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1 CREATE A NEW DOCUMENT
Choose File>New>Document. The size and number of pages will depend greatly on what your photo lab supports. In this example, let’s set up a 30-page album in spreads with page sizes of 12×12″ with a .25″ bleed (click the More Options button to access the Bleed and Slug options). Again, contact your lab and find out what size the pages need to be for the albums they print.

2 BRING UP THE PAGES PANEL
The next thing we’ll want to do is set up our master pages, so bring up the Pages panel (Window>Pages). Double-click one of the A-Master page thumbnails in the panel to make it the active page. Press Option-Command-0 (PC: Alt-Ctrl-0) to invoke the Fit Spread in Window command so you can see both master pages.

3 DEFINE YOUR FIRST MASTER PAGE SPREAD
Typically, you’ll want something behind your images on each page. It could be as simple as a solid color, such as black, or an image. It’s probably best to create a default color behind all the images. Using the Rectangle Frame tool (F), drag out a new frame across the entire spread. In the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches), click on the Fill icon at the top left and click on the Black swatch (or another color if you prefer) to fill the frame with black.

4 ADD YOUR FRAMES FOR IMAGES
At this point, you’re ready to start building your pages. Switch to page 1 by double-clicking on its thumbnail in the Pages panel. This page will be your cover. Using the Rectangle Frame tool, drag out a frame for the main image (we covered about two-thirds of the page). You can also place a smaller frame on the page that you can later duplicate for supporting images if you like. Use the Rotate tool (R) to rotate the smaller frame about 15°.

5 SET YOUR FRAME FITTING OPTIONS
We want to make the placement of images as easy as possible once the structure is built. The Frame Fitting Options in InDesign CS4 can be used to scale the images that we place so they automatically fit the frame. Select your first large frame with the Selection tool (V), then choose Object>Fitting>Frame Fitting Options. In the Fitting drop-down menu at the bottom of the dialog, change the frame to Fill Frame Proportionally, and click OK. Do the same thing for the smaller frame, too.

6 STROKE YOUR FRAMES
To give your album photos a little more depth and to make them stand out from the background, let’s add a stroke. Select your large frame and give it a white stroke of 4 pts. You can add the stroke either from the Control panel or the Stroke panel (Window>Stroke). To make the stroke white, click on the Stroke icon at the top left of the Swatches panel and click on the Paper swatch.

7 DUPLICATE AND FREE TRANSFORM YOUR FRAMES
The frames you’ve created can be used over and over again throughout your document. Because they already have the Frame Fitting Options applied to them, all you need to do is duplicate them as needed. Let’s start by making two duplicates of the smaller frame. Using the Selection tool, simply hold down your Option key (PC: Alt key) and drag it to the right. This will make a copy of it. Make one more copy and then use your Free Transform tool (E) to slightly rotate each frame.

8 USE DIFFERENT SHAPES FOR FRAMES
Using rectangular frames on every page can quickly become very boring. Take advantage of the fact that InDesign can use any vector shape as a frame. Try using either the Ellipse Frame tool (nested under the Rectangle Frame tool) to break things up a bit, or if you feel a little more confident, create custom frames with the Pen tool (P). Also note that you can copy over vector shapes from Illustrator as frames, too. Don’t forget to apply your Frame Fitting Options to these frames, as well.

9 LET’S SEE WHAT WE’VE GOT SO FAR
We could keep building our pages, but you’re probably getting anxious to see what things are going to look like. Let’s drop in some images so you’ll feel better. First, click the Go to Bridge button in the Application Bar to launch Bridge, and navigate to the folder of images that you want to use. Select a few images and choose File>Place>In InDesign. Once you return to InDesign, just drop the images into the frames you want them to go into. Tip: Use the Arrow keys to cycle through the thumbnail images in your loaded cursor to select an image to place in a frame.

