laser technology to cut your printed item. The laser-cutting machine is hooked up to a computer, which directs the output of a high-power laser beam, cutting the material in the process.

Laser cutting is better suited to creating ornate, detailed shapes. Because the process is digital, and does not use manual tools as with die cutting, the margin for error is minimal—perfect for items which require a delicate touch. Laser cutting is a print finish often used in exclusive packaging and luxury stationery.

Use this print finish for: Wedding and event invitations which you want to look extra-special; stationery items that need a luxurious touch; arts and crafts items.

Design: Avie Designs

3. Foiling 

This print finish, also referred to as foil stamping or hot foiling, is the process of applying a metallic or colored foil to your printed item. This is done using a heated die placed into a foil stamping machine.

While metallics are more commonly used in the foiling process, producing gold, silver or copper tones, you can also use foiling to apply a particularly pigmented color that might otherwise be difficult to produce effectively through CMYK printing alone—neons or pastels are examples that might benefit from foiling.

Use this print finish for: Any print item to which you’d like to add a metallic or highly-pigmented touch. Foiling often works best in small doses, so pick out a single or pair of elements that you’d like to highlight in foil.

Top Tip: Foiling normally requires vector images and/or outlined fonts of the details that you want to have stamped. Place these on a separate layer or in a separate artwork (e.g. PDF) file to make it clear which elements you would like the foil to be applied to.

Design: Paper Bow London

4. Varnishing 

Varnishing is the process of applying a liquid coating to specified elements on your printed item. The process can add a tactile, 3D finish to your designs, and comes in a variety of options—matte, glossy, satin or UV. Ultraviolet (UV) varnishing results in a particularly high-gloss, shiny coating. It is created on a special machine that uses ultraviolet light to ‘cure’ the coating and achieve the final effect.

Use this print finish for: Print items that aren’t particularly colorful. Varnishing adds wonderful texture and interest to monochrome or single-color designs. Varnishing also adds an extra tactile dimension to packaging designs, being particularly suited to items which will be held once picked off the shelves.

Design: Girl&Boy for Inkmedix

5. Embossing and Debossing 

Embossing and debossing are related processes, both created using a metal plate and a counter. The plate is mounted onto a press and the paper item is stamped between the plate and counter. The pressure pushes the paper into the plate, creating the embossed or depressed effect.

Embossing creates a raised impression on the paper, giving the design a three-dimensional appearance.

Design: Pressure Printing Inc (PPI) for Gold Bug

Debossing creates the reverse effect, pushing the paper downwards to create a depression in the stock.

Design: Studio Thomson for Liberty Fabric

Use these print finishes for: Book covers for hardbacks or special-editions—embossing and debossing add an old-fashioned dimension to books which is less “look-at-me” than foil or varnish. Vintage-style stationery will also be enhanced by a touch of embossing or debossing.

Now you know your way around some of the most common print finishes and post-print effects, brush up on your print preparation skills with our two-part beginners guide.

Or head over to our Tutorials page to pick up more tips for creating print-ready design work.

The post The Essential Guide to Print Finishes appeared first on InDesignSkills.

As an example, we’ll redesign a paperback cover for War & Peace, and give it a distinctively modern design.

1. Before We Begin… 

Before we delve into designing our paperback cover for War & Peace, here are a few top tips for creating book covers in Adobe InDesign:

• It’s always best to design the front of your cover only first, before you create a full cover, with spine and back. This will allow you to visualise the arrangement of type and images, and judge how well elements are centered on the page.
• Duplicate the front page, and keep the original as a stand-alone front cover—this will be useful for online promo shots, and eBook covers.
• You should expand the duplicate page using the Page Tool, and expand it to the full width of the cover, including both front and back cover widths and a spine width (we’ll look at this in more detail below).

In this tutorial we’ll look at giving Leo Tolstoy’s War & Peace a modern makeover. I’ve tried to recreate the mood and theme of the book, with collage-style silhouettes of St Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow—one filled with an image of floral-printed china, to represent peace and domesticity; and the other filled with a military-style map of Prussia, to represent war.

Redesigning covers for classic novels is becoming increasingly common in publishing design; allowing publishers to market vintage classics to new, younger audiences. Discover some of the best examples of recently redesigned covers here.

You’ll learn how to set up a paperback (softcover) version of the full cover in Adobe InDesign and create a collage effect with the help of Adobe Illustrator. We’ll bring in a bit of stylish typography too, to give the cover a modern design.

This design style can be adapted to all sorts of book covers—just switch up the silhouette and inside image!

Ready to create your cover? Great! Let’s get started…

 2. Set up the Cover Template in Adobe InDesign

Step 1

Open up Adobe InDesign.

Go to File > New > Document, and set the Intent of the document to Print. Increase the Number of Pages to 2 and deselect Facing Pages. From the Page Size menu choose Custom.

Name the custom size Paperback Book and set the Width to 132 mm and Height to 197 mm. Click Add and then OK to return to the New Document window.

Step 2

Set the Margins on all sides to 11 mm and the Bleed to 5 mm. Click OK to create the new document.

We’ll work on the front cover design on Page 1—it’s always much easier to work on the front cover design alone at first. Then, a bit later, we’ll expand Page 2 of the document into the full cover, complete with spine and reverse, with the help of the Page Tool.

Step 3

With the rulers visible (View > Show Rulers) click and drag a guide out from the left-hand ruler and drop it onto Page 1 at X position 66 mm, which marks the center point of the page.

 3. Give the Cover a Colored Background

Step 1

Take the Rectangle Tool (M) and drag onto Page 1, across the whole page, extending up to the edges of the bleed on the top, right and bottom edges of the page. On the left edge, just extend to the edge of the page, not all the way to the bleed.

Step 2

Expand or open the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches). Create a new CMYK Process swatch, C=100 M=97 Y=48 K=56. Click Add and OK.

From the Swatches panel’s drop-down menu choose New Gradient Swatch.

Name the swatch Blue Gradient and set the Type to Radial.

Move down to the Gradient Ramp and click on the left-hand stop to be able to edit it. Choose CMYK for the Stop Color and set the levels to C=89 M=49 Y=62 K=62.

Click on the right-hand stop and adjust the Stop Color to Swatches. Choose your new swatch, C=100 M=97 Y=48 K=56 from the list below. Click OK.

Step 3

Apply the Blue Gradient swatch to the Fill Color of the rectangle shape. This will apply a lovely subtle gradient to the background of our front cover.

 4. Create Collage-Style Graphics

Step 1

Expand or open the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and double-click on the default Layer 1 name. Rename the layer as Background Color and click OK.

Click on the Create New Layer button at the bottom right of the Layers panel to create a new layer. Double-click, and rename the layer as Graphics.

Lock the bottom layer, Background Color by clicking in the blank space to the right of the eye icon, next to the name of the layer in the panel.

Step 2

Now we’re ready to start working on our cathedral graphic!

File > Save As your InDesign document, and minimize InDesign. Open up Adobe Illustrator and create a new document.

To make our collage-style cathedral, we need to first create a basic vector silhouette of the cathedral, and then, a bit later, we’ll fill it with a photo image.

You can download a ready-made vector image of St.Basil’s Cathedral here.

Step 3

Making sure your silhouette has only a simple black fill and no stroke color, select it, and then go up to Edit > Copy in Illustrator.

Return to your InDesign document and Edit > Paste the vector onto Page 1 of your document. Hold Shift to adjust the scale of the pasted vector.

From the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches), set the Fill Color of the vector to [None] to get rid of the [Black] fill.

Step 4

Next up, you need to choose an image to ‘fill’ the cathedral silhouette. I’ve chosen a commons image of an antique map of Prussia, which you can download here. Download the image and return to your InDesign document.

With the vector selected go to File > Place and choose the map image. Click Open.

Click on the Fill Frame Proportionally button in the top control panel to size the image to the frame. Double-click inside the vector frame to manually adjust the scale of the image, holding Shift while you do so, to make sure you’re happy with the effect. Make sure the image extends across the whole of the silhouette.

