With autumn approaching it’s time to get back to school! Here’s your New Term reading list for Adobe InDesign - a list of easy beginners’ tutorials and articles exploring everything you ever wanted to know about InDesign. So class, here's your homework...
Get Familiar with Basic Tools and Techniques
Exploring what tools are on offer is a great place to start with InDesign. Whether you’re an absolute beginner or a seasoned designer, gaining familiarity with all the tools InDesign has to offer is absolutely essential. Key processes such as setting up documents, creating Masters, and formatting type and images will give you a great foundation for moving forward with the software.
Use the following tutorials to broaden your Tools and Techniques know-how:
Creating New Documents
This tutorial gives readers with no or limited InDesign experience the basic knowledge on how to set-up a document for print.
Setting Margins
The purpose of this tut is to give new InDesign users the knowledge on setting up margins and their functions relating to two main layout types, which are single and facing page layouts.
Working with Rulers and Guides
This tutorial will teach you how to improve your In Design skills, whether you are a beginner or an intermediate user, you will learn some good tips to improve your workspace using rulers and guides.
Importing Type
Importing type into InDesign can seem like a straight forward process, either copy and paste or use the place option. It is definitely a process designers take for granted. This tut will illustrate the capabilities InDesign offers when importing type using the “Show import options” feature.
Threading Text
Threading text within InDesign can hugely improve the experience of editing and amending copy while working on layouts. The process of threading text is linking two or more text frames allowing text to flow from one separate frame to another.
Importing Graphics
InDesign can handle a variety of graphics including jpg, eps, pdf, tiff, psd and most Adobe formats to name a few. InDesign doesn’t actually place the graphic into the document. Instead it makes a link to the original file and generates a preview within the document. In this Quick Tip you will learn about the various ways you can import image files into an InDesign document and how to replace and re-scale them.
Place and Link Multiple Instances of the Same Content
Place and Link is a very useful feature in Adobe InDesign CS6 and onwards, which can link several instances of the same content or objects in your InDesign projects. In this tutorial you will learn how to make the most of this new feature and understand the many advantages of it.
How to Create Flexible Image Grids
In this tutorial you'll learn how to create flexible image grid layouts in Adobe InDesign. We will use several useful image frame techniques like Fill frame options, Auto-Fill, Gap Tool, Rounded Corners, etc.
The Layers Panel
The layers panel in InDesign is packed with features that can really speed up your operating pace. The panel resembles Adobe’s Illustrator Layer panel and has borrowed many of its useful features.
How to Use the Character Panel
Adobe InDesign’s type formatting tools can be found in both the Character panel and the Control panel. In this tutorial, we will focus on the Character panel.
Use Text Wrap to Create Interactions Between Text and Images
In this tutorial you will learn all the different ways to use Text Wrap in Adobe InDesign to make interesting interactions between your text and images.
An Introduction to the Page Tool
Take ten minutes out to discover the capabilities this superb tool offers when working with multiple page sizes.
How to Create Multiple Page Sizes in One Adobe InDesign File
Adobe InDesign is a remarkable tool for many print and marketing design projects. It makes it extremely easy to work on publications, move design elements around, and export out for your printer. However, what happens if your project requires different sizes for each item?
Drag and Drop in Tables with Adobe InDesign CC
Long gone are the days of copy and pasting entire rows and columns! InDesign CC 2014 offers a massive improvement for table creation and editing that will completely improve your productivity.
How to Use the Align Panel
The Align panel is a simple feature within Adobe InDesign. It gives total control to the user over objects contained within a document. This tutorial is written with InDesign novices in mind and will cover the basic capabilities of the Align panel.
And an extra really useful tut...
Eleven InDesign Tricks That Will Improve Your Workflow
A collection of useful InDesign tips will help or enhance your operating skills. Perfect for beginner users in InDesign, there’s plenty of tips here to get you started.
Create a Publication in Adobe InDesign
Once you know your way around the Tools Panel you can start to create something exciting in InDesign!