10 NOW ADD SOME TEXT
Pretty pictures are great, but we need some text to make it personal. Try using a script font, such as Bickham Script Pro, for the larger text and then a simpler sans-serif font, such as Myriad Pro, for any paragraph/body text. Using the Type tool (T), drag out your frames where you want text to go, then key in your text. If you want to see what your layout looks like without the distracting guides, simply switch to the Selection tool and hit the letter W on your keyboard to enter Preview mode. Hitting W again will switch you back to Normal mode.

11 EXPORT YOUR PAGES AS JPEG
Unfortunately, most labs that print these wonderful books are still only accepting the layouts as single-page JPEGs. So this means that you’ll have to take your wonderful layout and convert the whole thing to a series of images. Luckily, InDesign lets you Export to JPEG format. Just choose File>Export, select JPEG in the Format drop-down menu in the Export dialog, and click Save. In the Export JPEG dialog that appears, specify the resolution that your lab recommends, and click the Export button.

12 ADD COLOR PROFILES FROM THE LAB
Many labs provide color profiles for you to use so that the printed results will match more closely to what you see onscreen. Although InDesign supports color management and profiles, you may want to open your exported JPEGs in Photoshop and assign the color profile provided by your lab so that you’re sure they’re correct. Once you have the JPEG open in Photoshop, choose Edit>Assign Profile and select the profile provided by your lab in the Profile drop-down menu. Then save the file.

13 EXPORT A PDF
You may also want a PDF for client review or for those labs that can print from PDFs (we love those labs). Go back to your original InDesign file, choose File>Export, this time select Adobe PDF as the format, and click Save. In the Export Adobe PDF dialog that appears, choose either High Quality Print for sending to the lab or Smallest File Size for sending as a proof to the client. You can even put the word “Proof” in big letters on each page in InDesign using layers if you’re concerned about security. In the Security category of the dialog, you can also specify that the PDF can’t be printed without a password.

14 SAVE AS A TEMPLATE
Now that you’ve done all this work, chances are you won’t want to do it again from scratch the next time you have an album to lay out, so let’s save it as a template. It’s probably best right now just to do a Save As with a different name so that you don’t mess up the original. Then delete the pictures from the frames using the Direct Selection tool (A), and delete the text using the Type tool. Once you’ve emptied the document, you can then use the Save As command again, but this time choose InDesign CS4 Template as the format.

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1 SET UP A NEW DOCUMENT
If you’d like to follow along as I go through the steps involved in creating mixed ink, start by setting up a new document. Open InDesign and choose File>New>Document and click OK. A default, one-page document should be fine.

2 OPEN THE NEW COLOR SWATCH DIALOG
To use mixed ink, first you need to create at least one spot color to be used as part of the mix, or the mixed ink options will be grayed out. To create a new spot color, start by clicking the flyout menu at the top right of the Swatches panel (Window>Swatches) and choosing New Color Swatch.

3 CREATE A NEW SPOT SWATCH
In the resulting New Color Swatch dialog, choose Spot from the Color Type drop-down menu. For the purpose of this tutorial, select PANTONE Solid Coated from the Color Mode drop-down menu, then enter 300 as the PANTONE color, and click OK to add it to the Swatches panel. If you’d like to create more than one spot color, click Add instead and then click Done when you’re finished.

4 MIX A CUSTOM COLOR
To get started with mixed ink, go back to the Swatches panel’s flyout menu and choose New Mixed Ink Swatch. In the dialog that opens, click the empty checkboxes next to Process Black and PANTONE 300 C. Lower the Black value to 50% by clicking-and-dragging the slider under the tint ramp or by entering an exact value in the percentage field. You’ll see a preview of the color to the upper left of the dialog. Name your swatch and then click OK to create a swatch from this mixture, or to add more than one mixed swatch, proceed to Step 5.

5 MIX ADDITIONAL SWATCHES
To add more than one mixed ink swatch, click the Add button instead of OK. Change the tint value of the two colors and click Add again to add your second color to the Swatches panel. You can press Add after each new color you mix and then click Done when you’re finished. Now that you know how to create an individual mixed ink swatch, let’s take a look at how we can create a whole bunch at one time.

