InDesign CS4 Introduction

Start publishing your own books, magazines, brochures, and more.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 62 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Welcome to Knowledge Cities in Design CS4 online video training. This course will teach students the page layout software program used by professional graphic artists to create ads, business cards brochures, data sheets, postcards, newsletters, magazines, books, posters, CD covers, and so much more. This course will help students understand and format type, import images, use layers, save styles, create tables, utilize color palettes and libraries, and apply keyboard shortcuts. We will also cover typography and publishing terms, basic design principles, and how to manage process and spot colors. Students will examine and learn how to troubleshoot and package digital files for output to service bureaus, commercial printers, and or a destination publication. Indesign is the workhorse program of the graphic industry. It is a large program that can do multi-page documents, anything from a one-page to an 800-page document. What happens in the industry, you will start with Photoshop, take your image and correct the resolution and the size for your InDesign document, then you would move on to Illustrator and do the same thing, create your illustration, making sure that it is going to be the correct size for InDesign, and then move on to InDesign and start building your document by importing your images and then also your text. InDesign is not an image software program, it is not designed to resize images. That's why it's important that you always work with Photoshop in Illustrator to make sure that they are the correct size to begin with. So when you move to InDesign, it saves you a couple steps rather than having to go back to Photoshop and InDesign to correct your images for your current document. My name is Liz LeBland. I have been teaching the Adobe Creative Suite line of products for the last 10 years. I also have a production background previous to that. With the production background, that gives me the ability to take a file that would come from a designer, correct it for production, see it through the production process and output at the final end, the desired product for the customer. That gives me a great knowledge of how to create all different types of products. I have done a business card, to a music CD, to coffee mugs, to t-shirts, and everything else you can think of in between. So I have a vast production knowledge of all different types of products that need to be produced. And that gives me the expertise to help you through this introductory course of Adobe InDesign. Now let's get started.

Beginner Provider : Liz LaBlond 13 chapters · 62 Lessons · 5h 17m in Arabic, English, Spanish

Course Description

Learn to use Adobe InDesign, the popular program of publishing professionals. This course begins with the basics of setting up multipage documents and explains how to create text and graphic documents using Adobe's desktop publishing software. Start producing sophisticated layouts with typeset headings, text, and graphic images. Learn to use professional graphic design, layout, typography, and typesetting techniques. This course also discusses how to properly prepare work to be sent to the service bureau or production house. Start here and learn InDesign from cover to cover.

What You'll Learn

Set up multipage documents in Adobe InDesign, including new documents, pages, layers, rulers, and guides
Create text and graphic documents combining typeset headings, text, and graphic images
Apply professional typography and typesetting techniques using paragraph and character styles, glyphs, tabs, columns, and paragraph rules
Work with text frames and graphic frames, including importing and linking text and transforming, aligning, and grouping objects
Refine documents using spell check and find/change tools
Prepare finished work to be sent to a service bureau or production house

Key Takeaways

The course teaches Adobe InDesign, a desktop publishing program used by publishing professionals.
It covers InDesign from the basics of setting up multipage documents through producing sophisticated layouts with typeset headings, text, and graphic images.
It includes professional graphic design, layout, typography, and typesetting techniques.
It explains how to properly prepare work to be sent to a service bureau or production house.
It addresses style sheets, covering applying, editing, paragraph, and character styles.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

It is designed for those who want to learn Adobe InDesign, the publishing program used by publishing professionals, from cover to cover, starting with the basics.

What does this InDesign course cover?

It covers setting up multipage documents, creating text and graphic documents, producing layouts with typeset headings, text, and graphic images, and using professional graphic design, layout, typography, and typesetting techniques. It also discusses preparing work to be sent to a service bureau or production house.

What skills will I gain from this course?

Skills associated with this course include Adobe InDesign, Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, Adobe PageMaker, graphic design, and preparation toward Adobe Certified Professional and Adobe InDesign Certification.

Do I need prior InDesign experience to take this course?

The course begins with the basics, including setting up documents, pages, layers, rulers, and guides, and teaches InDesign from cover to cover.

What topics are taught around text and styles?

The course covers importing and linking text, text and graphic frames, paragraph and character styles, spell check, find/change, glyphs, tabs, columns, and applying and editing style sheets.