Magazine Design 2

Step 1

Open the Adobe InDesign publication file we saved from the second part of the tutorial. Go to the back cover (page 4) and use the Text tool to add a title using the same font we used for the titles on page 3. I used Rosewood. Creating two separate text boxes enables us to move each line to where we want with a Selection tool, instead of having to move it word-processor style.

Step 2

Go to File>Place and select the Word document, Spreading Joy.doc. Instead of clicking-and-dragging a text box, just click somewhere and the entire article will be placed. Move it so it’s over the photo like shown here.

Step 3

Select the photo of the woman blowing the bubbles. Open the Text Wrap palette (Window>Text Wrap). Click the third-from-left option at the top so the text will wrap around our photo. Normally the text will wrap around the entire photo. But since this photo is overexposed and has a lot of white area in it we can have text, let’s have the text wrap more specifically around the subject in the photo instead of the entire photo. Change the Contour Options to Detect Edges.

Step 4

This causes the text to wrap around the woman.

Step 5

Draw two circles using the Ellipse tool (hold Shift to make perfect circles). Select them with the Selection tool and add a text wrap on the Text Wrap palette. Select the third-from-left option at the top. We also want to get rid of the lines where only a word or two is, on the right side of the woman. So move the photo over to the right a little bit to push the text out of that area.

Step 6

One downside of using the Detect Edges County Option on the Text Wrap palette is that it may allow text into areas you don’t want it to be. For the photo of the woman blowing bubbles, the white area shown here has let an “a” letter in there.

Step 7

Let’s fix that. One way to do that is to create an object-such as a circle here-and add a text wrap to it on top of the area we don’t want text.

Step 8

Let’s add a pull quote to one of the articles. Go to page 2 and off to the side use the Text tool to add a quote. Change the font size of the actual quote and have the source of the quote be a smaller font size.

Step 9

Add a text wrap to this text box, using the same option as the other text wraps.

Step 10

Next, click-and-drag the text box with the Selection tool over an area of text. Placing it on the edge somewhere prevents it from creating awkward short text sections such as would happen with placing it slightly off the side of the page.

There’s a little too much white space here between the pull quote and the article. Fix that by clicking-and-dragging the sides of the text wrap. You can move the line or just a corner. This enables the text to get closer to the pull quote.

Now we’ve created a four-page publication and learned a few techniques in the process. Try creating a newsletter, portfolio, or magazine with the same tools we’ve used here.

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Posted in InDesign

Magazine Design

Step 1

Open InDesign and go to File>New or click the Create New File icon on the welcome screen. Set the settings shown here, all the default settings, except set it to 4 pages.

Step 2

Let’s set up the master pages. That way we can add a header and page numbers automatically. Double-click on the A-Master icon on the top of the Pages pull-out palette to open up the master pages.

Step 3

In the lower-left hand corner of the left master page, click-and-drag with the Text tool to drag out a text box for the page number.

Step 4

Go to Type>Insert Special Character> Auto Page Number. [if you are using InDesign CS3 the menu is a bit different: Type> Insert Special Character >Markers>Current Page Number.]

Step 5

This will insert an automated page number so you don’t have to number each page. Change the size (and style if you want) of the font to an appropriate one for you publication.
[Note: Additionally, you could also place text (like the word 'page' or '#' symbol) in front of the page number and it would be continued throughout all pages using the master page template.]

Step 6

Select the Selection tool. Hold down Option (PC: Alt) and click-and-drag the text box that has the automatic page number in it over to the right page to create another instance of the Auto Page Number. I placed the text box on the right side page on the lower right hand corner.

Step 7

If you put the text boxes for the page numbers in the same locations as I chose to, it should look something like this.

Step 8

Page numbers are not the only objects to put onto the master pages. And all the objects don’t have to be automatically updated objects, either. You can add photos, text, or shapes and they’ll be on every page. For this tutorial, add just a simple title at the top of each page by clicking-and-dragging out a text box along the top.

Step 9

Open the Paragraph palette and click the center justify icon to center the text after highlighting it. Up in the Control palette, change the tracking to 600 to spread out the spacing of the text to spread out the title. The Tracking setting icon is an uppercase AV with directional arrows underneath it.

Step 10

Open Adobe Illustrator, create a New Document and go to File>Place to place the japanese_flag.gif file.

Step 11

After clicking on the placed file with a Selection tool, click on the down arrow next to Live Trace up on the Control palette to pull down the options. Click on Tracing Options. Change the settings to the ones shown here; pretty much a basic black and white trace. Click Trace to apply the trace.