6 A GLOBAL APPROACH TO MIXED INK
A great choice when you’re first developing the look for a two-color design is to start with a mixed ink group. This allows you to see the amazing potential of the two (or more) inks you’d like to use. To follow along, create another new document. Like the manual approach to creating mixed ink mentioned above, New Mixed Ink Group is grayed out when you click the Swatches panel’s flyout menu unless you have at least one spot color swatch available. So set up one or more spot swatches as you did in Steps 2 and 3.

7 CREATE A WHOLE WORLD OF MIXED INK FAST
To create a lot of mixed ink swatches in seconds, select New Mixed Ink Group under the flyout menu of the Swatches panel. In the dialog that opens, start by choosing what colors you’d like to use by clicking in the checkboxes to the left of your new spot color and Process Black (or a second spot color).

8 GROUP DYNAMICS
Next, you have to determine the parameters of your mixed ink group. To keep it simple, set the Initial percentage of Black at 5%, the Repeat (or the number of additional percentages) at 9, and the Increment of each Repeat at 5%. Then for your spot color, set the Initial percentage at 10%, the Repeat at 9, and the Increment of each increase at 10%. Note: If the Repeat value is set too high, you’ll get an error message because there can’t be more than 100% of any particular color in a Swatch.

9 SNEAK A PEAK AT THE WHOLE GROUP
If you followed the steps above, you should end up with 100 swatches (one initial percentage and nine repeats for each color). But what will they look like? To take a look at the results of your settings, click the Preview Swatches button. If you’re happy with the colors, name your group at the top of the window and press OK to add the entire mixed ink group to the Swatches panel.

10 GET GRADIENTS IN THE MIX TOO
You can also create mixed ink gradients by selecting New Gradient Swatch from the flyout menu of the Swatches panel. Then, click on one of the color stops under the Gradient Ramp in the dialog and choose Swatches from the Stop Color drop-down menu. Now you can select a mixed ink swatch or spot color for each of the color stops.

11 HAVE YOUR FILL (OR STROKE) OF MIXED INK
Like other swatches, mixed ink can be used to fill or stroke objects. Simply select the object with the Selection tool (V), activate either the Stroke or Fill by clicking on its respective icon in the upper-left corner of the Swatches panel, and select a mixed ink swatch. Even better, click-and-drag the swatch to either the fill or stroke of an unselected object to apply your mixed ink. You can also colorize placed grayscale or bitmap mode PSD or TIFF images by selecting the image with the Direct Selection tool (A) and applying the swatch.

12 CIRCUMVENTING MURPHY’S LAW
As Murphy put it, “If anything can go wrong, it will.” In light of this, what if you’re nearing the completion of a two-color project and a decision is made to use a different spot color? Do you have to redo the swatches throughout your entire document? Thank heavens, no! Simply create a new spot swatch. Then, select your old spot color in the Swatches panel and click the Trash icon at the bottom of the panel. In the resulting Delete Swatch dialog, choose your new spot color from the Define Swatch drop-down menu. This new spot will replace the old spot throughout the document, including all mixed ink swatches.

MIXED INK REALLY DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE
In the past, my biggest issue with two-color projects was that they always had that “two-color look.” Years ago, my first opportunity to use mixed ink was in a newsletter produced by Aggie Perilli Communications for The Arc of Somerset County (www.thearcofsomerset.org), an amazing nonprofit organization in New Jersey that helps individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

I was floored by how much more I could get out of two colors by using mixed ink in InDesign. Recently, we started producing this award-winning publication using low-cost digital printing, so we could take advantage of color images in the design. Many of the mixed ink swatches in the original two-color design were simply converted to four-color process by double-clicking on the “Group” swatch above all the mixed ink swatches in the Swatches panel and checking Convert Mixed Ink Swatches to Process.

