Are you an aspiring print designer ?

Are you an aspiring print designer ? Learn everything you need to know to getstarted into the world of print design in this course,The Basics of Print Design. In this course, you will learn everythingfrom setting up your workspace and structuring your documents throughto the basics of typesetting and choosing a color palette. You’ll learn how to create an efficientworkflow so you can find your rhythm and work quickly.

Whether you’re new to design, or aseasoned digital designer who wants to get to grips with designing for print,this course is perfect for you. You will learn the differences betweenAdobe InDesign and Affinity Publisher, so you can choose the softwarethat’s right for you. You’ll then learn the InDesign basics youneed to get started designing magazines, books, brochures, and more. In this course, you can look forward tolearning how to use InDesign to set up different types of documents andcreate an efficient workspace. print designer

I’ll also show you how to structurea basic document ready for layout, choose a good color palette,and set up your Paragraph Styles panel. Last, we’ll explore type hierarchy, andtalk about creating impact in your layout. I’ll show you how to keepthe reader interested and engaged throughout a design project. We’ll also touch on the pre-flight panel,and all the different components you need tocheck before sending your file to print. So let’s get started. Hi there and welcome back to this course. print designer

In this lesson we’ll take a look atthe differences between InDesign and Affinity Publisher. When it comes to Page Layout software’sthere are many the competition. There are refined software’s that willlet you combine typography, graphics and photo into books,magazine publications and flyers. But more importantly a good softwarewill let you typeset typographically flawlessly. print designer

InDesign is the most popular software outat subscription base which can get costly quickly if you’re a freelancer who’s juststarting out, or if you’re a student. Affinity Publisher,on the other hand is a one time pay fee. For a single download andyou’re not tied to us expression. Affinity Publisher is froma company called serve. And this is the third programreleased with designers in mind. Affinity Publisher has an extensivecatalog of screen sizes to choose from. You’ll find anything includingany of the iPhones and Apple Watch sizes to kindle and Nexus. Affinity Publisher puts webdesign at the forefront so you can design not only magazines butalso anything that’s web based. And this is because InDesign cameout before web design was popular so it was built on a different foundation. print designer

When it comes to speed,Affinity Publisher is faster which makes a lot of difference ifyou’re working from a laptop. So both software interfaces are quitesimilar and the same goes for functionality print designer.

If you used any of the other Affinityprograms like Affinity Photo or Affinity Designer,Publisher might be easier to get used to. Affinity Publishers interface isessentially the same as InDesigns, and the tools panel is positioned onthe left while the rest of the essential panels are docked on the right. The Pages panel is on the left side whichin a way is great as it gives you more room to open up other panelson the opposite side. print designer

There are a few options inAffinity Publisher there aren’t easy to find compared to InDesign orthat take more steps to achieve. For instance, InDesign allowsyou to snap LMS to be aligned. Something that publisherdoesn’t do it automatically but it allows you to have as an option. In that case, you will have to gointo the menu and try to find it. The color picker tool in this allowsyou to replicate not only color, but also text formats. And this is a huge time saver because ithelps you work faster and efficiently print designer. And if you’re working with complexprojects that include footnotes, then InDesign does a better job at that.

Compared to Publisher. The Layers panel works a littlebit different in Publisher. And this panel is essential inInDesign if you’re working with either multilingual documents orcreating templates print designer. In Affinity Publisher, the Layers paneldisplays the objects of the spread you’re currently working on, andnot the entire document. When it comes to text, Affinity Publisher supports mostof the text options from InDesign.

But when it comes to paragraph and character styles, Affinity Publishermixes both of them into a single panel. One great advantage of Affinity Publisheris the ability to use Affinity Photo tools to edit images. So let’s say in InDesign you haveto open Photoshop separately. Affinity publisher youdon’t have to do that. Tag accessible PDFs havebecome even more and more popular now, especially ingovernment related publications and Affinity Publisher doesn’treally support that print designer. So InDesign is still on top of that.

So Affinity Publisher is a solidsoftware if you’re planning to use it to set up basic layouts or getting started asa freelancer since it is budget friendly. InDesign is a subscription base soyou would end up costing more but at the same time it is highlydeveloped and sophisticated. So if you’re a devoted InDesign user, Affinity Publisher will look a bitclumsy until you’re used to it. In my personal opinion,I prefer using Adobe InDesign because I started out usingQuarkXPress 15 years ago. And InDesign works perfectly forme in terms of creating layouts. It is also the most popular software,so when I need to share files with other designers or with a printerI won’t run into any big problems. Now that we’ve looked at the comparison ofthese two programmes we’re ready to start with this course.

In the next lesson I will show youhow to create a one page document, a trival share. And I’ll walk you through the importantcomponents that you need to consider when setting up a new document in InDesign. I’ll see you there. Hi there, and welcome back to this course,The Basics of Print Design. In this course, we’ll start by showingyou the essential elements you need to know in order to starta new document in InDesign. So let’s start by setting up a magazine. Head over to InDesign andclick on Create New. Here you will find all the differentsizes of the documents that you worked on previously.

And then here at the top, you’ll findthe Print, Web, and Mobile options, and that will dictate the resolution thatyou will be using for this document. So for example, for this specific project, we want to use Print becausewe want it to be at 300 DPI. That’s the print resolution,web and mobile is 72. For this lesson, we will use A4. And here I will changethe name to Preset1.

Change the units to whateveryou’re comfortable with. I am comfortable with inches andmillimeters. And I’ll just rename this to Magazine so that way we can justdirectly save the file. Set the pages to 5,number of columns to 3, here we can changethe gutter to 0.25 inches. And the columns will be created within themargins that we choose here at the bottom. The gutter is the space inbetween each one of the columns. And these columns are useful becausethey can work as a grid, and it can help you set up your filein a more organized and clean way. Let’s head down here.