Step 12

Press Expand up on the Control palette.

Step 13

Next, Deselect the image. Then, using the Direct Selection tool, click on the white areas of the placed image. Press Delete to remove the white areas. Be sure you are using the Direct Selection tool, the white arrowed one, and not the Selection tool, the black arrowed one, which would select then entire object instead of the clicked object (the white area) of the greater expanded object.

Step 14

With the Direct Selection tool, click on the black object and click on the black and white gradient in the Swatches palette (Windows>Swatches).

Step 15

Change the direction of the gradient to a diagonal slant by selecting the Gradient tool and then clicking-and-dragging form the bottom right to the upper left of the object.

Step 16

Next, click-and-drag a color from the Swatches palette to one end of the gradient on the Gradient palette (click on the gradient tab if the palette isn’t open). Click-and-drag another color to the opposite side of the gradient slider to add the other end of the gradient. I changed this one to red and white to keep with the Japanese theme.

Step 17

The object should look something like this. For the publication, we want more white area, so use the Gradient palette slider to have more white area.

Save it as an Illustrator.ai file for the next part of this tutorial. Save the InDesign file as well. With the second part, we’ll use this as a nice background for two pages of the publication. We’ll also add some new graphics and unique title text and complete the publication with the third part.

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Posted in InDesign

Magazine Cover Design

1 CREATE A NEW DOCUMENT WITH A BLEED
As usual we need a new document (File>New Document) to start. However, this time we’re going to do something a little different. Click the More Options button in the New Document dialog to expose the Bleed and Slug options. Almost all magazine covers bleed off the edge of the paper and we’re going to do just that. Turn off the Facing Pages option near the top and enter a 0.25″ Bleed for the Top, Right, and Bottom (click on the link icon to the right so you can enter different values in each field). Also add a 1.5″ slug at the bottom. Click OK to create your new page.

2 TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SLUGS
I recommend that you get into the habit of using the slug feature to store important information about the job itself. Think of the slug as a notes area that can be printed if needed. The one thing you’ll definitely want to put in this area for your magazine covers is the copyright information about the photo you’re using. Using your standard Type tool (T), you can include things such as photographer, phone number, email address, and usage rights to this area.

3 CREATE FRAME AND PLACE COVER PHOTO
Using the Rectangle Frame tool (F), create a frame that goes to the edge of your bleed area. The cover image is usually what draws the potential reader into picking up the magazine. Things like, “Who’s that?” “Wow, check out that car!” or “He’s/she’s hot!” come to mind. Once you have your frame, use the Place command either from the File menu or Bridge CS3 to place your best photo.

PHOTO CREDIT: TERRY WHITE
4 MAKE IT FIT
Unless you went into Photoshop prior to this step to size your photo, chances are it came in either too big or too small for your frame. What makes matters even worse is that it’s probably the wrong aspect ratio too. You want your image to fill the frame without distorting, so choose Fill Frame Proportionally from the Object>Fitting menu. While this will definitely fill the frame, it doesn’t mean that it will position the image exactly where you want it. Switch to the Direct Selection tool (A) and then you’ll be able to position the image to your taste.

5 CREATE YOUR MASTHEAD
The problem with this particular photo is that there’s no headroom. Photographers are often told to keep the headroom to a minimum in portrait photography. So in this case, we definitely need the masthead to be on top of the photo as opposed to behind it, with the head slightly overlapping it for effect. Create a text frame with the Type tool and key in the name of your publication. If your publication is established, then you probably already have the proper font, size, and kerning values; however, if you’re just starting out, then you’ll want to give your font choice some thought.

6 CHOOSE FONT AND KERN
Aside from your photo, the name of the publication is the next thing that people look at. So clearly it needs to be big, but it also needs to look good. Unless you’re using a script font, chances are your font will need to be kerned at the larger size. I’m using a chunky grunge font at 150 pt and tracking set to –10 in the Control panel. I also individually kerned each letter by eye for a better balance. (Tip: To change the kerning, insert your cursor between two letters and use your Option [PC: Alt] key in conjunction with your Arrow keys.)

7 ADD DATE, VOLUME INFO, AND GRAPHIC
Now it’s time to put in the particulars about this issue. Usually that means the Month/Year and maybe either the volume number or the website address. In either case, you’ll want to create these in a separate text frame from your masthead for easy positioning. Don’t worry about font color at this point; we’ll get to that in a moment. You can also add a graphic element to anchor your masthead. I chose a rectangular paint smear created in Illustrator and placed it (File>Place) behind my masthead information (Object>Arrange>Send Backward) for more pop.