Step 5

Select the vector and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste.

Ctrl-Click (Mac) or Right-Click (Windows) > Transform > Flip Vertical. Position this flipped cathedral at the top of the page, and go to File > Place. Choose a different image to fill this vector with—to represent ‘Peace’—I’ve gone for a photo of a vintage china plate, which you can download here.

 5. Add in Typography

Step 1

Create a new CMYK Process swatch, C=3 M=0 Y=19 K=0, and rename it Cream.

Step 2

Unlock the Typography layer and use the Type Tool (T) to create a series of text frames on Page 1.

Here I’ve used the Columna Solid typeface for most of the text, with the central ampersand set in Adobe Caslon Pro.

Set individual characters in separate text frames to be able to have more freedom with how you place the type on the page. Set some of the text in [Paper] and some in your new swatch, Cream.

 6. Expand Your Design into a Full Paperback Cover

Step 1

Unlock all the layers in the Layers panel, then drag across Page 1 to select everything on the page. Edit > Copy, then scroll down to Page 2 of your document.

Edit > Paste in Place to make a copy of the front cover on the page.

Now we need to work out the width of the full length of the cover. This will depend on the width of the spine, which in turn will depend on the number of pages inside the book. You can find calculators online for working out the width of a spine depending on the page number and paper weight (gsm), such as the Print on Demand calculator.

Using this I’ve worked out that to accommodate for 1456 pages (the length of War & Peace—yup, it’s a long one!) printed on white offset 80 gsm paper, we will need to have a 73.7 mm spine width.

The equation for the full width of the cover is this:

Front Cover Width (x) + Spine Width (y) + Back Cover Width (x) = Total Width (x + x + y)

So, for ourWar & Peace cover it’s going to be…

132 mm + 73.7 mm + 132 mm = 337.7 mm Total Width

Step 2

Select the Page Tool (Shift + P) and, holding down Option (Windows) or Alt (Mac), drag the left-hand edge of the page out to the left, increasing the page width to the full 337.7 mm. When you let go, the page width will remain at its new width.

If you’re struggling to get the width exactly right as you drag, you can simply type in the correct width in the box at the top-left corner of the workspace.

Step 3

From the left-hand ruler pull out a guide to X position 137 mm, to mark out the left edge of the spine.

Pull out a second guide to 168.85 mm, which marks out the center point of the spine.

Finally, pull out a third guide to 68.5 mm, to mark out the center of the back cover.

Step 4

Return to the Layers panel and lock all layers except the Background Color layer.

From the Swatches panel, click on the Blue Gradient swatch to select it, then click on the New Swatch button to duplicate it.

Double-click on the duplicate swatch to open up the Swatch Options window.

Rename the swatch Blue Gradient Spine. Keep everything as it is, just move the right-hand stop on the Gradient Ramp to the left, until you reach about 46%. Click OK to save your edits.

Use the Rectangle Tool (M) to create a shape that extends across the spine, and up to the bleed on the top and bottom (73.7 mm in Width). Set the Fill Color to Blue Gradient Spine. The gradient on this is a bit tighter, so the lighter tone will not extend too far away from the central part of the spine.

Create a second shape using the Rectangle Tool (M), extending it over the whole of the back cover, up to the left edge of the spine, and up to the bleed on the top, left and bottom edges of the page. Set the Fill to Blue Gradient.

Step 5

Return to the Layers panel and lock the Background Color layer. Unlock the next layer up, Graphics.

Copy and Paste the cathedral vectors on the front cover, onto the back cover, and arrange them as shown below. You can switch up the fill image of the vectors too, if you like.

Paste a couple of vectors onto the spine too—here, I’ve removed the image fill, and given them a pale blue Color Fill, C=57 M=12 Y=21 K=0.

Step 6

Lock the Graphics layer and unlock the top layer, Typography.

Zoom into the spine and create a few rows of text frames using the Type Tool (T). Type in the title, allowing one text frame for each line of the title, and mimic the typography formatting used on the front cover but at a smaller Font Size. Set all the text to Align Center and make sure the frames are perfectly centered along the center guide.

Use the Ellipse Tool (L), and hold down Shift, to create a circle on the center of the back cover. Select the Type Tool (T) and click into the circle to transform it into a text frame.

Add a blurb to the back cover, aligning the text centrally. Here, I’ve set the Font to Columna Solid, Size 10.5 pt, Leading 13 pt. Use the swatch colors we created earlier to add a touch of color to the typography.

 7. Export Your Finished Cover

The artwork for your paperback cover is finished, fantastic work!

All that’s left to do now is to export it ready for printing.

Of course, you can also export Page 1 of your document as an eBook cover (check the file format requirements of the eBook store before you upload it), but here I’ll walk you through the steps of exporting this as a print-ready file, which is suitable for sending to a professional book-printer.

Step 1

Go to File > Export. Choose Adobe PDF (Print) from the Format drop-down menu. Click Save.

In the Export Adobe PDF window, choose [Press Quality] from the Adobe PDF Preset drop-down menu, and  adjust the page range from All to Range: 2, just to export your full cover.

From the left-hand menu in the window, click on Marks and Bleeds. Check All Printer’s Marks and, under Bleed and Slug, Use Document Bleed Settings.

Click Export to create your print-ready cover.

In this tutorial you’ve learned how to give a classic book a modern makeover, and set up the full paperback cover in Adobe InDesign. Awesome work!

Want a free paperback cover InDesign template? Of course you do! Find it on our Templates page.

Looking for some book design inspiration? Head over to our Inspiration page to pore over beautiful book covers, and find great ideas for book typography. Find out more about creating inside pages for your books with this straightforward tutorial.

The post Design a Paperback Book Cover in InDesign: Tutorial appeared first on InDesignSkills.

It’s well worth a look even if you’re using an earlier InDesign version (CS4, CS5 and CS6). But if you’re a user of CC you’ll also be able to import color palettes directly into your InDesign artwork.

How to Use Adobe Color to Create Color Themes

Using the online Adobe Color platform, which you can use to create your own color palettes (or ‘Color Themes‘). You can create themes in the desktop or mobile Adobe Color app, or create themes in InDesign, Illustrator or Photoshop.

Let’s learn how to use the app and apply Color Themes to your InDesign documents using the online Adobe Color platform.

Step 1: Browse Color Themes Manually

If you’re working in InDesign CC, make sure to open InDesign CC up and open your internet browser too. Ensure that you are logged in with your Adobe ID to Creative Cloud.

In your browser navigate to Adobe Color’s online color wheel. You can play around with the wheel, adjusting the Color Rule on the left-hand side to different settings, such as Analogous…

…or Compound, to create different color combinations and find colors that work well together as a group.

The wheel translates the colors to RGB format by default, but you can adjust the colors to CMYK by clicking on the RGB values just below a selected color to open a drop-down menu. You can also alter the colors in InDesign directly, which we’ll take a look at a bit later.

Step 2: Browse Color Themes Using a Photo

You can also choose to lift colors from an image, like a more sophisticated version of the Eyedropper Tool in InDesign.

Remaining in your browser, click on the small camera icon at the top right of the screen. You will be prompted to choose and open an image from your computer.

I’ve chosen a JPEG photo of an exotic toucan. The image has a variety of color tones I’d like to pick up in Adobe Color.

Adobe Color will automatically pick up a palette of different colors from the image. You can also adjust the Color Mood of the theme; in this example the tones are picked out in a Colorful mood…

…and this is a Muted combination. Hmmm, what else can we do…

…you can also go for a Custom combination and click to select your own colors from the image.

I’ve decided I like the Muted color combination best. Once you’re happy with the Color Theme, you can save it by clicking on the Save* button at the top-left of the window. Give the theme a name, here I’ve gone for ‘Muted Toucan Colors‘.

*You’ll need to be logged in with your Adobe ID to Creative Cloud to save the theme.

From the menu running along the top-left of the window you can click on My Themes to view your saved theme.

Step 3: Apply Your Color Themes in InDesign

To take advantage of this, you’ll need to have access to Adobe InDesign CC.

