Using Adobe InDesign  Short Courses

This course will cover the key functionality of Adobe InDesign CS5.5, the industry-standard design and publishing program, as well as the techniques associated with laying out text and graphics for professional publication. Participants gain an appreciation of the fundamentals of typography, page layout and other page design principles; they are shown how to apply these principles using InDesign, thereby gaining hands on experience in the art of successful page layouts.

Course Information

Start DateStart TimeDurationCostCourse CodeApply
Monday 16 January 2012 18:30 - 20:30 10 weekly classes £320.00 CE1508 Course Cancelled
Monday 23 April 2012 18:30 - 20:30 10 weekly classes £320.00 CE1508 Course Cancelled

Tutor Info

Jack Towner has been a graphic designer and illustrator for six years. As a freelancer, he has worked for clients including Siemens, the NHS and Pearson Publishing. He has taught Adobe Creative Suite courses at Westminster Adult Education Service and at other private learning providers, and has recently completed a City and Guilds in Teaching in the Life Long Learning sector. In his spare time he also animates and paints.

Eligibility

Working knowledge of the Windows or Macintosh interface.

What will I learn?

  • The InDesign working Environment: how to open & view files, make use of the pasteboard, manipulate the Document Window
  • Toolbox: Selection Tool, color controls, hand tool, rotation tool, the Direct Selection Tool, Eyedropper Tool
  • Navigation: how to move around your document using the pages palette, view menu, page keys, layout menu, scrolling and the navigator palette
  • Layers: how to use and reposition Layers, lock and organize layers
  • Constructing a new document: including how to change document preferences and create a custom start up page
  • Master Pages: creation, editing, footers, headers, guides, grids, application and overriding master page items on document pages
  • Type: Creating, colouring, editing, alignment plus essential typography tips and techniques
  • Duplicating items
  • Graphic Frames: Modifying graphics within frames, manipulating and editing the frame and its contents both separately and together
  • Text Frames: creating, importing, editing, overflowing text, dynamic spelling, spell checking text, creating text in columns  and the manipulation of text frames
  • Creating solid objects
  • Anchor Points: Understanding Bezier curves, selecting, manipulating, adding and deleting anchor points and their direction lines
  • Drawing shapes with pre-set tools
  • Wrapping text around a graphic object
  • Styles: Paragraph, character and object styles
  • Aligning objects
  • Colour: Understanding CMYK colour and Pantone Solid Colour system for print. RGB colour for s. Creating colours in the Swatches palette, applying colours to objects and using stroke & fill attributes. Also how to view the separate print/ink plates on screen
  • Working with gradients: Creating, editing and adjusting a gradient
  • Transparency: Changing the opacity of a solid object or graphic, applying blending modes, creating a drop shadow
  • Printing & exporting: PDFs, preflight, packaging files for printers and fixing problems
  • Considering design in page layouts: what do graphics say?; face-ism Ratio; the golden ratio; grid-based design.

Application Deadline: