Getting Started


After you come up with a design, expect it to evolve over time. Styles change, and so does your content. So don't be afraid to try different techniques over the months and years ‚ just make sure that you're not making changes willy-nilly, for change's sake.

The key to a successful layout is planning, a rule that matches the InDesign approach to design. You don't just start doing a layout in InDesign. Instead, you start building the foundation of your document ‚ the page size and columns , the paragraph and character styles, the standard elements such as page numbers and logos ‚ to serve as a receptacle for the content. The idea is that most content you create is a variation on a theme. For example, if you produce a magazine, each issue is different, but the basic design structure is the same from month to month. Rather than start each month from scratch, you start with a template and modify it each month as necessary. The same approach works for newspapers, catalogs, brochures , newsletters, and books.

Visualizing your layout

Even before you build your basic structure, you need a mental image of what your document will be. Have no fear ‚ nothing is cast in stone. If you change your mind as you work on your first document, you can modify your structure. Having an initial structure in mind before starting, however, helps immensely.

Sketching your layout on paper

How do you start to develop a layout plan? If you're still thinking about what the pages should look like, you can develop some more-specific ideas by spending a few minutes sketching out the layout before you sit down to produce the document on the computer.

Using the dummy approach

Let's say you want to create an eight-page newsletter that has standard, 8 1 / 2 -by-11-inch pages. One way to do this is to create a dummy document, a valuable layoutplanning aid. Figure 39-5 shows a sample dummy ‚ the cover and the first two pages.


Figure 39-5: A pencil-sketch dummy lets you think through the basic structure quickly and easily.

Here's how to create a dummy:

  1. Take two sheets of blank, 8 1 / 2 -by-11-inch paper, aligning one on top of the other, and folding them in half across the width of the paper.

    This technique gives you a miniature version of your eight-page newsletter.

  2. Use a pencil to sketch the dummy's masthead, the cover art and/or stories, and the running headers or footers for each page.

  3. Form an idea about how wide you want the top, side, and bottom margins to be, and mark them on the pages.

  4. Indicate which pictures and stories go on each page.

    Of course, because you will be using InDesign to format the document, you can make changes right up to the point when you produce camera-ready pages.

Here are some conventions to remember as you make your sketches :

  • A down arrow means the story continues on another page, while a # symbol means the story ends.

  • Horizontal lines usually indicate titles, bylines, and other such specific text elements, while vertical lines indicate a column of text.

  • A box with an X through it indicates a picture or photo.

  • The abbreviation pq means a pull-quote ‚ text that is taken from the article and put in a box or other shape to draw attention, similar to a photo.

  • A screen is a background of color or gray ink.

You can see from Figure 39-5 that the basic layout structure is three columns, with a self-contained front page that has a small table of contents and interior pages that put the masthead (the list of staff) and a viewpoint column on the second page. The third page has two stories, which of course may not start exactly where indicated on the sketch. The point is, merely, that multiple stories can appear on a page.

Taking the next step

You should find all this planning ‚ which actually doesn't take that much time in relation to the other publishing tasks involved ‚ to be time well spent. The process of sketching out the layout helps clarify your thoughts about the basic layout of your document. You can make preliminary decisions about such things as where to put each illustration and section of text on a page, how many columns of text to use, and whether to use any repeating elements (such as headers and footers).

Sketching your layout in InDesign

If you're already comfortable using InDesign, you may decide to forgo the paper-and-pencil sketching of a new document and use InDesign to do the rough design instead. The obvious advantages to this approach are as follows :

  • You can experiment with different approaches. When a document has a set number of text and graphic elements, you can use InDesign to make a series of sketches of the document. If you like, you can save each sketch as a separate file with a distinct filename. In each sketch, you can use different element positioning, type styles, masthead placement, and so on. Then you can print a copy of each file and use the copies to assist you in finalizing the look of the layout.

  • You can print thumbnail views. If you're considering many different layout possibilities, you can develop them quickly in InDesign and then print the series in thumbnail (miniature) size (select File Print, and then check the Thumbnails box in the Setup pane's Options section, as shown in Figure 39-6). You can also set the number of thumbnails per page using the Per Page pop-up menu. Seeing the pages in thumbnail view makes it easier to evaluate the overall balance between page elements, because you aren't distracted by the text or the graphics in such a reduced view.


    Figure 39-6: Checking Thumbnails in the Setup pane of the Print dialog box lets you print miniature versions of your pages.

  • You can get your client's approval. Printed InDesign copies of rough sketches have a cleaner look, which is especially helpful if you're designing a layout for a client. The advantage to presenting rough sketches that look more "final" is that it tends to make the client approval process go more smoothly, and it can make it easier for you to sell the client on your design. At the same time, slick-looking rough drafts do have a disadvantage : They make it more difficult for clients to understand that what they're seeing is just a rough draft and not a final copy.




Adobe InDesign CS Bible
Adobe InDesign CS3 Bible
ISBN: 0470119381
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 344
Authors: Galen Gruman

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