Return to InDesign and File > Open the document you would like to apply color to.

Go to Window > Adobe > Adobe Color Themes to open the Color Themes panel. The panel’s made up of three windows: Create, Explore, and My Themes.

Under Create, there’s a smaller, more simplified version of the color wheel that you can use to create new Color Themes as you work.

Under Explore, you’re presented with a library of pre-loaded Color Themes from Adobe, which is a great little tool if you’re stuck for color ideas.

Finally, under My Themes, you will find your pre-saved Color Themes. Here, as you can see, ‘Muted Toucan Colors‘ is waiting, ready for me to use in my document!

Before you start applying color, you can choose to add a Color Theme to your collection of Swatches in InDesign. Go to Window > Color > Swatches to open the Swatches panel.

Back in the Adobe Color Themes panel, under My Themes, click Actions to the bottom right of your chosen Color Theme to open a drop-down menu. Select Add to Swatches Panel. Your colors will be added to the Swatches panel. Not only that, InDesign CC has also helpfully grouped them into a folder with the title of your Color Theme. Nice and organized!

If you didn’t save the Color Theme in CMYK mode, and you’re putting together a print document, no worries. Simply Control-Click (Mac OS) or Right-Click (Windows) on an individual swatch in the Swatches panel, choose Swatch Options, and select CMYK from the Color Mode drop-down menu. Click OK.

Now you can start applying your new color swatches to elements in your document! 

How to Use Adobe Color to Convert Color Formats

Even if you’re not a CC user, you can still get some great features out of Adobe Color.

One of these is to use Adobe Color to convert color formats quickly and easily. Say you have a CMYK swatch in InDesign, and want to convert that to an RGB, Lab or even Hex Code format (which is suitable for web design). Admittedly, you can convert CMYK colors to RGB values directly in InDesign, but using the Adobe Color app is super quick and easy. As a bonus, you can’t convert to Hex format unless you use the Color Picker feature in Adobe Photoshop.

Simply navigate to the Adobe Color color wheel, and type in your CMYK values underneath one of the swatch tabs beneath the wheel.

Adobe Color will automatically convert the CMYK color to RGB, Lab, HSB and Hex formats. It’s that easy!

This is a particularly useful feature if you’re designing within the restrictions of a branded color palette, and need to share color formats with web designers or developers quickly and easily.

Craving more InDesign tips and tricks? Discover how to prepare your colored documents for printing, or check out our broad range of InDesign tutorials.

The post Adobe Color CC: Become a Master of Color appeared first on InDesignSkills.

In this series of tutorials, How Did They Do That?, we dissect the tricks used by graphic design pros and share surprisingly simple tips that will make your InDesign work look ultra-professional, even if you’re a beginner to the software!

Examples of the Type on a Path Tool

We’re going to focus on how the Type on a Path Tool can be used in magazine design. Image + typography might be the consistent formula for selling issues, but this doesn’t mean the formula needs to be conventional. Magazine designers are always on the lookout for new ways to reinvent their covers.

Layering text in interesting, fluid ways over the top of striking photography is an attention-grabbing way to make covers look more artistic and exciting. It’s also a great technique for making the text interact more naturally with the curves, lines and shapes of an image.

Text is positioned along the curves of Sophie Hicks’ head, from Fraulein Magazine

Graffiti-style headers sit on irregular baselines, from Elle Indonesia

A chalkboard-style cover, from Milwaukee Magazine

This technique might look tricky, but it’s anything but. You can recreate the style easily in Adobe InDesign with the Type on a Path and Pen Tools.

It all comes down to a few simple steps…

Step 1: Create a New Layer for Your Typography

Create a basic cover in Adobe InDesign, to a size that you prefer. On the existing layer, use the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) to create a new image frame, and File > Place a photo in the frame.

Look for photos with strong shapes and curves—portraits of people work well, as do aerial photos with plenty of white space in-between items on the photo (this doesn’t have to be actually white, just one plain background color which will allow text to appear legible).

I’ve used this aerial shot of rolls of bread on a wooden board. There’s plenty of curves and lots of space for placing text, without being interrupted with too much detail beneath.

Create a new layer from the Layers panel (choose New Layer from the panel’s drop-down menu), and rename the layer Typography.

Lock the bottom layer, to avoid moving the photo around by mistake. You can make room for a header, and subtitle at the top of the page.

Step 2: Use the Pen Tool (P)

From the Tools panel choose the Pen Tool, or hit P on the keyboard.

You can use the Pen Tool in two ways. One, by simply clicking onto the page and creating a series of joined straight lines. The second way, which we’re going to use here, is to click and drag onto the page to create a curved line, then click again to create a second curve joined to the first and so on

Move across to the pasteboard, next to the page, to experiment with creating curved lines with the Pen Tool. You can do this quite easily without a graphics tablet, but it might take a little bit of practice to get the curves looking really smooth and fluid.

Move back onto the page, and use the Pen Tool to draw smooth curves around one section of your selected photo.

You can use the Direct Selection Tool (A) to select the anchor points and handlesof the line, and adjust them by either dragging or using the arrows on the keyboard. You may also find it useful to set the Stroke Color of the line to a bright, contrasting color for now, to make it easier to see.

Step 3: Use the Type on a Path Tool (Shift+T)

Once you’ve created your line, head back over to the Tools panel. From the Type Tool drop-down menu, choose the Type on a Path Tool (Shift+T).

Hover your cursor over one edge of the line and click once. The curved line will be transformed into a type path. You can now type in text, and apply formatting in the same way as you would for text in a text frame.

Remove the color of the Stroke and set it to [None].

Here, I’ve used two fonts to create a bold, uppercase effect, set in a white, [Paper], color—Aachen Std…

…and Return to Sender.

Repeat the process, using the Pen Tool (P) to draw curved lines around parts of the photo, and then transform them into text paths using the Type on a Path Tool (Shift+T).

Format the text using the Formatting Controls panel at the top of the workspace, or from the Character panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character).Vary the Font Size, Font and Color to create an eclectic, interesting look.

Great work! Try applying the technique to different photos and layouts—this effect also looks great on posters and cards.

Craving more pro design tips? Discover how to design a movie poster, or how to create an impressive 3D effect for magazine design.

The post Type on a Path in InDesign Tutorial appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Discover these simple tips for enhancing your photographic layouts by playing with scale, color and typography.

Tip Number 1: Don’t Be Afraid to Go Black-and-White

Sure, full-color photos can look amazing, but if you’re looking for something all-together cooler in your layouts, don’t be afraid to use black-and-white photography.

Greyscale images make a superb backdrop for punchy typography, which looks great on magazines, posters and flyers.

To recreate the layout design shown here, just follow the steps below.

Step 1

First up, create a New Document in InDesign (go to File > New > Document) and create your page or spread at the size you would like. Use the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) to draw a frame and expand across the whole page.

Step 2

Download a ready prepared black-and-white image like this one of a desert road, or open up a color photo in Adobe Photoshop and use the Black & White Adjustment available in the Layers panel to desaturate the image of color. Resave the image, and then return to InDesign.

Step 3

With the rectangle frame selected, go to File > Place to drop your black-and-white image inside the frame; then choose Fill Frame Proportionally from the top control panel to fit the image nicely in the frame.

Step 4

Expand or open the Layers panel (Window > Layers) and lock Layer 1. Create a new layer on top of this by choosing New Layer… from the panel’s drop-down menu.

You can experiment with your typography on this layer, without worrying about shifting the position of the photo frame below.

To mimic the style of the text pictured here, download and install the free font Sanchez. Using the Type Tool (T) set each individual letter of the heading in its own separate text frame. Set the Font to Sanchez Regular, and vary the size of the letters to give a sense of movement.

For this particular photo it makes sense that the letters would decrease in size towards the horizon to give the impression of distance, but you might find that a different arrangement will work better for your particular photo choice.

Step 5

Acidic, neon colors work so well against black-and-white photos. Here, I’ve used a zesty, pure yellow. Create a new CMYK swatch from the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) and set the values to C=0 M=0 Y=83 K=0.