8 YOUR LEAD STORY
When you see someone on a magazine cover, you want to know why he or she is on the cover, so you need a teaser. This is the story that’s going to make people buy the magazine, thus this copy should be larger than any other teasers. Create a text frame with the Type tool in an area that will have the least impact on your main photo. Type your teaser in a nice large font, and never use the same font that you used for the masthead—it’s all about contrast. (Be sure to turn off the Hyphenate option in the Paragraph Control panel.) Experiment with different font sizes and combinations of upper- and lowercase words.

9 BORROW SWATCHES FROM ILLUSTRATOR CS3
Before we go much further, we need some color swatches to start applying color to our text. If you’re good at picking colors, then you can just go ahead and create your swatches in InDesign. Truth be told, I struggle when it comes to picking colors, so I’m going to let Illustrator create my swatches for me. Open Illustrator CS3 and create a new Print document. Go to the Swatches panel and choose Select All Unused from the flyout menu. Now click the Trash icon to remove them.

10 CREATE MATCHING COLORS AUTOMATICALLY
Place the same cover photo you used in InDesign into your page in Illustrator. Draw a box off to the side with the Rectangle tool (M). Now take the Eyedropper (I) and sample a color in your photo (in this example, the lips). If you bring up the Color Guide panel, you’ll now have a set of swatches that all work well with each other. (Tip: Click on the drop-down menu at the top of the Color Guide panel to view different Harmony Rules.) Choose Save Colors as Swatches from the Color Guide flyout menu to add those swatches to your Illustrator Swatches panel.

11 EXPORT/IMPORT SWATCHES
Lastly, choose Save Swatch Library as ASE from the Swatches flyout menu and choose a name and location to save your swatches. Back in InDesign, choose Load Swatches from the Swatches panel’s flyout menu and open the ones you just saved. You can now apply these “matching” colors to your text by simply selecting your text with the Type tool and then clicking the swatch you want to use. I also changed the color of the masthead element to tie it all together. Just Control-click (PC: Right-click) on the element and choose Edit Original to open and edit it in Illustrator.

12 THE DROP SHADOW TRICK
Applying different colors to your type often makes it easier to read against a photo in the background; however, designers use another trick to make their text stand out even more. Yes, it’s time for a drop shadow. The trick here is to apply a shadow with a hard edge that’s just slightly offset from the original text. Select your text frame with the Selection tool, and go to Object>Effects>Drop Shadow. Turn on Preview, and set the Size to 0 and your Offset to a small fraction, in this case .004″. Click OK when you like it. It looks great applied to the story titles as well.

13 ADD MORE STORIES AND A PHOTO
I prefer one main photo on my covers, but if you need to put another photo on the page, you’ll want it to be seen, but not overpower the main photo. One way to get around this is to use shapes tools to help hold your smaller photos. You can draw a shape with the Pen tool (P), fill it with color, and then lower its transparency (Object>Effects>Transparency). To see how your cover is going to look printed, go into Preview mode. You can enter/exit Preview mode (as long as you’re not in the Type tool) by pressing the letter W on your keyboard.

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Posted in InDesign

Create Smart Contact Sheets

1 YOU’LL NEED A FOLDER OF IMAGES
First, you’ll need to have a folder of images that are in a format that InDesign can place. Luckily, InDesign can place a variety of different formats, such as PSD, TIFF, JPEG, etc. However, if you’re a photographer used to working in Adobe Camera Raw, you’ll need to convert those Camera Raw/DNG files into another format.

2 TAKE IT TO BRIDGE
As you can see in our example, having a folder full of images doesn’t always mean that you can see what they actually look like. That’s where Adobe Bridge CS3 comes in. If you’re new to InDesign, don’t start looking for your discs…you already have Bridge. It’s in your Applications folder or you can just choose Browse from the File menu in InDesign. Also, if Bridge is in your Dock on the Mac, you can simply drag your folder of images right on top of the Dock icon to launch Bridge and switch to that folder to view.

3 CHECK OUT THE METADATA
As you can see, my filenames don’t tell much—they don’t mean anything to me and probably mean even less to you! So we need more than _TLW9886.psd. I’m not a fan of long filenames either, so instead of trying to describe your files by their filenames, we’ll use the Title and Description areas of the Metadata panel instead. Select one of your images and click the Metadata tab in Bridge.

