InDesignSecrets-020 Podcast Episode

14 Responses discussing this post. Add yours below.

1. Mike Klassen

   May 26th, 2006 • 3:03 am • Link

   You mentioned another InDesign conference coming up in our backyard of Seattle, but didn’t give a website or more info to register other than a date. Is there more info you can pass along?

2. Bryan Zimmerman

   May 26th, 2006 • 1:39 pm • Link

   Hi gang!

   I am just getting into the design field, (6 more months to graduation!) and would like to find a good book or web site that focuses exclusively on page layout. I do a lot of “How Do I” type articles for work, and am going to redesign all of them in InDesign. I just want to make sure I set everything up correctly from the get go. I own the book that you authored, and it has come in handy more than once, but I really need a structured page layout book preferably using InDesign for examples.

   Podcast # 20 rocked! I loved the interviews and the trick for knocking out text within InDesign. Keep up the great work!

3. Michael Murphy

   May 26th, 2006 • 2:24 pm • Link

   Jim Krause’s Layout Index and Design Basics Index are excellent, easy to read books dedicated entirely to the fundamentals of layout and design, respectively. For InDesign-specific information on page layout, David Blatner and Olav Martin Kvern’s Real World InDesign CS2 is probably the most comprehensive, in-depth resoure out there. It covers all aspects of InDesign, however, not just layout. I suggest a balance of something like the Jim Krause books, which discuss layout outside fo the context of any specific application, along with the InDesign User Guide (more helpful than you might think!) and an in-depth third-party book like David and Olav’s.

   The best advice I could give is to give priority to the fundamentals over the software. You can always push the software to give you what you want, but it’s striving for what’s in your head that matters more than selecting options from an application’s menus.

4. David

   May 26th, 2006 • 2:55 pm • Link

   Thanks Mike and Bryan. I have updated the post above to show the link to The InDesign Conference site.

   I like Michael Murphy’s ideas; I also like Robin Williams’ Nondesigners Design Book (and others by her and John Tollett) for design ideas.

5. Anne-Marie

   May 26th, 2006 • 3:05 pm • Link

   I would’ve included the link to the InDesign Conference page when I wrote the show notes, but when I checked, there was nothing posted about the Seattle show yet and thought it might be confusing (still nothing there as I write this).

   But I’m sure as soon as Barry recovers from the Chicago marathon he’ll be putting up info on the Seattle show on that page. So thanks for the update work David!

6. Anne-Marie

   May 26th, 2006 • 3:14 pm • Link

   I also highly recommend John McWade’s two books, Before & After and Before & After Graphics for Business. Both highly rated on Amazon by users in the same situation as you, Brian. His magazine and web site are also quite useful: http://www.bamagazine.com/

   And if you ever think of striking out on your own as a full-time freelancer, Cameron Foote’s The Creative Business Guide to Running a Graphic Design Business is essential… and a great read.

7. Bryan Zimmerman

   May 26th, 2006 • 9:05 pm • Link

   Wow!!

   Thanks for all of the input. What a great community this is! I will definitely check out all of the resources you provided.

   Thanks again! You guys are the best!

   Bryan

8. Mike Klassen

   May 26th, 2006 • 11:06 pm • Link

   Let me second the recommendation on the two Before & After books and the magazine. You won’t find any filler there.

9. Mike Klassen

   May 26th, 2006 • 11:07 pm • Link

   Thanks for the conference link. I’ll be watching that site like a hawk.

10. Andrew Stewart

    May 27th, 2006 • 3:04 pm • Link

    Hi,

    I’d like some information on creating custom drop caps.

    I’d like to create a drop cap that is, say, reversed out text with a coloured square surround. So far I’ve created a cap with a ‘fat’ offset underline sitting behind the letter but this does not give the exact effect I want i.e. it does not sit on the baseline properly.

    Quite a difficult one to describe! Any suggestions?

11. Scott Citron

    May 28th, 2006 • 12:20 am • Link

    Hey Guys:
    Loved hearing Pam’s comments. She sounded like a real journalist! Great job. Looking forward to more “man in the street” interviews.

    Scott

12. Shawn Young

    June 25th, 2006 • 8:24 pm • Link

    Great tip on placing a Photoshop PDF to retain crisp text! Sometimes when looking at all the PDF’s within a job I forget which ones are editable in Photoshop (made in Photoshop). To simplify this I sometimes save my Photoshop document as a Photoshop PDF with a .pdp extension instead of .pdf. It still opens with Acrobat, still is editable in Photoshop, places with sharp text and let’s me distinguish between Photoshop PDF’s and PDF’s made by other programs. Do you forsee any issues with doing it this way? Thanks!

    Shawn

13. E. Lisette Gerald-Yamasaki

    July 20th, 2006 • 1:31 am • Link

    Love the podcasts, keep it up! Thanks for mentioning the obscure Browse command. The only use I’ve found for it is when I want to create a new ID file from a template. In other apps that option has been under File > Open, but in ID, it’s Browse. Am I missing something? Any other use you know of?

14. Anne-Marie

    July 20th, 2006 • 12:06 pm • Link

    interesting … in the podcast, we talked about how the Browse command is used to open Adobe Bridge (or bring it to the front if it’s already running). You can use Browse to locate your InDesign templates in Bridge, see a preview of all their pages, and open them from there — but File > Open can open templates too.