You can change the margins here,going up and down. And you can unlock or lock, if you want to have equal marginsize all around the page. Since I want only the top to be bigger,then I will unlock it, and change the top, andleave the other three as 0.5 inches. Bleed is a term used to describe partof your document that has images or elements that are touchingthe edge of the page. So these elements extend beyond the trim,and that extension is called a bleed.

So when the magazine gets trimmed,you’ll have no white margin around it. The norm is to have a 0.125 inchesof bleed, or 0.3 millimeters, and that should be just enough to avoidany white edges on your print. Always communicate with your printer, because they will tell you the rightamount of bleed that you need. The slug extends tothe bottom of the page. And this is used to add a title ora date to identify a document. And of course,we have the preview check here.

print designer If you check the preview, then you’ll get a quick view of what thedocument you setup is going to look like. And if we’re happy with that,we can click on Create. So let’s move on to settingup a trifold brochure. In InDesign, select Print. I’ll name this file Trifold Brochure. So what’s going to happen nowis we’re gonna take the size that we want the trifold brochure to be,the final size. And that will bethe trifold brochure open. For this,you need the paper to be horizontal. And then measure the final width,and then divide it by 3.

To that, add 1 millimeter to allow forthe fold print designer. So in my case,that would be 94.13 millimeters. And leave the height as it is. And check facing pages. Number of pages to 6. We’ll leave the columns to 1, margins to 10 millimeter, bleeds to 3. And if you want to savethis document as a preset, head back up andclick on the Save document preset button.

So that way you don’t have to beconstantly setting this up again over and over again. And then if you go to the Saved tab at thetop, you’ll have the preset right there. So click on Create. And now let’s open the Pages panel. So we’re going to createa new master page. And this new master will be slightlynarrower to accommodate and compensate forthe folds within the brochure. So set the width to 91, click OK. Right-click on B-Master andselect Apply master. Make sure that Apply Master is set toB-master and select to pages 1 to 6.

Click on Use master page size. And you’ll notice that pages 1and 6are already looking a little bit narrower. So now we need to group panels 1 to 3, andthat will be one side of the brochure. And panels 4 to 6 will bethe other side of the brochure. To do this, head over to the Pages panel. On the main menu,deselect Allow Document Pages to Shuffle. And we will simply drag panelnumber 2 to panel number 1. And panel number 3 to 1 and 2. And the same for 4, 5, and 6. So that configuration that youshould have is BAA and AAB. Panels 1 to 3 are the inside panels, andpanels 4 to 6 are the outside panels. And now you’re all set todesign your trifold brochure. This last part is editing the page size,columns, margins and bleeds. So what happens once you’vealready set everything up and then you find out that maybe, oryou changed your mind that maybe you want a little bit of margin on one side orless margins on another side.

That’s not a problem, you can stillmake changes on your document. So to change the margins and columns,head over to Layout > Margins and Columns. Unlock Adjust Locked Content. In here you can modify things as you wish. The same goes forthe columns and the gutter. And then you can click OK andyou’re all set. If you want to make the changeson the whole document, you can do that by going to A-Master,and then make the changes there. To adjust the layout,head over to File > Adjust Layout. Here, you can change the page size. And here, you can also change,again, the margins and the bleed. So if we doubled the bleeds, you’ll beable to notice it now, when we click OK. And there you go. And if you want to go back, press Cmd+Z.

And that’s it for this lesson. Next I’ll show you three ways to create aneffective workspace, where I’ll show you how to set up your workspace in a way thatit will give you an efficient workflow. I’ll see you there.

Hi there, and welcome back to this course. In this lesson, we will show you 3ways to create an effective workspace. Having an efficient workflowis really important when you’re working on a big project. So in this lesson, we will takea look at the preference options, having the right panels open,and file organization. Let’s get started. Many beginner designers don’tknow that there is a preference panel in InDesign where you can set up every single thing that can makeyour workflow more efficient. Anything from changing the units inincrements, detailed typesetting options that can really help you makeyour work easier and streamline it.

So in InDesign, head over to InDesign CC> Preferences, and click on General. So when you get a new computer anddownload InDesign, or let’s say, if you’re starting at a studio,this is a great way to start. Because, again, here is where you can set everythingup the way you’re used to working. For example, here under General, you canalready change the way you edit an object, or how you want the workspace tolook like when you open InDesign. Under Interface, you can changethe color of the background, how you want the panels to show up. Under Type, for example,triple-click to select a line. Sometimes you will double-click toselect a paragraph or a single word. So little things like this that reallyallow you to personalize how you work.

Compositions, we have H andJ violations which is really useful to have if you are working witha lot of text, ruler units. If you live in a different country, you might be more comfortable usinginches or centimeters or millimeters. And then we have even moredetailed options like size and leading if you are using your keyboarda lot to change the line space or the kerning and tracking,I usually like to have this at 1 point.

The Baseline Shift at 1 point as well,and the Kerning at 5. This just allows me to be even moredetailed when I’m typesetting. So there are endless,endless options that you can have here. And this is probably my favorite part,setting up my workspace. And of course, you can also change howyour computer is working with InDesign. You can change the performance,file handling. So it’s always good to take some time,take a look at these options and tailor it to what you like andwhat you’re used to working with. So I’ll just make sure here that I havethe units in increments set to centimeters and the page origin to page sothat way you can see how this works.

I’ll click OK. Create a new document here. And you can already see that thepreferences that we applied are already in the document. Now let’s move on tosetting up your workspace. If you go to the top right corner, you have a list of all the workspace thatwe have available within the software. So depending on what kinda project you’reworking on, if it’s typography-based digital publishing, it will give youdifferent panels for you to work with. So for example, we have the Essentials andthis gives us the Properties, Pages, and CC Libraries panels. We could change this tothe Typography workspace, and this will give us a totallydifferent selection of panels.