4 ADD SOME METADATA
Scroll down to the IPTC Core area of the Metadata tab. Each of the IPTC tags with a pencil icon to the right of it can be edited so you can describe what’s going on with your images (unlike a filename). Click on an image, then just click on the pencil and enter the Title, Description, City, State, Country, etc. When you’re done, click on the next image. The first time you do this, you’ll get a dialog where you can click the Apply and Don’t Show Again checkboxes. Enter titles and descriptions for the other images in your folder.

5 SET UP YOUR CONTACT SHEET
Now that you’ve entered some metadata for your images, you’re now ready to create a contact sheet from Bridge CS3. Select the images you want to be in your contact sheet and choose Tools>InDesign>Create InDesign Contact Sheet. The first part of the setup is pretty straightforward. In the Layout section, choose how you want your page arranged, including the number of Columns and Rows you want to display on the page. For our example, we’ve selected only four images and we want to maximize the space on the page, so we chose 2 Columns and 2 Rows on our 8.5×11″ page.

6 MORE THAN A FILENAME
By default, Bridge will use the image’s filename as the caption under each image it places in InDesign, but we’ve already discovered that filenames don’t tell us much. Here’s where we can use the Title and Description info that we entered earlier. Click the Define button in the Caption section, then click on (var stands for variable) and click the Remove button. Also delete from the box below; otherwise it will be appended at the end—and we don’t want that.

7 ADD YOUR TITLE
Now choose Metadata from the Select From The List drop-down menu and click the Add button that’s immediately to the right of this menu. The Select a Metadata Element dialog opens showing all the available metadata fields. Choose Title and click OK to close this menu. Now click the Add button that’s immediately to the right of the Title tag you just added to the box.

8 ADD DESCRIPTION
Now we want to add our description. Once again choose Metadata in the Select From The List drop-down menu and click the Add button immediately to the right. This time, you want to choose Description from the available metadata list and click OK to close this dialog. Now click the Add button that’s immediately to the right of the Description tag you just added to the box. If you did it correctly, you’ll see a sample at the bottom of the dialog that shows your title and description. Click OK.

9 GENERATE CONTACT SHEET
At this point we have everything we need to generate our first “smart” contact sheet. Just click the OK button and let it run. InDesign will generate additional pages if needed, based on the number of images selected and the number of rows and columns.

10 MAKE CHANGES
Once you’re in InDesign, you have a regular InDesign document and you can edit any aspect of it that you want. What’s even better is that the Contact Sheet script also generated paragraph style sheets and object styles for the images and the captions. For example, say you don’t like the font choice for the “labels” paragraph style, then just bring up the Paragraph Styles panel (Window>Type & Tables>Paragraph Styles); double-click on “labels”; click on Basic Character Formats; and change the Font Family, Style, Size, etc.

11 IT’S KIND OF PLAIN
Although it’s extremely cool that InDesign can make a contact sheet automatically from images selected in Bridge, I don’t like how “plain Jane” it is. You can, of course, start adding other elements to the page and totally customize it; however, you probably don’t want to have to do that each time, so let’s build a template. Do the exact same steps as before but select only one image in Bridge, and then in the Contact Sheet dialog, choose 1 Column and 1 Row to display one image per page. Click OK to create your contact sheet in InDesign.

12 EDIT OBJECT STYLES
Now let’s convert your one-image-per-page document into the look that you want and save it as a template. First, modify the object styles so that the image is centered in the frame and the frame has a heavier stroke. Go to Window>Object Styles and double-click on “images.” In the Object Style Options dialog, click the Frame Fitting Options in the Basic Attributes list. Then, click the center Reference Point in the Alignment section and click OK. Next, double-click “imageFrames,” select Stroke in Basic Attributes and change the Weight to 2 or 3 pixels. I also set the Stroke for the captions object style to None.

13 SAVE IT AS A TEMPLATE
Change the labels paragraph style to the font you want. (I also added a signature name to the A-Master Page.) Once the document looks the way you want, clean it up before saving it as a template: Delete all the elements on the page, delete any extra pages, and delete the last three color swatches that were added to the Swatches panel. Then choose File>Save As and select InDesign CS3 Template in the Format drop-down menu. Now when you choose Tools>InDesign>Create InDesign Contact Sheet from Bridge, you can choose this new template and have your document formatted the way you like.

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Posted in InDesign