More InDesign Fun

Although I have said in my previous Illustrator post that Illustrator is the most difficult program, many would say it is InDesign that is the most confusing and difficult. And I can definitely see where they are coming from with this mindset. Starting out with this program was pretty hard. I had a professor my freshman year in college who was literally obsessed with Indesign so he would always make us use it. Me being a freshman who had never used this program viewed it as very boring and hard to use. I did think the other programs were hard too because of my lack of knowledge of them, I just viewed them as more of fun programs which Indesign most definitely was not. 

Learning about the program really showed my the appeal of this program. After using it for about three years now I can see why my professor was so passionate about it. You cant really finish a project without it! If you are designing a poster you do not want to just print from Illustrator or Photoshop. You would never know if it will print the right size or where the page ends on the document and where the ink will end. 

Probably one of the top features that should be utilized in Indesign is the very basics of setting up the initial document. Usually when you just open the Indesign program you are given the option to customize your page size. Make sure to do this! This will cut down you time in half if you have already designed what you want to print in other programs. You just have to define you print size, such as standard letter size or tabloid. It also gives you options to create a bleed. A bleed is just allowing the item to be printed farther then the actual print size so you don't have awkward looking lines and placements. This bleed is also accompanied by crops, which you are able to turn on once you export the item. This is good to used so when the item is printed you are able to cut off the bleed section by following these crop marks. This way you are left with nice pristine line!