We have the Layers,the Pages, the Links panel. And then we have a single panel herethat is very much focused on typography. We have the Paragraph panel,Paragraph Styles, Character, Character styles, Glyphs. And of course you can movethe panels around and if you don’t really use one of them,you can close it. And I like to base my workspacearound a typographic workspace. So delete the ones orclose the ones that I don’t need and change the order in a way that benefitsthe type of projects that I work on. I’ll head over here to the top right andselect New Workspace. I’ll put my name here, click OK. Let’s close InDesign to makesure that when we open it, it is set to my workspace. Create New Document, and there we have it. We have my workspace already set up. Now let’s move on to file organization.

File organization is one of the mostimportant things that you can do for your projects. If you’re either a freelancer orif you’re working in a studio, you need to keep an organized work flow. So the first two that we saw,setting up your preferences and your work space, that’s a very individual. But when it comes to file organization,you have to keep in mind that you might have to send thesefiles to another designer. If you’re working in a studio, there might be another designer that willbe working on the same project as you. So here, I’ll start by creatinga new folder on my desktop. And I try to keep my desktopas clear as possibly. Ideally, you would have a systemon how you name your files and how you keep them organized by date.

So for example, for me, this Project1 would go under a specific folder, for example, Laura’s Studio. And that’s what this Project1 folder would go into. So we start with a folder. And I’ve already saved the filesthat we created on the last lesson. So we have Project 1-Magazine andProject 1-Trifold Brochure. I’ll move those two InDesignfiles into Project 1. And then there are a series of foldersthat you should have under that so you’re able to keep all the linked files, thefonts and everything else that you export. So for me, the most importantare having a fonts folder.

If you don’t have a fonts folder foreach project, then you should have a fonts folder for your computer andthat’s where all the files should go for your fonts sothey’re not scattered around. Next, we need an images or JPEG folder. I like to call it Images becausesometimes I work with JPEG or TIFF files. This is great if you’re linking a lotof images into an InDesign file if you’re working on a magazine, soyou know where all the images for that specific project that are. Next, we need a PDF folder, great for when you export documents for your clientand then we need an Old Files folder. And then another problem that we have asdesigners is we need to have different versions of the same project.

So if you are working ordeveloping an editorial design layout, you’ll have different iterations andyou will have different stages. As you communicate with your client, you might not need olderspreads that you’ve designed so you will need the newest ones and thenthe question is how you keep those files. The way that I like to keep it is bynaming them with the versions, so v1 will be version number one, and then let’ssay I went through a round of changes with the client, then I’ll create a versionnumber two, they gave me their feedback. Then I’ll move version numberone under old files and start working from version number two. This is also great to keep if, forexample, version number two crashes and then the file is damaged, then at leastI have another version as a backup that I can work from and I don’t have tostart everything from the beginning.

And another folder that I think is reallygood to have is Notes or From Client. Clients will usually maketheir changes on a PDF file. So you download that file,and put it under Notes or From Client and then you proceedto make the changes from there. And like I said, every designer hasa different way of organizing this. You have to find something that works foryou. But whatever that is, make it consistent because you don’twant to lose any of these files. So now that we’ve looked at the waysto create an effective workspace, we’re ready to move on to the next lessonthat will help you to structure a document to create an amazing layout.

I’ll see you there. Hi there, welcome back to this course. In this lesson I will show youhow to structure your document. We will talk about master pages, how youcan change the margins in the columns, how to overwrite masters, andhow to organize your layers panel. So we’ll start by settingup the master pages now. In InDesign, head over to the Pagespanel and double click on A Master. And the first thing that you want to do,if you’re doing a magazine, is to set up folios and page numbers.

So, using the text toolwe’ll create a text box. Right-click > Insert Special Character> Markers > Current Page Number. And I’ll just put Magazine Name here,we’ll make this bigger so that way you can see it. Now, I’ll duplicate itto the opposite page. So, if we go back to our normalpages you will see that, Each page now has a page number. Let’s go back to A Master,place this at the bottom And now let’s say that since the foliois at the bottom, I need more margin. And I want to changethis on all the pages, so make sure that youare into the Master pages. Head over to Layout > Margins and Columns. And here I’ll show you something neat. I want all the margins to be the same, but in doing so, I want to adjust,let’s say, the layout.

So, check the Adjust Layout option. You’ll notice thatthe pages are disappearing, because the text box is too small. So, I want the font sizeto also be adjusted, and that will changeautomatically the font size. And you can also set up a font limit, so if you don’t want it to go undera certain size, you can also do that. Here you can add or take columns out. And of course, change the margins. And if you are not happy with that,you can hit Cancel. But here, we want to change the margins. So, I’ll go back here, and set the margins to 30 millimeters,and the bottom one to 40.

I want the gutter to be 10 millimeters,click OK. And the page number looking a littlebit too low, so I’ll grab a guide. And I want it to belined up to the margin. Make sure that you havethe Smart Guides activated. And that will help you snapelements to be aligned. If you are working on a magazine, you might want to have a body copy textbox and a headline text box setup. So, go back to master,I’ll duplicate this text frame. I’ll have content here Let’s sayI want four different boxes. Delete this content.

Now, let’s go back to our normal pages. And you can see the outline here. Go back to A Master. I’ll lower the text boxes andadd a headline textbox. And before we move on,let’s take care of our layers. So, it’s always useful to havea text layer, an images layer, and a background layer that you can hide andshow and lock and unlock. So, forinstance here I’ll create a background. And if I head over to the normal pages,I can’t really touch the background and that’s because it isunder my master pages.