To recreate the hazy effect used across the heading, drag your mouse across the page to select a number of text frames and Right-Click (Windows) or Ctrl-Click (Mac OS) > Group. Then with the group selected, go to Object > Effects > Transparency. Under the Transparency settings set the Mode to Overlay.

Move down the left-hand menu in the Effects window and select Gradient Feather. Adjust the angle and harshness (by adjusting the slider stops) of the gradient.

Then click OK once you’re happy with the result.

Tip Number 2: Take a Closer Look…

Playing with the scale of your photos can make a huge difference to the impact of your layout.

If you have a very high-quality image, like this one…

…try zooming into the details to give the photo a more interesting focus. Getting really close-up to the details of a photo is a fantastic way of getting the reader to notice the quality and beauty of a particular photograph.

To edit the scale of images in InDesign, first File > Place your image into an image frame; then double-click inside the frame to directly select the image. Hold down Shift while you drag the corners outwards to maintain the proportions of the photo.

Tip Number 3: Make Photos and Type Interact 

It’s all very well placing text beside or on top of a photo, but sometimes it can look, well, a little dull.

Look out for photos which allow you to place text on top in an interesting, interactive way.

Take this example layout. With the woman positioned centrally on the layout, we have plenty of room to get creative with text. To the left side, the text is set in Adobe Caslon Pro Regular and has a conventional horizontal format.

To the right, to exaggerate the snow being blown from her hands, letters in Adobe Caslon Pro Italic are set in individual text frames and rotated slightly to create a jaunty, animated appearance.

A gradient (Window > Effects > Gradient Feather) applied to the letters as a group adds to the overall effect.

Ready to start using photos in your layouts? First discover breathtaking photo layout inspiration here, or get back to basics with our InDesign images tutorial.

The post InDesign Magazine Layouts: Working With Photos appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Read on to find the definitive list of standard sizes for the USA, Australia and Europe, with helpful visual guides.

1. USA Business Card Size

A standard US business card size is 89 mm (3.5 in) in Width and 51 mm (2 in) in Height.

If you go to create a New Document in InDesign (File > New > Document) you’ll find that a US Business Card custom page size is included by default under the Page Size menu. Helpful!

Make sure to reduce the width of your Margins (between 6 and 8 mm usually looks fine for a US card), and add a Bleed when you set up your document if your card’s going to have a colored background.

2. Australia Business Card Size

A standard Australian business card size is 90 mm (3.543 in) in Width and 55 mm (2.165 in) in Height. This can vary a little depending on your printer, so make sure to check in advance the preferred size used by your supplier of choice.

3. United Kingdom (UK) and Western Europe Business Card Size

UK and Western European (Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Slovenia) business cards tend to be more on the square side of the business card spectrum. Sizes can vary across suppliers, but the most commonly used standard size is 85 mm (3.346 in) in Width and 55 mm (2.165 in) in Height.

Can’t wait to get started with designing your own business cards?

First up, get your creative juices flowing with this inspirational selection of awesome business card designs, then head over to our InDesign Tutorials page to swot up on setting up your card in InDesign.

The post Business Card Sizes: All the Standard Sizes You Need appeared first on InDesignSkills.

Panic not! Here are 5 ways to spice up your designs super quickly and easily, and make them look instantly more attractive, polished and professional!

1. Make your Margins Wider

Never underestimate the transformative power of a generous margin around the edges of your page(s). It really is the simplest tip for making layouts look instantly more visually appealing, and giving text and graphics more breathing space.

Adjust your margins in InDesign by going to Layout > Margins and Columns, accessible from the top menu. Try increasing your existing margins by an extra 5 mm, and see your layout look more attractive pronto!

2. Limit your Colour Palette

Colour has the power to transform the mood of your designs, but introducing too much colour can make a layout appear cluttered and messy. Try to limit your use of colour to no more than three colour swatches to a page—you’ll be amazed how bold and punchy your design can become!

Another colour tip to make your posters and brochures look ultra-dramatic and to draw attention to headers and logos is to use just one colour on an otherwise monochrome layout. In the example below, white and black tones allow the red text to really pop and draw the eye.

Edit colour in InDesign using the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches). Learn more about using colour in InDesign with our handy beginner’s guide to colour.

3. White Space is your New Best Friend!

Whenever you design your layouts remember this mantra: less is (almost) always more (I say almost because ornate layouts can look lovely in the right context; see Tip 5 below…). Even layouts that have a lot going on—text, graphics, colour, the lot!—will always benefit from a bit of breathing space.

This is what graphic designers call ‘white space’, which is effectively space on the page that’s empty of visual content. It doesn’t necessarily need to be white in colour; just a blank bit of background with nothing on it. This helps focus the eye on the content you want to draw the viewer’s attention to, and it makes the layout much less stressful to look at.

Introduce more white space on your layout by cutting down on the quantity of content or resizing elements to create more room on the page. Try to stick to a maximum of two main focal points on the layout, like in this example, where the image and header are the only things seeking your attention.

4. Tweak your Typography…

…Is your text looking a little lacklustre? Adding a Drop Cap to the start of your opening paragraph or increasing your Leading (the space between lines of text) may be subtle changes, but they can work wonders for improving your designs. Setting your headings and sub-headings in different Weights (Bold, Italic, Light, Black etc) can also create visual separation in text-heavy layouts.

Another tip used by design professionals is to apply Optical Margin Alignment to paragraphs of text. This creates ‘Hung Punctuation’, shifting punctuation marks outside the boundaries of a text frame, creating a more uniform block of text. InDesign will also subtly move any overhanging serifs on letters, so your text looks more perfected and polished.

You can find the Optical Margin Alignment option in the Story panel in InDesign (Window > Type & Tables > Story).

5. Get Fancy with a Border!

Minimal layouts can look beautiful—clean, uncluttered and easy on the eye. But what if your layout’s looking more bare than minimal? Sometimes, a little touch of something fancy can lift your layout and transform it into something special.

The easiest way to give your layouts a touch of the ornate is to introduce a Border. Borders frame your content, drawing the eye inwards, just as a picture frame helps to focus the eye on the image it contains.

Create a border in InDesign by using the Rectangle Tool (M), accessible from the Tools panel. Use your margin lines as guides for getting the border perfectly sized; then adjust the look of the border using the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke) and Corner Options (Object > Corner Options). Here, I’ve used a ‘Thin-Thick-Thin’ Stroke Type and a ‘Fancy’ Corner Shape.

Take note of these five tips when you create your own layouts—you’ll be amazed how a few subtle tweaks can transform your designs! And remember, above all, have fun with creating layouts. Design is meant to be fun; so feel confident with experimenting and breaking the rules (in moderation!).

Enhance your layout designs with some fresh font inspiration for magazines, books, or print design; or check out our beginner InDesign tutorials page for more tips and tutorials!

The post Five Ways to Improve your Layouts Instantly… appeared first on InDesignSkills.

• The basics of color theory, including the three main color models – RGB, CMYK and Spot Color
• How you can change and manage InDesign’s color mode

1. What is RGB Color and When Do I Use It?

‘RGB’ stands for Red, Green and Blue. RGB color is rendered through the emission of light from the screen of a digital device.

The light generated by your device’s screen, so whether that’s a desktop or laptop computer, a tablet, or an eBook reader, is made up of red, blue and green light, which combine in different ways to create different colors.

Because RGB color is created via colored light, not colored ink, it is optimised for digital and web design, not print design. So, you should only be looking to use an RGB Color Mode when creating designs for digital publishing (e.g. eBooks) or for online use (e.g. web banners).

Skip to the end of the page to find out how you can adjust InDesign’s Color Mode…

2. What is CMYK Color and When Do I Use It?

CMYK color is very different to RGB color, as CMYK is based on a combination of coloured inks, not light.

‘CMYK’ stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (which is Black). These four colours are the base inks which can be combined to create a huge spectrum of different colors.

