Tuesday 11 October 2011

Mac Suite Workshop - InDesign

New document

Page size = finished, trimmed size
Columns, margins and bleed/slug are used for guides
Bleed prevents any white edges when trimmed - standard size is 3mm



Shortcuts

Cmd + Shift + > = Increase text size
The 'X' key switches between the fill and stroke

Swatches

Similarly to Photoshop, you are able to create new swatches in the options menu
All of the swatches you create in InDesign are already 'global' swatches
There is a link between the shape you applied a colour to and the colour itself therefore if the swatch is altered, all of the shapes using this colour also change




Tints

You can create tints of a particular swatch by going to the options menu
If the original swatch is altered, all other tints change accordingly




Pantone

Similarly to Photoshop and Illustrator, you can create pantone swatches in the same colour swatch window which tints can also be applied to
You can select a colour manually or enter a specific reference number




Placing artwork

Although Photoshop must be used for photographic imagery, Illustrator has much more flexbility

Photoshop

Before placing Photoshop artwork into an InDesign document, it must be:
  • CMYK or Greyscale
  • 300 dpi
  • Actual size
  • Saved as .tiff's or .psd's
With a .psd file, certain elements can have transparency whereas this cannot be achieved with .tiff's.

Illustrator (size and resolution is irrelevant)

It must be:
  • CMYK
  • Saved as .ai
  • .. and that's it
You can place images by going to File > Place. When a duotone image is placed into InDesign, the spot colours are automatically added to the swatch window




Illustrator artwork

Only the artwork is placed
Transparency is imported by default but can be changed in the import options window


File management

Keep the InDesign document and all linked artwork together to avoid missing links
If the original artwork is changed, InDesign will automatically update
Alt + double click opens the original artwork in Photoshop/Illustrator according to its file format




A .tiff image will automatically open up in 'preview' but can be changed by going to the image > Right click > Get info > Open With and change to Adobe Photoshop.



Applying a spot colour to a greyscale image (duotone)

After importing a greyscale image, you are able to add a spot colour by selecting the circle which appears when you hover over the image itself (below)
In the fill option of the swatches window, you can choose a specific spot colour




Separations

A document is separated into each 'colour' - process and spot
In the 'output' option of the print window, the default colour output is 'composite grey' 
By choosing 'separations', you are able to see how many plates are needed to print the document as the colours are now separated into C, M, Y and K aswell as any other spot colours 






This can also be accessed by going to Window > Output > Separations Preview
You can see individual separations by 'hiding' other separations






Spot colours from other InDesign documents will appear on all others
Any unused spot colours must be deleted before going to print as there may be additional costs
Only one spot colour (and black) is needed for the image below therefore all others should be removed



Knock out

When two colours overlap, one 'knocks out' the other (below)
This saves on ink and prevents the two inks from mixing and producing another colour
As black ink is so dense, this overprints and therefore does not apply to this default setting






Overprint fill

2 colours are able to make a third by using the 'overprint fill' option
This can be accessed by going to Window > Output > Attributed
The separations preview shows that the full colour is printed




Maximum ink limit

In the separations preview window, you are able to see whether you have exceeded the maximum ink limit by changing 'Separations' to 'Ink limit' - a red/pink colour will appear





I found the following example of overprint online:




No comments:

Post a Comment