So, we can hide and show. Let’s go back to A Master and delete it. Now, you see that it’s alsodeleted from the normal pages. So, if you want to activate thesetext boxes from the normal pages and start adding content, pressShift+Option and select the text box. And then you’ll be able tostart adding your own content. So, here, for instance,Fill with Placeholder Text. And because these text boxes are threaded,then the content will just flow. And the same for the following pages. Let’s say you want to workwith a dark background. For that you need to changethe color of the folio.

So, press Shift+Option, select the folio. Select the background layer, soyou can add the dark background. And because the folio isunder the text layer, you can change the color easily. Activate the rest of the textboxes,Add Content. And the same here,you can change the color of the text. Covers don’t usually follow the samedesign as the interior pages.

So, we’ll select everything,Shift+Options, select everything and Delete. And there you have it, that’s how youset up the structure of a document. That’s how you set up your master pages,you can change the margins, the columns and adjust the layout to that. So, now that you have the structureof the document all set up, we’re going to move on into color palette. In the next lesson I willshow you three fool-proof ways of choosing a color palette. I’ll see you there. Hi there and welcome back to thisbasics of pre design course. In this lesson will showyou three foolproof ways of choosing a color palette. Choosing a color palettecan take some time, but there are a number of tools that we canuse to make this step a lot easier.

So let’s start with the first one,is the color theme tool. This is a tool that InDesign added. Not too long ago,which is super, super useful. I’ve already downloaded an image fromEnvato elements, you can just do so by going to photos andselecting an image and downloading it. They have a great librarythat is always expanding. So for sure you’ll findsomething there that you need. So let’s grab the fileplease sit into InDesign. And the color theme tool isunder the eyedropper tool.

So hold a click there toopen the other options. So color theme tool. Then click on image andthat’s the easiest way to select colors. So you can already see how you haveto choose a successful color palette. Ideally you would needsomething that’s very subtle, that can work as a background. Two medium light colors,one medium and one dark. We have a button here to addthese theme to Swatches.

I’ll head over here to the Swatches panel. In here I have Colorful _Theme. The second way is the Adobe Color Wheel. So this works the same way asthis was called before cooler. And basically, you have allthe different color harmony rules, you select the main color, so the rest ofthe colors are based on that specific one. And then you can movethe colors swatches around. Then, of course, you have to custom onewhere you can mix and match as you like. You can say this to my libraryyou have Adobe Color one, save, and it’s ready to be used.

Another option here they alsohave is extract from an image. So we’ll drop the image here. And the neat part of this isthat you can actually move the five colors that we have here sowe can either select a mood, and it will show you whereexactly is grabbing it from. Or you can select None andmove things around. And if we just quicklygo back to InDesign. The color theme tool,if we click here on the arrow, it’ll give us the same options as well,but not the one where it’s custom,where you can move each color around. Next we have the Explore page. And of course, here you can typea theme and you’ll get a result for the different colors. So this is how you choose a color palette, you’ll notice that three colors should bereally the minimum that you need to have.

Because that will give you a range thatgoes from light to medium and dark. Five, I would say is the most that youneed because then you’re going to be struggling as to where you can use. Let’s say the lightest shade or the mediumshade, so I will say between three and five, and something that takes allthe boxes meaning like medium and dark. Now that we’ve covered howto create a color palette. In the next lesson we’ll cover everythingfrom type hierarchy to paragraph styles, basics of type settings andthe do’s and don’ts of composing a text Hi there and welcome back to this course,Basics of Print Design. Let’s be real, technology is sovast that we can talk about it for ages. And in this lesson, we’ll coverfour tips that you can use to make better typographic choices, andto also have an easier workflow. We’ll cover type hierarchy,how to pair fonts that make sense.

I’ll show you how to use paragraphstyles which can save you time and you’ll work more efficiently. Let’s take a look. Let’s start with font pairings. Font pairings is one of those things thatyou have to train your eye in order to find something that works. And if you know the type categories,then that will make it a lot easier. We have some great articles at Envatothat can help you learn more about the font categories. In essence,there are four to five groups of fonts. And if you head over to Envato Elements, they already have these categories on theleft side when you’re looking for a font. So it’s Serif, Sans Serif, Script andHandwritten, and Decorative.

So if you’re looking forsomething specific, you can check one of the categories andEnvato Elements will filter that for you. You can also choose depending on the sizethat you’re intending to use it. So the more you’ll learn about typography,you’ll know that display fonts are not meant to be used as body text becausethat will make it a lot harder to read. I’ve already chosen a few fontshere from each category, so I can better explain how to pair fonts. Addington is a Serif font which isbetter used for long forms of copy. Next, we have Sans which is a Sans Serif. This font can also be used fortext or for display. Next, we have Bouchers Layer Duo. And this is more of a decorative font sothat it’s right. It is a Sans Serif butat the same time it can be decorative because it has differentlayers that add shadow to it.

So display fonts, like I said,they are better used as a title or if you’re working on a restaurant menu, the name of the restaurantcan go on this type of font. Because you’re not using it in a longtext, you’re just using it for a few words. And the same goes for Bouchers Script, soyou could pair this with Bouchers Layer. Of course, these two fonts are createdby the same designer so they do match. And it’s great to have somethingsupportive either if you’re using Bouchers Layer Duo orBouchers Script. Addington and RNS Sanz are a great pairbecause Addington is a very basic Serif, very elegant and very readable,and RNS Sanz is neutral. You can use RNS Sanz as a headline andAddington as a body copy. Another great way to find great pairingsis by going to Envato Elements and search for font duo.

So some designers have alreadypaired two fonts together. For instance, we have Jacksons Font Duowhich is a handwritten font paired with a Sans Serif, it looks very elegant,a little bit old school. And then we have Ripon,which is more feminine, it will look great as a magazine opener. So the trick here is to not usetwo fonts of the same category. So don’t pair a Serif with a Serif,try to pair a Serif with a Sans Serif or a Sans Serif with a Script or Handwritten. Next, let’s take a look at Type Hierarchy.