Because CMYK is based on a combination of colored inks, it’s ideally suited for creating documents for print.

So basically, whenever you’re working on a document you think at some point will be printed in some way or another, whether that’s at home, in-office or through a commercial printer, you should always be working in a CMYK Colour Mode.

When you set colours in your InDesign document to CMYK color swatches, you create a Process Separation. What does this mean? This means that all the CMYK colours on your layout will be printed onto one plate during the printing process, in one single print run. Because CMYK color can be printed in one go, on a single print run, this keeps the printing process efficient and the cost of the print job low (depending on the print volume).

3. What is a ‘Spot’ Color and When Do I Use It?

What can be mind-boggling is that CMYK is not the only type of colour model that is suitable for printing. You can also use something called Spot Colors in your print designs.

OK…so what’s a Spot Color? When you define a color in your InDesign document as a Spot Color, the color will be pulled onto a separate printing plate and the color will have to be printed during a separate print run. This is called a Spot Separation.

So, when would you want to use a Spot Color?

This can be useful if you want to ensure that a particular color is going to be printed very accurately, without any variation, and if this is what you’d like to achieve you can set the Spot Color as a Pantone Color.

Pantone is an international color-matching system, that gives standardised colour pigments a unique number. Pantone colours are more complex than CMYK colors, and can be made up from a combination of 13, rather than only 4 (for CMYK), base pigments. As a result you can source more unique and special colors from the Pantone catalogue.

You can also use a Spot Color in your designs when you want to print a special kind of ink, like metallics or flourescents, which don’t feature in the range of CMYK options.

4. OK…But When Should I Use CMYK and/or Spot Colors in InDesign?

Let’s simplify the CMYK and Spot Color systems, and break down when you would use either of the models or a combination of both on your InDesign work…

…If you’re creating an InDesign layout that uses more than three colours you shouldn’t normally need to use any Spot Color, unless like we’ve just talked about, if you want to create a particularly special color effect with a Pantone, metallic or fluorescent. In most cases, you should be looking at just setting your color in CMYK.

This is because the printer would have to perform a separate, additional print run for each Spot Color you apply to the document. This adds time and money to the print job. So if you’re creating something in full-color, you can feel confident that setting your whole document in CMYK is the best way to go.

If you do want to use a Spot Color in your design and keep your printing costs down, the best thing to do is create a black and white document which just uses one single pop of color, which you can set as a Spot Color. And because you’re not printing a full-color layout, that’s going to keep the print job more economical, particularly if you’re printing in large volumes.

If you’re still feeling a little confused about color – that’s OK, it is a bit confusing – just remember that 9 times out of 10 CMYK color is the way to go!

And the other key thing to remember is that you should never print in RGB color, unless you want some very unpredictable results. And you should only really need to use Spot Colors in special instances.

5. How Do I Adjust the Color Mode in InDesign?

When you first create a new document in InDesign, you can adjust the Color Mode of the document by setting the Intent of the document to Print (CMYK), Web (RGB) or Digital Publishing (RGB).

By choosing Print from the Intent drop-down menu, InDesign automatically sets the Color Mode of the new document to CMYK. All the default colours stored in the Swatches panel are set as CMYK Color Swatches.

However, this doesn’t actually prevent you from creating new Color Swatches that are RGB (not suitable if you’re creating for print) or Spot Color (can be OK, depending on your desired print result) swatches, or prevent you from placing graphics into your InDesign document that have an RGB colorspace.

As you work on your print documents you need to keep an eye out that you’re sticking to CMYK colours. And the best way to do this is to manage colour in InDesign, which you can do from the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches).

Click to find out more about creating InDesign documents or How to add a bleed to your print designs. To find more useful InDesign tips and tricks pay a visit to our beginner InDesign tutorials page.

The post InDesign Basics: The Beginner’s Guide to Color appeared first on InDesignSkills.

In the second installment of How Did They Do That? we’ll look at how to recreate the epic typography effect beloved by movie poster designers. It’s surprisingly simple to achieve, and will be guaranteed to transform your layouts from dull to dramatic in no time.

Exaggerated Spacing in Movie Poster Typography

Movie posters are a fantastic canvas for designers to get creative. The poster needs to sell the movie, so it needs to look as appealing as possible. It can also be a challenging medium, as the 2D, non-moving, silent poster has to convey the mood, scale and dynamic qualities of a moving image film.

A very common method of introducing an epic vibe to a movie poster is to apply exaggerated spacing to the text. This creates a sense of oblivion, giving an epic feel to posters. This technique works particularly well for the sci-fi and action/thriller movie genres.

The technical term for this typographic technique is ‘tracking’, in which the letter-spacing within a whole word or phrase is increased. Tracking gives designers the advantage of making the text more prominent, without compromising on vertical space. So that means images can still take up the bulk area of the poster.

Take this example, of the Maleficent (2014) poster. The actor’s name, ‘Angelina Jolie’, is set at a relatively small size, but the exaggerated tracking, contrasted against a starkly pale background, ensures the text is prominent and enhances legibility.

Increasing the tracking of text also makes text appear super stylish. Because the technique is so simple, spaced text won’t look dated, unlike some currently popular design trends. The technique has been used across classic and iconic movie design; it has certainly stood the test of time. Take these iconic examples of typography, for example – the brand identity for Alien (1979) and the opening credits for Fargo (1996).

Now let’s learn how to create our own version. This technique will apply particularly well to poster design, but you can also try it out on magazine layouts, brochures and book covers.

This is what we’ll be creating:

Step 1: Set up the Layout of your Poster

Open InDesign and set up a New InDesign Document for Print, Width 27 inches (685.8 mm) and Height 40 inches (1016 mm), the North American standard size for a movie poster (also known as the ‘one-sheet’).

Set the Margin on all sides to 35 mm, and introduce a Bleed on all sides of 10 mm. Click OK.

Create an image frame which extends across the whole page, using the Rectangle Frame Tool (F). File > Place a photo within the image frame, selecting Fill Frame Proportionally from the control panel running along the top of the screen.

Open the Layers panel (Window > Layers). Double-click on the default Layer 1 title and rename the layer as Image. Click OK. Lock the layer before proceeding.

Step 2: Pick a Typeface

With the Layers panel still open, click on the Create New Layer square icon at the bottom right of the panel. Rename this second layer Typography. Click OK.

Now it’s time to pick the typeface you’re going to use on the poster. Both serifs and san serifs will look equally good with exaggerated spacing. To replicate the Maleficent serif, try something with a classic look like Adobe Caslon Pro, Shango Gothic or Trajan Pro. For the sans serif look, favoured by the Gravity poster, try a typeface with a clean, very modern look, like Futura orDrescher Grotesk.

Step 3: Prepare Your Poster Typography

Select the Type Tool (T), dragging to create a long text frame. Rest this between the margins at the top of the poster. Type ‘Epic movie poster’.

With the text frame selected, or the text highlighted, navigate up to the Character Formatting Controls panel running along the top of the screen. Pick your chosen typeface from the drop-down list of fonts. Here, I’ve gone for Futura Medium. Set the Size to 70 pt, Fill to [Paper], All Caps and adjust the text to Align Center.

Top Skills Tip: You could also use the Eyedropper Tool (I) to lift a pale colour from the image, before changing it to a CMYK Swatch if needed.

Now you can start to get playful with the letter-spacing.

You can adjust Tracking directly from the Character Formatting Controls panel when you have the Type Tool (T) selected.

You can also alter Tracking from the Character panel (go to Window > Type & Tables > Character to open the panel).

With the text frame selected, set the Tracking to 940.

Move down the page to the centre of the poster. Create a second text frame using the Type Tool (T) and type ‘The’. Set the Font to Futura Medium, Size 400 pt, All Caps and Align Center. Adjust the Colour of the text to [Paper].

With the text frame selected (use the Selection Tool [V, Escape]), go to Object > Effects > Transparency. Keep the Mode as Normal, and reduce the Opacity to 30%.