Create books, brochures, stationery and much more using the fun tutorials below:
Design a Poster
Posters are a classic, eye-catching and effective way of advertising an event. In this tutorial we’ll design the layout of a poster advertising a Henna Workshop, inspired by Moroccan art, dusty desert colors, and Arabic calligraphy. This style would apply equally well to a festival event, BBQ or music gig.
A Beginner’s Guide to Invitations
There’s lots of great events in life that garner a special invitation. Weddings, birthdays, charity events, anniversaries and art openings all have fancy invitations. However, what exactly makes up an invitation? In the course “Introduction to Designing Invitations”, I’ll take you through creating your own invitations and their different uses.
Create a Spring Wedding Invitation
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to set up your own fold-out invitation design using Adobe InDesign. We’ll look at how using Layers can allow you to set up design elements intended for die cutting and embossing, which can add a really beautiful touch to your final cards.
Create Page Layouts and a Cover for a Children’s Fiction Book
In this tutorial you’ll learn how to create a striking cover as well as creative page layouts for a children’s book (in this case a modernized version of ‘Alice in Wonderland’!). Using Adobe InDesign, we’ll explore how thinking outside of the box with typography and images can make classically typeset pages more exciting. This tutorial looks at techniques you can use for layout and design; lessons you can apply when putting together your own print book or eBook.
Design Layouts for a Cookery Book
In this tutorial we’ll create a variety of layouts for a Cookery Book intended for self-publishing, either in print or as an eBook, using Adobe InDesign. I’ll show you how you can showcase simple, striking photos to create minimal, colourful designs for your pages.
Create a Simple Business Card in InDesign
In this tutorial we’ll explore how to create high-impact, audience-appropriate business cards for your own promotional purposes. You can look at how I put together inspiring examples for a fictional Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Photographer using InDesign, and lay down the Golden Rules of creating striking and unforgettable cards: minimal design, legible text, and appropriate audience!
Create a Trendy One Page, Print Ready Newsletter
A newsletter is a common business tool to inform customers and employees of company accomplishments and upcoming events. Adobe InDesign is the perfect software to do this. In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to properly set up the document with bleed, create columns and set guides, set paragraph styles, and utilize text column breaks and text threading options.
Create a Stand-Out Portfolio Book
In the first part of this two-part tutorial you’ll learn how to create a high-impact cover for an Illustration Portfolio book intended for print, in Adobe InDesign.
Video Courses
Develop your InDesign prowess even further with an in-depth video course. These are our top Tuts+ picks.
InDesign CC Essentials
If you want to know what has changed in InDesign Creative Cloud, then come and join us as Nicki Hart shows us the differences.
An Introduction to Magazine Design
Ever considered getting into print media? Maybe you’ve wanted to dabble in magazine design but didn’t know where to start. Have we got the course for you. Nicki Hart knows how to layout a page like a pro, and she’s put together an amazing course showing you how to do the exact same thing.
Book Layout in InDesign
With the rise of self publishing, book layout and design has become an in-demand skill. Get started with publishing layouts! Niki Hart is here to teach us how to take book concepts and make them reality in InDesign.
Digital Publishing With InDesign CC
This is the first episode of a series about Digital Publishing with Adobe InDesign CC. In this part we are going to cover the basics of digital publishing. We are going to discuss terms like CSS, DPS, eInk, ebook, e-reader, PDF and EPUB. We are also going to take a close look at the solutions that Adobe Creative Cloud offers for digital publishing.
Designing Booklets
In this course, Nicki Hart will guide you through the design of a small, multi-page booklet. You’ll see every part of the process, from the outer covers to the inside pages. You’ll also discover how to use InDesign’s “Print Booklet” feature so you can send your new booklet to print.
Typography Projects in InDesign
Typography is a fine art in any field, but in print design it’s down right vital. Join Cheryl Graham as she walks you through managing and mastering your text in InDesign. In addition to the basics, Cheryl will demonstrate a variety of print projects, from multi-page manuals to magazine pages.
Class Dismissed!
We hope that the tutorials featured here are really useful for beginners to InDesign. Once you have the basic tools and techniques down, it's a really versatile and simple-to-build-upon software programme. Good luck with advancing your InDesign learning, and be sure to check out the Design and Illustration Tuts+ page for brand new InDesign tutorials.