So typographical hierarchy is veryimportant if you want the reader to know what to read first,what to read next. And it will also help you divide theinformation, how you want it displayed and what you want the reader to read first. Here I have an example of typehierarchy on a magazine spread. So at the very top wehave the headline and the headline should be the largerfont size they’re using on a spread. The headline should be catchy,something with just a few words, not a full sentence.

So that way the reader,if they’re glancing over the magazine, they can just pick it up really quickly. Under the headline we have the deck, the deck can be used to adda small introduction to the story. You can use a Sans Serif or a Serif, here the deck is set at 30 points andthe headline at 60. Under the deck, we have a credit line andcredit lines are great for giving credits to the author ofthe article and the pictures. And only if we can usetwo fonts on the article, we can still create something differentthat can stand out from the rest. So for example, on my credit lines, I prefer to use all caps becauseit’s a way for it to stand out. But I’m also using it at 14 pointswhich is smaller than a deck but bigger than the copy.

Next, we have the actual body copy. And the body copy I’ve set it to Addingtonat 9 points, I would say between 9 and 10, sometimes 8 depending on the font,11 tends to be too big usually. On the second column, I have a Pull Quote. Pull Quotes are great tobreak some of the text, I’ve set this one at 24 points andextra bold. It is smaller than a deck butstill bigger than the copy and width-wise it still gives me a fewwords for it to be able to be readable. Because I don’t want onlyone word on each line, I want a good amount of words thatpeople can still read it comfortably. The purple frame on the secondpage can house a picture and under it I have a caption. I use RNS Sanz forthe caption at 8 points, Sans Serifs are very readable at smallerpoints, that’s why I’m using it. And 8 point is not too small but it’s still a good size tohouse some information.

So now that we have all of ourtype hierarchy on the spread, we can start setting up paragraph styles. Paragraph styles are a great way to workefficiently especially if you’re working with a long publication like a magazine. Once you learn how to workwith paragraph styles, it will really help youget the job done quickly. So for instance I have the spreadhere that I talked about in our type hierarchy, andI need to have my paradox styles open. So I’ll head over to Window > Styles> Paragraph Styles, and since we have our type hierarchy already set, we canstart working on the smaller details. For example, I want the headlineto be set to Title Case, the deck I want it to be on Sentence Case. I know I wanted credits to be all caps,and I’ll start setting up colors here.

I want the copy to have the first lineindented, here I’ll add some space before each line so you can see howit works with the baseline grid. So let’s head over to InDesign CC> Preferences > General, let’s make sure here that wecan see the baseline grid. And here on the Preferences, I canchange the start of the baseline grid to 0 at the top of the page, click OK. And if we zoom in here, you will see allthese little lines through the document and that is called a baseline grid. Baseline grids are grade to align the textespecially if you’re working with different columns. So that way, the lines of text are goingto be the same across all columns. So let’s select everything here,let’s head over to a paragraphs panel and at the bottom,select align to baseline grid button. You will notice that every line of textwill be aligned to a baseline grid. If you head over here to the top andchange the space of the first line, you’ll notice it doesn’t move. The reason it doesn’t move is because wechose that every line to be aligned to a baseline grid. So the algorithm of the program isgoing to ignore that change and only use the baseline grid option. But if you put it to 0,then now it’s going to move. So you can see now every lineon both columns is aligned. So now to continue settingthe paragraph styles panel, I want to add a drop cap right here.

A drop cap is used for the reader toknow where the article actually starts. There’s no rule as to what kind ofstyle you need to have a drop cap, you can choose any style you want,you can get super creative. Okay, so we have everything set now. Open the character styles panel, and I want to set this character stylebefore setting the paragraph styles. So select the Drop Cap,click on Add New Character style, double click,change the style name to Drop Cap. Here you can double check forthe options in the settings. I’ll click OK. And now let’s head overto paragraph styles. The easiest way to do this is byselecting with the text tools, select the text that you wantto convert into a style. Add a new paragraph style. So the name, it’s always goodto go through the options and check that you have the right settings. And since this is a Drop Cap style,head over to Drop Caps and Nested Styles,select the character style to Drop Cap, We want it to take four lines andonly one character. Click OK, andhere let’s just try it out really quickly. So click on this first line here,select Drop Cap, and it’ll instantly apply the style, perfect. Now, I need to set a regular copy. So I’ll click here, add a new style, copy, And you can continue to do the same forall the other elements.

This is the fastest way toapply type hierarchy to all of the other articles thatyou will be working on. For example, here I’ll add some text and I can apply any ofthe paragraph styles to it. Another benefit to using paragraphstyles is that if you want to change the style of the font orthe size of the font, you can open the Style andchange the settings as you like. This change will only apply tothe copy that you used the style in. And the last tip is basic typesetting,this tip becomes even more and more important the longerthe publication that you’re working on. If you’re working with a brochure,you won’t apply this as much. But if you’re working on a magazine,newspaper, type setting is really important because then it defines how muchtext you can actually fit into one page.

So for me, something useful to open is theinfo panel so head over to Window > Info, here we can measure the number ofcharacters that it’s in the line. So usually, you would have between 70 and 80 characters in a line forit to be comfortable to read. Let’s measure here a couple andwe have, 70, 75 so the column width here is okay,it’s not bad at all. The info panel can also give youthe number of words, lines and paragraphs if you select allof the text in this text box. When I’m typesetting texts, I like touse the Adobe single line composer. So what happens here is, if you’reusing the Adobe paragraph composer, the software is going to usean algorithm to move the lines and to break the syllables in each words. For me, I prefer using Adobe singleline composer because it doesn’t use algorithms at all, so it gives memore freedom to typeset the text. So for example here, I’ll select a fewlines and start tightening the tracking so I can fit more words or to get ridof some of the hyphenated words. Rule of thumb is not to have twohyphenated words back to back so line to line. And also the goal is to not have a weirdshape on the right side of the column, because that can distract the reader andalso it’s not visually pleasing. A lot of designers prefer using thejustify settings when typesetting a text. If you’re using this,you need to pay attention to the h and j violations which is the hyphenation andjustification. And if you remember, you can setthis up in your preferences panel. So if you have this option activated,it will highlight the lines that are violatingthe minimum and maximum space value.