Layer another text frame over the top, and type ‘Search’. As before, set the Font to Futura Medium, All Caps, Align Center and adjust the Colour of the text to [Paper]. This time, set the Size of the text to 220 pt and increase the tracking to a generous 800.

Continue to build up text on the poster – the names of the cast, the date of release, director’s name etc. Remember to contrast the colour of the text against the background. Use dark swatches against the lighter parts of the image.

For contrast, you can also set some of the text in a serif typeface, like Adobe Caslon Pro, or try a more condensed version of Futura (try Futura Std Light Condensed) for the bulkier sections of text.

Your movie poster is looking stunning!

And it’s such an easy effect to achieve, by simply increasing the letter-spacing, tracking, of your typography. Have fun experimenting further with poster typography to create your own epic effects!

Fancy learning another pro effect? Take a look at this ‘How Did They Do That?’ 3D text effect InDesign tutorial.

Or browse all of our awesome quick tutorials for InDesign.

The post How Did They Do That?: Exaggerated Spacing for Epic Movie Posters appeared first on InDesignSkills.

• Learn how to use a grid as a guide for placing text and images

• Get creative with typography to create a vibrant, eye-catching layout

• Develop an eye for grouping and displaying images for a professional-standard layout

What you’ll create:

In this two-part tutorial we’ll be creating two complete spreads. Sign up to our mailing list to be alerted when the full Magazine course becomes available.

1. Select Images and Fonts for your Magazine Feature

Step 1

Let’s get started. Open InDesign. Go to File > Open and select Foodie Magazine Inside Pages.indd, which you saved at the end of Part One of the tutorial.

You have a 16 page document, with Facing Pages. The A-Master has been applied to pages 4 and 5 of the document, while the B-Master has been applied to pages 6 and 7.

Navigate down to page 4 of your document.

We’re going to apply a really fantastic typographic effect on this page, but before we do that we need to source a selection of photos that we can use across the whole feature. The images need to work well together, not only in terms of subject matter but also in terms of colour and quality. It’s a good idea to look for images which you can reuse, which can have a different ‘look’ if you show just the right-hand side, or the top left corner of the photo, for example.

These are the images I’ve used in this tutorial. You can download these by clicking on the links below, or pick similar images of your own preference:

An autumnal tart

A portrait of a woman

A rustic pot of honey

Figs and a slab of cheese

Purple figs on a metal platter

Once you’ve sourced your images, return to InDesign and go to Window > Mini Bridge (from CS6 onwards) to open Mini Bridge. From here, you can navigate to your folder of images and drop them in to your layout with ease.

Step 2

We’ll also need to select a couple of typefaces to use in our layout. In most magazines you will notice that a standardised ‘brand’ font will be used uniformly throughout the publication. This will be applied to body text, page numbers, running headers and some titles. In this tutorial we will use ITC Century Std, which we’ve already used for the page numbers on our Master pages.

It’s also a great idea to pick out a font which has a more decorative style, which you can use for the feature title and quotations. In this tutorial I’ve used the free font Leckerli One, which has a cheerful retro aesthetic.

2. Create a High-Impact Text Effect for the Opening Page

Step 1

Remaining on Page 4 of your InDesign document, select the Type Tool (T) and drag to create a large text frame that extends across most of the page.

Type Y into the frame and set the Font to Leckerli One, Size 650 pt. With the text frame selected, go to Type > Create Outlines to convert the letter into a shape.

From the control panel running along the top of the screen, adjust the Fill Colour of the letter to [None].

Step 2

Either drag and drop an image from Mini Bridge onto the shape, or, with the shape selected, go to File > Place and select an image. Your chosen image will fill the letter. Select Fill Frame Proportionally from the top control panel to arrange the image in the shape.

Ta-dah! A super easy but really effective technique for bringing high-impact to your magazine feature.

3. Build up the Layout of your Opening Spread

Step 1

Navigate to the bottom right corner of Page 4. Select the Type Tool (T) and drag to create a new text frame about 38 mm in Height and 103 mm in Width. Type ‘yum’ into the frame and set the Font to ITC Century Std Book, Size 150 pt, and Font Colour to a new CMYK Swatch, C=0 M=10 Y=11 K=34, a sandy beige colour.

Open the Swatches panel (Window > Color > Swatches) and adjust the Tint percentage to 35%. Position the text frame as shown.

With the text frame selected, go to Edit > Copy and Edit > Paste. Repeat two more times and adjust the text content of each frame to read ‘u (space x 2) m’, ‘scrum!’ and ‘scrum’.

You can rotate one of the text frames by Right-Clicking (Windows) or Ctrl-Clicking (Mac OS) > Transform > Rotate 90 degrees Clockwise.

Introduce a couple of new colours via the Swatches panel, changing the Font Colour of some characters to [Paper] and others to a reddy-brown swatch, C=28 M=100 Y=97 K=34.

Manoeuvre the frames into the positions indicated below.

Step 2

Navigate to Page 5 of the spread and hit W on the keyboard to switch the Screen Mode to Normal, if not in that mode already. You can now see the guides marking out the columns on the page.

Select the Type Tool (T) and drag to create a small text frame 84 mm in Width and 80 mm in Height. Position this in the bottom right corner of the page, fitting the text frame snugly across the two far right columns.

Place your type cursor into the frame and set the Font to ITC Century Std Book, Size 11 pt. You can Edit > Paste in your chosen text for the feature or File > Place a Word document into the frame. If you’re just creating a design sample, you can go to Type > Fill with Placeholder Text to insert temporary text.

Highlight the first letter of the first paragraph, or simply place your cursor into the first paragraph of text. In the Character Formatting Controls panel running along the top of the screen, locate the Drop Cap Number of Lines icon and set the value to 4. The first letter will be pulled out in an elegant drop cap.

Highlight the first two words of the text, and set the Font Weight to Bold, All Caps, and the Font Colour to [Paper]. You can also highlight the whole first paragraph and make it slightly bigger, 13 pt, to give it more prominence on the page.

Highlight the second paragraph and set the Font Colour to [Paper] for added contrast to the text.

Step 3

Select the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) from the Tools panel and drag to create a small frame 26 mm in Width and 30 mm in Height. Drop the image of the author from Mini Bridge or go to File > Place > Open. In this example, I converted the image to black and white using a Channel Mixer Adjustment Layer in Photoshop, to give it a more professional look. This is also a great way of making all author photographs appear uniform throughout the magazine.

Place the image frame to the top right corner of the text frame you created in Step 2, above. Go to Window > Text Wrap to open the Text Wrap panel. Select the Wrap Around Bounding Box icon and set the Left Offset value to 4 mm.

With the image frame still selected, go to Object > Corner Options and set the Size to 3 mm and Shape to Bevel on all sides, to create a framed appearance.

As a final touch on the spread, select the Rectangle Frame Tool (F), as before, and drag to create a frame that fits, as with the text frame, across the two far right columns. Extend the height of the frame down until it sits just above the ‘scrum’ text frame. Drop in an image from Mini Bridge or File > Place a chosen image to give more context and colour to the spread.

Great work! The opening spread of your feature is complete, and it looks super professional…

4. Design a Professional-Standard Second Spread

Step 1

Return to the Pages panel (Window > Pages). Double-click the page icon for Page 6 to bring up the pages 6-7 spread on screen.

Back in Part One of this tutorial we applied the B-Master to these two pages, so we can see page numbers running along the bottom of each page. If the B-Master isn’t already applied to pages 6 and 7, drag the page icon next to the B-Master name at the top of the Pages panel and drop onto the relevant page icons below it.

For the final two pages of our four-page feature, you’ll create a stylish page with two columns of text and a quote bubble, plus a colourful image grid on the facing page.

Step 2

Remain on Page 6 of the document and select the Type Tool (T) from the Tools panel. Drag to create a frame that stretches across the two far-left columns on the page, and reaches from the top margin to the bottom margin. Select the text frame with the Selection Tool (V, Escape) and Edit > Copy, and Edit > Paste. Position the second text frame across the two far-right columns on the page, and adjust the Height so it finishes about halfway down the page.