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In each issue of Layers magazine I’ve focused on helping you learn new ways of using InDesign to lay out your pages. Now it’s time to take a look at getting all that beautiful layout work you’ve done to press. Although the title of this tutorial is “Going to Press,” these tips are aimed at outputting your InDesign work properly no matter what your actual printing process—even if all you do is make a PDF and put it on the Web.

1 [OPEN CURRENT INDESIGN PROJECT]
To get the most out of this tutorial, you’re going to need a document open with some text and images on the page. If you’re brand-new and don’t have one, you can either create one from scratch or use one of the built-in templates by choosing Create New From Template on the Welcome screen. This will launch Adobe Bridge where you can choose your template.

2 [OPEN NEW PREFLIGHT PANEL]
In InDesign CS4 you can take advantage of active Preflight, which will monitor your document constantly to make sure that it adheres to your preferences/constraints. Bring up the Preflight panel from the Window>Output menu.

3 [DEFINE CUSTOM PREFLIGHT PROFILE]
Choose Define Profiles from the Preflight panel’s flyout menu. By default, you have a Basic profile that can’t be modified. Click the + icon at the bottom of the panel to define a New Preflight Profile. Give it a name and then choose which options you’d like the active profile to monitor. You can choose things such as: missing links, minimum image resolution, missing fonts, overset text, etc. Once you’ve defined your criteria, click OK.

4 [ASSIGN PREFLIGHT PROFILE TO DOCUMENT]
Now that you have your preflight profile defined, you actually have to assign it to your document. So choose your newly defined preflight profile from the Profile pop-up list in the Preflight panel.

5 [FIX PREFLIGHT ERRORS]
At this point, you’ll either have a green or red error light depending on what you defined in your profile and what’s in your document. When I chose my profile, I got a red error light (dot) with 11 errors because I defined my profile to have a minimum image resolution. The template contains 11 low-res images, so they’ll need to be replaced to meet my profile standards. There’s a hyperlink next to each error that also specifies the page where the error takes place. This will allow you to jump right to the item in question and fix it.

6 [SIZE PHOTOS IN PHOTOSHOP]
When you place an image, InDesign lets you size the image to fit your frame size. Although this is a nice feature, it’s not the optimal solution for printing. For example, let’s say you place a high-res (300 ppi), 8×10″ image in a frame, but then downsize it to fit 1.2×1.78″. The Effective PPI jumps to 1,685. Therefore, it’s best to size your image to the final size in Photoshop and bring it in at actual size. Note: If you can’t see this column in your Links panel, choose Panel Options from the flyout menu and check the Show Column box beside Effective PPI.

7 [RGB OR CMYK?]
Before you bring that image into InDesign from Photoshop, you should ascertain if RGB is okay. Only your printing provider can answer that question. RGB has a much larger gamut of colors but CMYK is the standard for offset printing. Some of the newer digital presses can handle RGB workflows but you’ll have to ask to know for sure. To convert to CMYK, open your image in Photoshop from InDesign by selecting the image and using the Edit>Edit With>Adobe Photoshop CS4, then choose Image>Mode>CYMK Color in Photoshop to convert it. Save and Close the image to update the link in InDesign.

8 [SAVE AS PSD OR TIFF]
Although InDesign can accept a variety of different image formats, if you’re going to high-res professional output, then you should save your photos as either PSD or TIFF files. Why not JPEG? Because JPEG is a compressed format and takes longer to print, as it has to decompress on-the-fly for printing. So, to make your provider happier, use either PSD or TIFF files.

9 [CHECK TRANSPARENCY STACKING ORDER]
InDesign lets you use transparency right in the application without having to go back to Photoshop or Illustrator; however, depending on how you stack things, you could create printing headaches. The rule is: Always keep your nontransparent objects and vector text/line art on top. An easy way to do this is to use layers and assign each kind of object to the appropriate layer.