You’ll notice that there’s someyellow that is very faint and some of it that is really strong. So the ones that are really strongare the ones that are really stretching the values. So for me, those will be the onesthat I need to fix right away. And a way to fix it is by eithertightening the tracking, but you will notice that in some lines if you tightenit, then the word space is even tighter. So there are way too manycharacters in that one line. And when you get into even more detailedstuff, you’ll come across other problems like rivers, which isthe wide gaps in between the words. You’ll come across orphans and widows and then you’ll have to startfixing those things.

Orphans are lines that begin atthe end of a column or a page. And widows are the lastline that appears at the beginning of the next column or page. So the longer your text is,the more important typesetting becomes. Because you want your text to lookvisually harmonious and you want the reader to have a good experience andenjoy reading the text that you typeset. In the next lesson, I will show youthe essential steps you need to know with importing images, I’ll see you there. Hi there and welcome back to this course. In this lesson I will show you the threeessential steps you need to take if you’re going to import images into InDesign. So let’s say you haveyou’re layout ready to go, and now you need tostart importing images. Many designers neglect this part,which is really a problem because if you are working on a magazine andhave all the images already in there, send this PDF to your client, andthe client approves everything. But then you get a surprise after printingthat the colors are not matching or they don’t look the same.

That’s because we forgot to convertthese images or maybe they’re pixelated, and that can get very, very costly if youhave to reprint them a whole magazine, a whole editorial project. I want to open this imagewith Adobe Photoshop, and the important part here is to check forMode. I want to transfer this from RBG to CMYK. So head over to Image>Mode>CMYK Color,click OK, and it’s converted. Next we want to check for the resolution. If you acquire a lot of images online, they will unfortunatelybe most likely 72 DPI. 72 is only for screens. If you want to print an image,it has to be at 300 DPI. This image is from Envato Elements, so they already know that we as designerstake resolution very seriously. And that really dictateshow big an image can go.

So this is already set to 300 DPI. Of course if you were using it forweb, you can change this to 72. That’s not a problem. And then the image size will go smaller, which is really helpful if youwant to work with a lighter file. So let’s put this back to 300 andadd an _R. So for me, that’s how I save all my files,_R at the end, when I’ve already convertedthem to CMYK and 300 DPI. That means R for revised. Click Save, back to InDesign. Make sure that you’re selectingthe file that is revised, place it into InDesign, and resize. Head over to the Links panel,in here you will see some link info. And this is useful if you have alreadya ton of images into InDesign and you want to quickly checktheir colorspace and size. So here I can see that the format is JPEG,colorspace CMYK, perfect, Actual PPI 300, and then we’ll go here, lower,and check on the scale.

So the scale is 50%, that means that we’reusing the image at half its original size, so half the size that itcan actually be used. So if I want to make this bigger,this scale will change. And now, I’m using it at 100%. You can also check that here at the top. Now let’s say I make this bigger, and we can already see thisgetting slightly pixelated. An image can be used up to 120%. Ideally, you should keep it under 100,but you can use it up to 120%. So I want to go back to a coupleof lessons ago where we talked about file organization. Another great advantage isthat if you make any changes to the image that you’re using inthe file, and it’s properly linked, all the changes that you make on that imageare going to be affect it in the file.

So for instance,I’ll open the image in Photoshop, and let’s say I want to change the color,and because we have a layer on top,I’ll save this as a TIFF. So I’ll put R version 2, TIFF, click OK, head back into InDesign,Import the image there. So let’s do our usual links check, CMYK, 300 DPI, 52%. So let’s say that the client wants adifferent color, they don’t like the blue, they want a totally different color. I’ll open the TIFF file,change the color, save it. Close Photoshop,head over to InDesign, and you’ll notice this warning symbolnext to the image on the Links panel. Double-click on that, andthe image will automatically update. So this is a great way to handle an image file especially if you willbe making pre-touches on top of that. So now that we’ve covered all thecomponents that you need in print design, we’ll touch on how to createimpact in your design. In the next lesson, I will show you fiveways to keep your readers engaged and interested in your layout.

I’ll see you there. Hi there and welcome back to this course,Basics of Print Design. Now that we’ve covered all of the elementsthat you need in order to create a good print design project, it is time to getout of the box and explore a little bit. In this lesson, we’ll take a look at a fewways to create impact in your design that will keep your readers engaged andinterested. So first up is keeping it simple. So, in the 1950s and60s the International Typographic Style or the Swiss Style came into fullforce in the graphic design world.

And this style reallymade strong use of For which allowed hem to create reallyclean and organised designs. not only that butthey were really impactful and they gave us a really good visual breakfrom olden ways that we would see around. So, for instance, this 50thanniversary of the Moon landing poster design heavily uses a grid to organizeinformation and to place information. print designer So, that’s the one good thingabout using a grid structure.