Navigate up to the previous spread, pages 4 and 5, and click in the lower right corner of the article text frame on Page 5, where you can see a small red + symbol, that indicates text is overflowing the frame. Return to Page 6 and click once into the left-hand column, allowing the text to flow into it. Repeat the process, connecting the left-hand column with the right-hand column. Go to View > Extras > Show Text Threads to ensure you have connected the frames in the order as shown below.

Now you can apply some formatting to the text. In the example here, I started a new paragraph on Page 6 of the article, and setting the Font Colour of the remaining text in the article to [Black]. I then set the Drop Cap Number of Lines to 3 by putting my cursor in the first paragraph, and pulled out the Drop Cap in a reddish-brown swatch, C=28 M=100 Y=97 K=34. Quotes are pulled out in LeckerliOne Regular, Size 15 pt and Font Color C=28 M=100 Y=97 K=34.

Step 3

To recreate the quote bubble effect here, select the Ellipse Tool (L) and, holding Shift, drag to create a perfect circle. Set the Fill Colour to C=28 M=100 Y=97 K=34.

Select the Type Tool (T) and click once in the circle to transform it into a text frame. Type or paste in a quote, before setting the Font to ITC Century Std, Book Italic, Size 19 pt and Align Center, from the Character Formatting Controls panel running along the top of the screen. Open the Text Wrap panel (Window > Text Wrap) and set the Offset value to 7 mm, before positioning the circle to the bottom right of the page, as shown.

With the circle selected go to Object > Text Frame Options and set the Inset Spacing to 10 mm to give the text frame a margin.

Step 4

You can add more interest and detail to your layout by adding simple shapes and lines to the design.

Select the Ellipse Tool (L) again and, holding Shift, drag to create a perfect circle about 260 mm in Diameter. Set the Fill Colour to [None] and Stroke Colour to C=0 M=10 Y=11 K=34. Open the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke) and set the Weight to 1 mm and Type to Dotted.

You can select this shape and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste a couple of times. Resize the circles while holding Shift to make two smaller shapes and position them in the rough positions as shown below. Make sure you select all the shapes and Ctrl-Click (Mac OS) or Right-Click (Windows) > Arrange > Send to Back. This will ensure that the decorative circles don’t obscure any of the article’s text.

Step 5

With your Page 6 layout complete, scroll over to the right-hand page of the spread, Page 7.

Select the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) from the Tools panel and drag to create an image frame 119 mm in Height. Position this frame at the top left corner of the page, stretching it across to the middle of the page (InDesign will flash up a temporary guide when you reach the center point).

Select the frame and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste three times, positioning each frame in a corner of the page, as shown.

Either File > Place > Open individual images or drop in images from Mini Bridge, as we did earlier in the tutorial. Select Fill Frame Proportionally from the top control panel to arrange the image best in the frame.

Step 6

As a final pro touch, we can disguise the centre point where the image frames meet and add extra charm to the design with a retro-style shape.

Select the Polygon Tool from the Tools panel (find it in the drop-down menu next to the Rectangle Tool) and, holding Shift, drag to create a small polygon about 65 mm in Diameter. Set the Fill Colour to [Paper] and the Stroke Colour to C=28 M=100 Y=97 K=34. From the Stroke panel, set the Weight to 2 mm and Type to Thick-Thin.

Position the shape centrally on the page, where the four image frames meet.

Select the Type Tool (T) and drag to create a small text frame that fits snugly within the border. This is a great place to pull out a special quote, or invite the reader to do something extra, like find out more about the article online. Pull out the header text in LeckerliOne Regular, Size 32 pt, and set the remaining text in ITC Century Std.

Congratulations! You’ve designed two full spreads for a magazine feature and it’s looking awesome, and really professional.

You can take away some really useful skills from this exercise. You’ve learnt how to use a grid layout to structure your layout designs, apply typography professionally and create interest and detail with shapes and images.

The post Create a Magazine: Part 2 of 2 appeared first on InDesignSkills.

In this first installment of How Did They Do That? you will learn how to recreate a simple 3D effect commonly used across magazine publishing. It’s super simple to do, and at no point do you need to do any fiddly photo editing in Photoshop.

3D Effects in Magazine Cover Design

Magazine covers are the perfect place to get really creative with design. After all, they’re meant to attract the reader to buy the magazine. Some magazine designs get playful and showcase some fantastic optical illusions, turning a 2D medium into a 3D work of art. Here are some inspirational examples, where typography and images interact and appear to ‘jump’ off the page:

A high-contrast design with subtle 3D effect starring Lupita Nyong’o from V Magazine

Stylish 3D graphics from GIA Magazine
A creative cover starring Tilda Swinton from Zembla Magazine

Now let’s create our own version…

Step 1: Set up the Layout of your Magazine Cover

Here, I’ve set up a New InDesign Document for Print, Width 203.2 mm and Height 276.22 mm, a standard size for Condé Nast magazine covers. I’ve set the Top Margin to 12 mm, Bottom Margin to 11 mm and Left and Right Margins to 9 mm.

I then placed a photo within an image frame, using the Rectangle Frame Tool (F), which extended across the whole page.

I then created a new layer (Window > Layers, to open the Layers panel, > Create New Layer) and used the Rectangle Tool (M) to create a frame with no Fill colour and a solid Stroke set in [Paper], with a Weight of 2 mm (edit these from the Character Formatting Controls panel running along the top of the screen). I’ve adjusted the size of the frame so that it sits on the Margin lines.

I then added a few text frames on another New Layer using the Type Tool (T), setting the Font to Didot in [Paper], and have placed the magazine title so that it sits very snugly against the top right corner of the white frame.

What would make our cover really ‘pop’ is to create a 3D effect, to give the impression that the white frame is interacting with the woman, and the woman is stepping outside of part of the frame.

Left: The cover before the effect is applied; Right: After the 3D effect is applied

Step 2: Use the Scissors Tool

Select the Scissors Tool (C) from the Tools panel (go to Window > Tools if not shown by default).

Zoom in to the area indicated below, and snip the edge of the white frame just above the top of the woman’s leg.

Repeat for the section of frame just below the woman’s leg.

Select the section of the white frame lying across the woman’s leg and press the Delete key on the keyboard to remove the section of frame.

Step 3: Use the Rectangle Tool (M)

Select the Rectangle Tool (M) from the Tools panel.

Drag to create a small long rectangle, at a similar width to the width of the white frame. Set the Stroke colour to [None] and the Fill color to [Paper].

Sit this new frame on top of the existing white frame, so that the bottom edge of the rectangle is almost touching the top of the woman’s leg. You might need to zoom right in and adjust the width of the rectangle so it fits perfectly on the edge of the white frame. You can also adjust the Width of the rectangle to exactly 2 mm from the top control panel.

Deselect the rectangle and then choose the Direct Selection Tool (A) from the Tools panel. Select the bottom right corner of the rectangle and drag the point down until it touches the woman’s leg. Select the bottom left corner of the rectangle and drag the point until it touches the edge of the woman’s leg also, being careful to keep the vertical sides of the rectangle very straight.

You can select the white rectangle and Edit > Copy and Edit > Paste, before adjusting, as above, for the lower part of the woman’s leg.

Step 4: Repeat the Process Above

Repeat the process described in Step 3 and Step 4 above until you have created an effect on the parts of the white frame you want to appear 3D. For this image, this is where I made all the cuts with the Scissors Tool (C), as an example.

And you’re finished! It’s as simple as that!

There’s no need to do any fiddly photo editing to achieve this simple, high-impact effect. Have fun creating your own 3D effects in InDesign!

Explore more awesome quick tutorials for InDesign.

The post How Did They Do That?: A Simple 3D Effect appeared first on InDesignSkills.

• Learn how to set up a New Document for print

• Create a simple grid for your two-spread magazine feature

• Create Master spreads for the layouts in your magazine

What you’ll create:

In this two-part tutorial we’ll be creating two complete spreads. Sign up to our mailing list to be alerted when the full Magazine course becomes available.