10 [COMMON TRANSPARENCY ISSUE]
Even when you follow the rules, you can still have problems. Say you put a transparent object on top of a nontransparent image. For example, when you put a drop shadow on your text and then put your text on top of a photo, sometimes this yields a box or outline around the object. The problem arises because some printing RIPs don’t process the transparent object properly on top of the nontransparent object. So try this: Select the object(s) and set it to 99% Opacity in the Effects panel. This makes no visible change, but will force it to go through the Transparency Flattener with the object on top.

11 [CHECK SEPARATIONS PREVIEW]
Next, you want to check how many plates your job will yield. If it’s a four-color job, then chances are you want only Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black plates. Having too many plates may cause delays in your print job while the file is fixed. Choose Window>Output>Separations Preview to show the number of plates in your job. If you have more than you should, you need to locate the object generating the extra color and change it. An easy way to do this is to hide (turn off the Eye icons) all the plates except the extra one (make sure the view pop-up list is set to Separations).

12 [USE SWATCHES; ELIMINATE UNUSED ONES]
If you’re using color in InDesign, then you should definitely be using Swatches, which allow you to keep consistent colors. You can also change all objects using a specific color by changing the Swatch. If you’ve created Swatches that you didn’t end up using, however, it’s best to remove them to reduce confusion. Just choose Select All Unused from the Swatches panel’s flyout menu, which selects any swatches that didn’t get used in the job, then just click the Trash icon at the bottom of the Swatches panel to remove them.

13 [PACKAGE IT UP]
You should now be ready to send your InDesign file to the printer. You’ll need all the linked graphics and, to make sure the print provider has the right fonts, send those too. Luckily, InDesign has a Package feature (File>Package) that puts a copy of your saved document, all the links, and the fonts in a folder of your choice. By default, it will run a Preflight first. Just click the Package button to continue. Fill out the Printing Instructions and click Continue. Now specify where to save the files and InDesign will create a new folder that contains everything the printer needs.

14 [EXPORT A PDF]
Although your service provider can print your InDesign file (provided they have the same InDesign version as you do), sometimes it’s easier and safer to send a PDF instead. Even if you’re sending the original InDesign file, it’s still a good idea to send a PDF. To create a PDF, choose File>Export, make sure that the Format is Adobe PDF, and click Save. In the dialog, choose the appropriate PDF Preset for the kind of printing you’re doing (ours is Press Quality), then click Export to generate your PDF.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

This video requires Adobe Flash Player.

1 [LET’S START WITH A BLANK PAGE]
So that we’re all on the same page, literally, create a new blank 8.5×11″ page in InDesign by choosing New>Document from the File menu or by pressing Command-N (PC: Ctrl-N) on the keyboard. Uncheck Facing Pages and make your margins .5″ all the way around. Click OK.

2 [CREATE A TEXT FRAME WITH THE TYPE TOOL]
Select the Type tool (T) from the Toolbox and use it to drag out a new text frame on the page. Make it as close to 5×7″ as you can when you’re dragging it out. Of course it’s difficult to be precise when you’re dragging, so switch to the Selection tool, which should automatically select your frame as an object, and then key in the exact 5×7″ measurements in the Width and Height fields in the Control panel.

3 [ADJUST THE INSET; KEY IN YOUR HEADLINE]
We’re going to add a border to our frame a little later and I don’t want that border to actually touch the text in our frame, so before we get started putting text in the frame, let’s set an inset.

Choose Text Frame Options from the Object menu. Set the Top, Bottom, Left, and Right Inset Spacing to .25″. If the little chain icon is enabled, setting one measurement makes all measurements the same. Click OK. Now that you’re back to your text frame, double-click on it with the Selection tool to switch to the Type tool and key in your headline.