At the very top, we have the headline. And then at the very bottom, we haveall of the information that we need. So, for example, here is an exhibition. So, on the last line we havea description of the exhibition. In the second last line wehave all the information that people would need in order to attend it. In this poster I used only one font,Sans Serif to keep everything classic and clean. And then I left the middle part forthe actual graphic. And that’s what I wantedthe reader to look at first.

print designer I wanted them to be able to knowwhat this poster was all about, which is the anniversaryof the landing on the moon. And then head over to the headline and then they could read the rest ofthe information at the bottom. So, keeping it simple is not alwaysjust keeping it basic, because it will give us a good break from all of the otherdesigns that we see around in the world. And this is something classic,traditional and to the point. print designer The second way to create impact in yourdesign is by using full-bleed images. If you’re designing a business card,or a brochure, or a magazine, using full-bleed imagesare a large size is a luxury. It causes so much impact,especially to a reader, if they’re going through a magazine andthey come across a beautiful big image like this one that we havehere of coffee grounds. You can use a full-bleedimage on a spread.

print designer Here I’m using it on one page. The image is also crossingthe gutter towards the second page. That gives us the opportunity to notonly use an image either vertically or horizontally but also give it a differentdimension, here would be a square. An image like this takes a lot of realestate when it comes to your magazine, but it also creates a biggerimpact to the reader. So, if you happen to be working witha great photographer who can supply great images. print designer Or if you are using and Envato Elements, take advantage of that andblow them out on your spread. Next step is layering elements. And now we’re moving away a little bitfrom the classic design that we saw on the first example. When I was a beginner designer,I used to design everything very flat. And quickly I learned that thereare many ways in order to create depth.

print designer Creating depth in your designwill help it stand out more. So, for instance, you can use dropshadows, highly textural images, but I still like the flat look,and I prefer to layer elements. By layering elements you alsoare allowing the elements to interact with each other andcreate a different kind of harmony, a different kind of texture thatcan really benefit your design. In this particular magazine cover, I use the name of the magazineto overlap the cover image. And then I chose to use white tocontrast not only the background, but also the image that I’m using. I’m also using a Sans Serif which makesit even easier to read, rather than using the style where it says The DiscoveryIssue, then handwritten style, or a Serif.

print designer So, you have to weigh their pros andcons and what kind of fonts you can use, what kind of colors you can usein order for it to still work. On the left side,I chose to rotate the text, and I chose to keep it simple as well,but give it a little bit of an edge. print designer This is a great segue to go into the nexttip which is, change type direction. So, changing the type direction in yourdesign can make it more dynamic and add more movement. Not only that, but you can also use typedirections in order to direct the reader’s eyes somewhere else. On this spread I was using photos ofpeople climbing, and when you climb, you climb vertically. So, that was the inspirationbehind using The vertical text.

print designer I used it on the left side assort of a title for the spread, and then I used it on the second page too. Also, I tried to mimic columns bycreating two different text boxes. This particular spread was created foran experimental editorial design course. So, we wanted to go all out. And even if it was created for a course,you have to keep that reader in mind. print designer And last we have go all out experimenting. So, once you’ve learned all the rules ofgraphic design, it’s good to get out of the box a little bit and experiment andtry to develop your own style. There are so many ways that you canexperiment by using Photoshop or using a simple image and just applyinga ton of different effects to it. You can use analog materials,where you can actually cut and paste things with your handsin collage and scanning them. David Carson was a big fan of doing this,of working with his hands.

print designer Chris Ashworth is another designerthat not only works with grids, but also likes to experiment outside of that,or experiment with the grid. For this particular poster, I used a front from Envato Elementsthat includes wider characters. So, that was a great way forme to experiment with that and use something a little bit differentthan your usual normal width characters. For the background, print designer I used the brushto create different colored diagonals. And this image is actually a statue,where I turned it into black and white and then I close-cropped it, and moveddifferent square shapes just slightly off. So it looks like there isa digital glitch on top of that. And then I added a little bit of noise onthe background between the background and the actual image to create depth. You will notice that the layout ofthe information is quite basic. I have the title at the top, the locationand the different stages at the bottom, but I tried to spice it up a little bitby changing the direction of the type. Not only on the stages, but also onthe very right where I have the date, the website, and the address. So, you can experimentas much as you like. You don’t have to go all out crazy.

print designer But just pushing a littlebit with the boundaries every time you design something,it will allow you to grow as a designer. Now, that we’ve covered allof the elements of design, it’s time to jump intothe printing section. So, in the next lesson,we’ll talk about the essential steps that you need to take in orderto get your file ready for print. I’ll see you there. Hi there and welcome back to the course,Basics of Print Design. In this lesson we will show you four stepsyou need to take to make sure your file’s ready for print. Hopefully this will help you avoid anyerrors that may come in the printing process. So let’s take a look. The first step is checking forbleeding elements.

print designer When an image is touching the edge ofa page, that’s called a bleeding image. And in InDesign a bleed guideallows us to take that image and extend it all the way up to the bleed. So, when the project is printed, you won’t have any weird white edgewhere the image is supposed to be. It works as a buffer. And for instance here I havethe orange background and I want the orange backgroundto be touching the bleed. And here, I don’t have a background,it’s only white, so this is not necessary. So, see this red line,that’s the bleed guideline. We just need to make sure that allthe elements are meant to be bleeding off the page are actually touching the bleeds.

print designer Number two is fix preflight errors. You’ll notice here in the InDesignworkspace, at the very bottom, there is a red dot and it says 1 error. You can double-click there, and that willallow us to open the Preflight panel. The Preflight panel will let us knowif there is any text overflowing, any images are missing, and any kindof error that our document could have. I have here overset text,under text frame and that’s on page 13, so I’ll click on that. It will take me directlywhere the error is. It is in this text frame. So, there are a coupleof options to do here.

print designer If I have room,I can stretch the text box. If I don’t have the room andthis is not real text, but if you’re working in the realworld what would happen is, you would go back to your client oryour editor. And ask them if they couldmaybe cut some lines or shorten the text in one way or another. Maybe you could use typesetting, andtry to condense things a little bit more, and just try to make the text fit. But honestly, if you have more than oneline, that can be a little bit difficult. In this file,we’re just going to delete that. And then we have no errors. Next step is checking linked images.