1. Create a New Document in InDesign

Step 1

Let’s get started. Open InDesign. From the Welcome Window, select Document from the Create New list.

In the New Document window, set the Intent to Print from the drop-down menu. (To familiarise yourself with the New Document Window refer to this Bitesize Skill)

We’ll set up the whole magazine, although in this two-part tutorial we’ll be working on just one spread. Set the Page No. to 16 and keep Facing Pages checked.

From the Page Size drop-down menu select Custom… In the Custom Page Size window type a Name for your custom page size. As we’ll be using a standard size in this tutorial, which is used by a number of commercial publishers, including Condé Nast, a suitable name might be Magazine Conde Nast. Set the Width to 203.2 mm and the Height to 276.22 mm. Click Add, then OK.

Step 2

Back in the New Document window, keep the Orientation as the default selection, Portrait. Moving down to the Columns section, set the Number of columns to 4. This will create a basic grid framework for arranging text columns.

Set the Margins to: Top 17 mm, Bottom 20 mm, Inside 17 mm, Outside 14 mm.

Set the Bleed to: Top 3 mm, Bottom 3 mm, Inside 0 mm, Outside 3 mm. You won’t need a Bleed on the Inside edge. Click OK.

2. Set up Master Pages

Step 1

In the Pages Panel (go to Window > Pages to open) you’ll see that at the top of the panel InDesign has already created a default A-Master for you. This consists of a two-page facing spread. Any content you place on this Master spread will appear on all pages with the A-Master applied to them. By default, InDesign has applied the Master already to all pages in your document. You can see this due to the appearance of a small A icon at the top corner of each page in the Pages Panel.

Double-click the A-Master icon (the image of the two facing pages at the top of the Pages Panel) to bring it up on screen. Now we can begin adding features to the Master like Page Numbers and any other decorative background content we’d like to appear consistently across a number of pages.

The Columns and Margins (highlighted in purple and pink) mark out where our columns of text will go. Let’s drag some Guides from the Rulers (View > Show Rulers) to mark out where the Page Numbers should sit on the page.

From the Top Ruler, click and drag a Guide downwards towards the bottom of the left-hand page. At the top-left of the screen you’ll notice an X or Y counter appears as you drag the guide. This indicates the position of the guide on the page. You can manually enter a position in the text box here to create a precisely placed guide. Drag the first guide to Y position 267 mm on the left-hand page of the spread. Repeat for the right-hand page.

Drag a second guide from the top ruler to Y position 9 mm on the left-hand page. Repeat for the right-hand page.

Drag another guide, this time from the left-hand ruler, to X position 9 mm. Drag a second to X-position 397.4 mm, so it sits on the far-side of the right-hand page.

Step 2

Let’s add some Page Numbers to our Master, to keep the reader orientated in your magazine.

Select the Type Tool (T) from the Tools Panel (Window > Tools, if not already visible), and drag to create a small text frame. Position this in the bottom left corner of the left-hand page and type page (space). Go to Type > Insert Special Character > Markers > Current Page Number. InDesign will drop in a page number marker, which is marked out as an A on your A-Master.

Highlight the text and set the Font to ITC Century Std, Light, Size 9 pt.

Open the Swatches Panel (Window > Color > Swatches) and create a New Color Swatch from the drop-down menu. Set it to CMYK, C=0, M=10, Y=11, K=34, click Add and OK. Set the Font Color to this new Swatch.

From the Tools Panel, select the Line Tool () and, holding Shift, drag horizontally to create a line that extends from the left of the page number to the edge of the second column. With the line selected, open the Stroke Panel (Window > Stroke), set the Weight to 0.25 mm, Type to Thin – Thin, Start to Circle, and End to Simple Wide (or flip the latter two settings depending on how you created the line). Set the Stroke Color to C=0, M=10, Y=11, K=34, as before.

Select the text frame containing the page number and Edit > Copy, and Edit > Paste. Move the frame into a mirrored position on the right-hand page, switching the Orientation to Align Right (in the top panel, Character Formatting Controls). Return to the left page and select and Edit > Copy the arrowed line. Edit > Paste, and Right-Click (PC) or Ctrl-Click (Mac OS) > Transform > Flip Horizontal. Manoeuvre into position onto the right-hand page to mirror the left.

Select both the text frame and line on the right-hand page and Edit > Copy, Edit > Paste. Position at the top left corner of the page, resting the text frame within the guides you created earlier. Edit the text to read FOODIE NEWS, adjusting the length of the line a little if you need to. Copy the Line, Paste and Right-Click (PC) or Ctrl-Click (Mac OS) > Transform > Flip Horizontal again, and extend it along the top left of the right-hand page.

Let’s also Paste another line, and Right-Click (PC) or Ctrl-Click (Mac OS) > Transform > Rotate 90 degrees CCW, positioning this shape below the text frame at the top left corner of the page.

Step 3

This Master will be the template for the opening page of a feature in our magazine. Let’s give it a name so we know what it is.

Go to the Pages Panel and click to select the A-Master page icon. Click the three bars at the top-right of the panel to open a drop-down menu. Select Master Options for “A-Master”… and rename the Master Master – Feature First Spread. Click OK.

Step 4

Return to your newly-renamed Master on screen. For this feature, we will need a decorative background – a wood panel image to give the article an earthy, autumnal feel.

Select the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) from the Tools Panel and drag to create a frame that extends across the whole of the right-hand page of the Master, right up to the Bleed. Go to File > Place and select an appropriate image (here I’ve used this wooden background from Ingimage), and click OK.

Select Fill Frame Proportionally from the top control panel to arrange the image nicely in the frame.

From the Tools Panel, select the Rectangle Tool (M) and drag to create a rectangle the same width and height as the frame you’ve just created. Position it over the top and set the Stroke to [None] and Fill to a new swatch (Window > Color > Swatches > New Color Swatch), CMYK, C=28, M=100, Y=97, K=34.

With the rectangle selected, go to Object > Effects > Transparency and set the Mode to Normal and adjust the Opacity to 70%. Click OK.

With the shape still selected, adjust the Tint of the swatch to 30% from the Swatches Panel or top control panel, as shown.

Select both the image-filled frame and the rectangle shape by dragging your mouse, and Right-Click (PC) or Ctrl-Click (Mac OS) > Arrange > Send to Back. Your page numbers and lines are not easily seen. Change the Font Color of the text and the Stroke Color of the lines to [Paper] to make them pop a little more. That’s your first Master done!

Step 5

Let’s create a second Master that’s more pared back and simple, which would suit the inside pages of a feature or article.

In the Pages Panel, open the drop-down menu from the top-right corner. Select New Master… and maintain the default B prefix. Rename the Master Master – Feature Spread and click OK.

Return for a moment to the A-Master on screen, and drag your mouse across to select all the text frames and lines on the page (you can hold down Shift and deselect the rectangle shape and the image frame), and go to Edit > Copy.

Return to your new B-Master on screen by double-clicking the page icon in the Pages Panel and go to Edit > Paste in Place. Adjust the Font Color of the text and the Stroke Color of the lines to C=0, M=10, Y=11, K=34.

Delete a couple of the lines, as shown, to give this Master a much more simple, minimal look.

Step 6

You’ll notice that InDesign has automatically applied the A-Master to all pages in your document. For now though, we just want it applied to a single spread.

Click on the [None] Master icon at the very top of the Pages Panel. Go to the drop-down menu in the panel and select Apply Master to Pages… In the window, type 1-3, 6-17 to apply the [None] Master to all pages in your document except a single spread, pages 4-5.

Click and drag the B-Master icon’s left page down and drop onto the Page 6 icon. Drag and drop the B-Master icon’s right page onto Page 7. File > Save As your InDesign document as Foodie Magazine Inside Pages.

Great work! You’ve set up the Master pages for your magazine layout, which will provide the perfect foundation for your editorial content.

Go to Part Two of this two-part tutorial to find out how to give your magazine layouts a professional, gorgeous finish!

The post Create a Magazine: Part One of Two appeared first on InDesignSkills.