4 [CENTER HEADLINE; BRING UP THE TABS RULER]
When you keyed in your headline in Step 3, chances are it was left aligned. So before we go any further, go ahead and insert a couple of new paragraphs (press the Return [PC: Enter] key twice) after the headline. Now select the headline and click the Align Center icon in the Paragraph Formatting controls in the Control panel. Once your headline is centered, adjust the font and size aspects to your taste. Now put your cursor on the last new blank paragraph that you created after your headline and bring up the Tabs ruler from the Type menu.

5 [SET A RIGHT TAB WITH LEADER DOTS]
We’re going to create a list with leader dots. When most people do this, they usually go about it the hard way. But here’s the easy way: Click the Right-Justified Tab (third one from the left) and then click on the ruler near the right indent to add a tab stop. While the tab stop is still selected, go ahead and key in a period in the Leader field.

6 [TEST IT BY KEYING IN A SAMPLE LIST]
Now you can key in your sample list. On the left side, which is where your cursor should be, key in the item name, then press the Tab key on your keyboard, and your cursor should jump over to the right tab that we set. Now when you key in your price/time/place, etc., it will be right justified at the tab stop and there will be leader dots from the item name to the item description that you just keyed in. Just press Return (PC: Enter) to create the next paragraph and your tab stop will be carried down automatically.

7 [KEY IN PARAGRAPH TEXT]
Now that you’ve created your list, it’s time to create some paragraph text with indents below the list. First, let’s create a standard paragraph of text and then we’ll add a second paragraph that we’re going to indent in the next step. You can close the tab ruler at this point.

8 [ADJUST THE INDENTS ON THE CONTROL PANEL]
For the second paragraph of text, let’s indent it on both sides using the Indent controls (circled) in the Paragraph Formatting section of the Control panel. Set both the Left Indent and Right Indent to 0.25″.

9 [ADJUST THE FIRST LINE INDENT]
Many times when I receive Word documents that I need to place into InDesign, the sender has taken the time to tab in the first line of each paragraph. If you use Indents especially in your Paragraph Styles, this becomes a very unnecessary step. Instead of tabbing in the first line of each paragraph, just set a First Line Left Indent in the Control panel. I’ve set mine to 0.25″.

10 [USE “PROPORTIONAL PLACE”]
Now it’s time to place an image to dress things up a bit. In InDesign CS4, there’s a wonderful new feature I call “Proportional Place.” This means you can use the File>Place command, choose your image, and click-and-drag the image onto the page in the exact size you want. InDesign will constrain the proportions of the frame to the image you’re placing. Using this method, place an image over the right side of the first paragraph of body text.

11 [WRAP YOUR TEXT]
Of course, the image is now covering part of your text and this is where Text Wrap comes in (Window>Text Wrap). With the image still selected, click the second icon, Wrap around Bounding Box, and your text should automatically wrap around your photo. Now you can adjust how close the text will appear around the sides of your image by adjusting the Offset measurements (as shown). If you like, you can use negative measurements to bring the text closer.

12 [PLACE AN IRREGULARLY SHAPED GRAPHIC]
Wrapping text around a square or rectangle is easy; however, wrapping text around an irregularly shaped object requires a few more steps. An irregular object can be a vector graphic such as an Illustrator or EPS logo or a Photoshop file where you’ve removed the background. In this example, we’re using a photograph where I removed the sky and saved it as a layered PSD file. I also added a third paragraph to the document.

13 [WRAP TEXT AROUND IRREGULAR SHAPE]
Now go back to the Text Wrap panel and choose the third option, which wraps around an object shape. But you’ll see that it still looks like all it did was wrap around the bounding box. This is where you have to choose the right Contour Options: For a transparent PSD file, use the Alpha Channel option; and for an Illustrator or EPS file, choose the Detect Edges option.

14 [ADD A FRAME BORDER]
Now to put the finishing touch on this design, we’ll add a nice border to our frame. Select the Frame with the Selection tool and then choose the weight and style of border that you want from the Control panel (we chose 4 pt, and Thick – Thin).

ALL IMAGES BY TERRY WHITE UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

Click here to watch Part 1 of this tutorial.