print designer So, I have all of my linkedimages here on the side. I have no errors. But I just want to show you what wouldhappen if you’re not organizing your files well, what could potentially happen. I’ll move this file to the side. And instantly, I’m getting an error. So, Links > Missing link > page 1. So, it’s telling me thatthat link is missing. So, this is why I encourageyou to keep all of your images from that specific project in oneplace so you know where to find them. So, here I’ll move the image back into theImages folder and it gets fixed instantly. And last is image sizes. So, this is just to make sure that allthe images that we’re using in the project are not being usedlarger than they should. A neat trick here is togo to the Links panel.

print designer Select Panel Options and select Scale. In here we’ll get the scale thatwe are using the images at. So, you will notice thateverything is under 130. We have one image 121, which isthe most I would stretch something. I wouldn’t go over 120. Ideally you should keep it under 100,but you can use it up to 120%. And that’s it. These are the four steps that you needto take when you’re sending a big file, especially a big file to print. As long as you checkthe essential elements, your file’s going to be printed okay. Of course,always double check with your printer. Make sure that when they’re lookingat the files, everything is correct.

print designer So, now that we’ve checked foreverything, in the next lesson, I’ll show you how to export a file forprinting and how to package your file. I’ll see you there. Hi there, welcome back to this course. In this lesson, I will show you howto export a PDF file for print, and how to package a file. This is the last step we need totake in order to print our project. Head over to File > Export, and here, what I want to do is changethe filename to the correct name. So for instance, I’ll take the prefix, and leave it asMagazine Layout Design Course-v3. I want to save this inits respective folder. Format, Adobe PDF Print, click on Save,and head over to Adobe PDF Preset. So depending on your printer, they’ll askyou to save the file as a specific preset. Sometimes these high quality print, Ifound that PDF X-1a 2001 is the usual one. And sometimes, it will be press quality soalways ask the printer what they prefer. I’ll go for Press Quality,Export as Pages. So these will be individual pages, and then the printers willmake everything fit. Head over to Marks and Bleeds,select Use Document Bleed Settings. Check Crop Marks, and that’s it.

print designer Click on Export, wait forthe bar here to be done exporting. Let’s open the folder, PDF. In here,I saved it outside of the PDF folder. So I just want to makesure that it’s inside. Let’s take a look. And here we have our single pages exportedwith the bleeds and the crop marks.

You can see that on the side andthe corners. So what’s going to happen is, the printeris going to take individual pages. For example on a spread and overlap them. So sometimes a PDF can look a little bitscary just because it has that extra bleed on the side, butthere’s nothing to worry about. Now let’s talk about packaging a file. So packaging a file is a greatway to finish off a project. You have your file, you have all ofyour images, you have all of your fonts. And at this point, you probably won’t need any of the old files that you createdin order to get to the final design. This is also useful if you’rea freelancer and want to, and you’re doing a yearly review oryou’re saving all of your files and putting them away onyour backup hard drive. In order to package a file, head over File> Package, and here we have a summary.

print designer So you want to make sure thatthere are no errors here. There are 13 fonts being used,links in the images, we have 13 links found,zero modify zero missing. And then it says,12 images are using RGB color space. So because this magazine was onlyused online and not printed. That’s why I have RGB color space. So always keep in mind that, if you’re using CMYK that youhave the images in CMYK there. Here you can go more intodetail to check the fonts, link and images and then click Package. We have to save the publicationone more time, click on Save. And now we have to choosewhere we want save it. print designer

I want to rename this package withthe word package at the end, so I know what it is. And here we want to tick Copy Fonts,Copy Linked Graphics, and include an IDML file,which will allow you to open the InDesign file in previous versions of InDesign,not only CC. And include a PDF Print. And here, we can select the qualitythat we want to save it in. Click on Package, click OK. And now our file is being prepared. Let’s head over here to the desktop. And here we have our original folder andour package folder. So let’s see what’s in it. We have our two version three files idml,indd. We have a PDF file, which is exactlylike the one we just exported. print designer

We have our document fonts, and we haveall of the images that we’re using. Something that many designers doin order to send these files to a different designer, or to save it forarchive is compressing the file. So right click > Compress, and that is it. You can send this zipfile through Dropbox or any other file transfer service,and that’s it. In the next lesson,we will do a quick recap of everything we learned in thisbasics of print design course. I’ll see you there. Hi there, and welcome to the last partof this course, Basics of Print Design. In this video, we’re going torecap everything we’ve learned. Learning the basics ofprint design is important, if you’re starting your career asa designer, or you’re a season designer. print designer

In this course, we covered everythingfrom setting up different files, creating an effective workspace byadjusting your preferences, and setting up the structureof a design layout. Making sure you have the right elementsset up from the very beginning will only make your job easieras you develop a project. File organization is one of the mostimportant elements especially if you’re working as a freelancer. So we touched on what the essentialfolders you need to have. We also talked about color swatches andparagraph sales, these two elements can makeyour job a lot easier. And if you’re working with templates,these two are one of the most essential. print designer

Typography is a big topic in design, andwe covered a lot of it in this course. We managed to cover the must know rules,that you can apply your future projects. Working with images in InDesignneed a special attention if your file will be printed. So checking them in Photoshop to makesure that you have the highest quality possible will only ensurea smooth printing process. We also covered a few ways tocreate impact in your layout. Following rules is good practice. But breaking the rules can help youdiscover new and creative ways to design. So once you are a little bit morecomfortable with the rules, try pushing the boundaries little by little, soyou can also grow as a designer. print designer

We wrapped up this course by coveringthe key elements you need to check when you’re exporting a file,how to package a project for storage. In this course, we gave you many tipsthat you can take when you’re ready to work in a professional studio or as a freelancer, that will makeyour job a lot easier and smoother. From all of us at Envato,thank you for watching this course. We hope you enjoyed it andwill you in the next one.