Postcard Announcing an Exhibit

One of the most common ways to announce an exhibit is to create a postcard with samples of the work and pertinent information. We will create a postcard announcing a fictitious exhibit (or a real one if you have one coming up:) using InDesign. Before we begin:
a. Download this archive - ind0002archive.sit - 1.5MB - The text and images in this archive cannot be used for other purposes.
b. Drag the fonts over the System Folder to install them.
You’re ready to go!
1. Open InDesign. Go to the Apple Menu at the top left corner of your screen. Pull down to the Design Applications folder and choose InDesign from the list.
2. Create a new document. Go to the FILE menu and choose NEW. In the New dialog, set the number of pages to 2, and leave the Facing Pages box checked. Set the paper size to 5.5 inches wide and 3.5 inches tall, landscape orientation. Set all margins to 0 inches. Leave the number of columns at 1. Click the OK button to continue.

3. Your document window will appear. You will want to zoom out a bit to work more comfortably. Select the Zoom tool from the toolbar. Hold down the Option button and click in the window to zoom out. Double-clicking the Zoom tool will automatically zoom to 100%. Zoom out until you can see both of your document pages.
4. Zoom to 100% on the first page. Select the Selection tool (insert icon). Click in page 1 to make it active.
5. Go to the FILE menu and choose PLACE. Find the postcard folder and choose hands.tif. Click the Open button. The cursor will change to the place picture cursor. Move the cursor so that it is at the upper left corner of the document. Click to place the image.
6. The image is too large. Select the Scale tool. Hold down the Shift key to constrain proportions and drag the bottom right handle until the bottom edge of the image is in line with the bottom of the document.

7. Save your document. Go to the FILE menu and choose Save. Name your document postcard.indd and save it to the postcard folder. The .indd extension will allow your document to be opened in the PC version of InDesign and will help you keep track of what type of file it is.
8. Now, we need to place our text. Select the TEXT tool. Draw a text box in the space to the right of the image. Be sure to leave a bit of white space between box and the image and edges of the document.
9. Go to the FILE menu and choose PLACE again. This time, select postcardinfo.txt. Click the Open button.
10. Your text will appear in the text box. We need to play around with the formatting of the text to make it more suitable for our postcard.

11. Select the text using the text tool. Open the Character palette. Select Apple Chancery as the font and set the size to 10 pt. Set the style to Chancery.
12. You can adjust the sizes of the items to make certain information more prominent. Select the title and major information of the exhibit. Set the size to 12 pt. Keep the statement at 10 pt.
13. Save again.
14. Click on the page 2 document area to activate it.
15. Now we need place the second image. Go to the FILE menu and choose PLACE. Select leda.tif and click the Open button. Click the mouse in the upper left corner to place the image.
16. This image needs to be rotated, scaled, and cropped. It’s easier than it sounds!
17. Double-click the Rotate tool to bring up a rotate dialog. Enter 90 for the angle and click OK.

18. Select the scale tool. Scale the image proportionally so that the entire document area is covered.

19. Select the Selection tool and adjust the image box boundaries to the edges of the document area.
20. Use the Direct Selection tool to move the image within the image box (a form of cropping).
You now have both sides of your postcard.
21. Save your file again.
We are going to print the file.
22. Go to the CHOOSER (Apple Menu > Chooser). Select AdobePS for the extension and HP LaserJet 8000 Series as the printer. Go back to InDesign.
23. Go to the FILE menu and choose PRINT. In the Print dialog box, pull down the Advanced Page Controls menu until you find Page Marks. Check the boxes for Crop Marks, and Registration Marks. Click the Print button when done.
If you want to create a mock-up, cut on the crop marks and put the postcard together.

Posted in InDesign