InDesign Tutorial #1

This first tutorial is intended to get you familiar with the basic settings for creating an InDesign document.

find the tutorial here

1. Create a new document (FILE menu > NEW > DOCUMENT) Use the following settings: Number of pages = 1. Uncheck Facing Pages – we’ll use this later when we create a multipage document such as a magazine. Page Size = Letter. Columns = 4. Gutter (the width between columns) = 1p0 (this is a typographic unit of measurement called Picas:1 Pica = 12 points, 6 Picas = 1 inch, 72 points = 1 inch). We’ll leave the margins at 3p0 or 1/2” for this tutorial.

2. There are 4 elements to this design: The headline, the horizontal rule below it, the text box and the graphic frame.  We’ll start at the top and work our down to the bottom.

3. Turn on the Baseline Grid – this is a series of evenly spaced horizontal guides – the default spacing is 1 pica or 12 points (this can be changed to whatever spacing we prefer, but we’ll leave it alone for this tutorial) go to the VIEW menu > GRIDS & GUIDES > SHOW BASELINE GRID. You’re SNAP TO GUIDES should be on by default. If it’s not go to VIEW menu > GRIDS & GUIDES > SNAP TO GUIDES.
4. Create a new text box. Click the Text tool  and click and drag a rectangle that is 45 Picas wide by 6 Picas wide (that’s 7.5” wide by 1” high)  beginning at the upper corner of the left and top margins. With SNAP TO GUIDES turned on all you need to do is drag out the rectangle to the right hand margin and down 6 baseline grid lines.

5. Inside the text box, type “the Headline” (without the quotes). Highlight all of the text and change it to Garamond and change the style to Bold. Change the size to 98 pts – this will spread the text across the text box (you can of course modify kerning, tracking or the horizontal scale to get different looks for the headline, but we’ll save that for another tutorial)

6. Change the tint of the fill color to 50%. With the text still highlighted, go to the swatches palette, select the fill icon for the text and change tint to 50%.

7. Draw the horizontal rule. Click on the line tool  in the tool bar and draw a horizontal line at 5 Picas down from the top margin (the bottom of the text box) Ensure the line is perfectly horizontal by holding the SHIFT key down as you draw. Change the weight of the line to 6 pts (controls for this appear in the top option bar). Change the tint to 50% by using the same controls from the last step, except this time, you will be changing the stroke color as opposed to the fill.

8. Might as well save your file at this point. FILE menu > SAVE. Give it a name and a location you’ll remember.

9. Let’s make our circular graphic insert! Start by selecting the Elliptical Frame Tool  on the tool bar and draw out a perfect circle that is two columns wide (hold the SHIFT key down) The resulting circle will be 22 Picas wide by 22 Picas high. Move the circle 9 Picas below the rule we drew in step 7, or 19 Picas from the top of the page, make sure it’s inside the middle two columns.

10. Place the graphic into the circular frame. (Download the appropriate graphic here) Go to the FILE menu > PLACE and select the file (I’ve scaled the graphic so that it fits the frame perfectly – we’ll do Fitting of graphics in a later tutorial)

11. Create a text wrap for the circular frame so that text wraps around the graphic as opposed to overlapping. Go to the WINDOW menu > TEXT WRAP to bring up the TEXT WRAP palette. Select the “Wrap Around Object Shape” option and change the wrap to 1 Pica.

12. Create the text box for the body text. Select the Text tool from the toolbar and create a text frame beginning 1 Pica below the horizontal rule from step 7 all the way down to the bottom right margin corner.

13. Select the frame with the black arrow and go to the OBJECT menu > TEXT FRAME OPTIONS. Change the columns to 2 and leave the gutter setting at 1p0 (1 Pica)

14. Select the text frame with the type tool. Change the typeface to Garamond, Regular Style. Change the size to 10 pt and the leading to 16 pt. (Leading is the space between lines of text, by default leading is set at the size of the typeface + 20% i.e. for 10 pt type, leading is 12 pt. For this tutorial I’ve made the leading larger so that the type doesn’t look so dense and dark)

15. Go to the TYPE menu > FILL WITH PLACEHOLDER TEXT to fill it with dummy text.

16. Save your file again.