CreativePro.Com Print Asset Mgmt./Workflow

Align and Space Objects with InDesign's Smart Guides

Editor in Chief — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 02:16:21 -0700

As you drag to create or move objects on an InDesign page, you may have noticed lines, arrows, and other indicators appearing and disappearing. These are Smart Guides and other elements that can help you work more precisely. If you haven’t yet used Smart Guides, the following tips will introduce you to easy alignment and spacing that will result in better-looking pages.

Smart Guides for the Page and Column Centers

Better InDesign Automation with Output Factory

Editor in Chief — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:47:01 -0700

You can now try out the public beta of Output Factory 1.0 from Zevrix Solutions. Output Factory is designed to work with InDesign to facilitate automatic printing, exporting, and post-processing. The Mac-only app works with InDesign versions CS3 through CS5.5.

Output Factory also interacts with the Acrobat Pro preflight engine, provides file delivery capabilities, and integrates fully with the Finder. You can keep working with other programs while Output Factory processes InDesign files in the background.

InDesign How-To: Print Colors Correctly

Editor in Chief — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 03:20:58 -0600

Billions of years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, print production managers checked documents with something called "progressive proofs" or "color proofs". These printed pieces of paper showed how each process color (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) would print alone and in combination with the other colors. They were output as follows:

• The magenta plate alone
• The yellow plate alone
• A mixture of the yellow plate combined with the magenta plate
• The cyan plate alone
• A mixture of the cyan plate with the yellow and magenta plates

New Version of PDF to IDML Tool Announced

Editor in Chief — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 02:37:47 -0600

Recosoft announced that they will release the third iteration of the Enterprise version of PDF2ID. As the software's name suggests, it converts PDF files into InDesign documents.

PDF2ID Enterprise v3, which will be available for Windows and the Mac next month, is designed to automatically convert large numbers of PDFs at once. The conversion can be triggered by placing one or many PDFs into folders you've told PDF2ID to keep an eye on. If you like, the app can alert you with a notification after conversion occurs.

Worry-Free Folding for Complex Print Projects

Editor in Chief — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 08:21:53 -0600

Use a fancy fold in a print project and you have a better chance of getting your audience's attention. That's easy to understand. But go any further down the folding path and things can get difficult. Did you know there are 23 kinds of accordion folds alone? There's broadside accordion, reverse accordion, wrapped accordion, top-folding accordion with fold-in... And each one of these and many other types of folds require precise page specifications to succeed.

QuarkXPress Tips for Type, Pages, & Paths

Editor in Chief — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 02:07:26 -0600

Reproduced with permission of Planet Quark

Truly Global Font Replacement in QuarkXPress
Unfortunately, there is no feature in QuarkXPress that lets you replace one font with another across master pages, document pages and style sheets. Here’s a trick that works:

1. Save the document and close it.

Convert Microsoft Publisher Documents to InDesign

Editor in Chief — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:17:54 -0600

The name of Markzware's PUB2ID software stands for "Microsoft Publisher to Adobe InDesign". Version 5.5 of PUB2ID is now available and costs $199 as a full, standalone product.

InDesign Efficiency: Keep Your Hand on the Keyboard

Editor in Chief — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 02:09:05 -0600

Excerpted from the InDesign Secrets video training course on lynda.com.

BigPicture Lite for InDesign CS5/5.5 Is Free Download

Editor in Chief — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 02:41:33 -0600

When you need to wrangle a lot of images in InDesign files, Badia Software's BigPicture is your friend. Now you can snag a limited version of the plug-in, BigPicture Lite, for free from the Mac App Store. It supports CS5 and CS5.5.

Here's what you can expect once you download and install BigPicture Lite:

Print Reseller Certification Series

Editor in Chief — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:31:39 -0600

You may be a print reseller and not even know it--graphic designers often are. If you handle commercial printing for a client, you're technically a print reseller. But are you making the most of this opportunity to increase both your profit margins and your clients' satisfaction levels? PrintingForLess.com, the parent company of CreativePro.com, has created a Print Education Series that's meant to do just that.

Get the Color You Expect When Printing

Editor in Chief — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 02:12:02 -0600

Do your press checks come with unpleasant color surprises? Then "Meeting Your Color Expectations," a free webinar from PaperSpecs and Kallima Paper, is a worthwhile investment of your valuable time. You'll learn which proofing and press tools are handy, the best ways to prep files, and how to work with print shops to make sure your job's final color is what you expected.

Updates to Font Explorer X Pro

Editor in Chief — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:18:30 -0600

Monotype Imaging has updated its font manager for the desktop and servers. The new versions are FontExplorer X Pro 3.1 for Macintosh, 2.3 for Windows and FontExplorer X Server 1.6.

FontExplorer X Pro 3.1 can now run in Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). The update also includes support for a full-screen mode and introduces a plug-in for Adobe InCopy CS5.5, and new Mac plug-ins for Adobe InDesign, llustrator, and Photoshop.

New Video Series Introduces You to InDesign's Secretarial Skills

Editor in Chief — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:05:14 -0600

You may not have realized that InDesign can auto-correct words as you type them. That feature has been around for years, but you have to turn it on by going to Edit > Preferences > Autorrect (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Autorrect (Mac) and checking "Enable autocorrect". The keyboards shortcut is Ctrl/Cmd-K.

InDesign's auto-correct comes with a long list of commonly misspelled words already programmed in. You can view that list and edit it. You can even add to the list, and that's where the savvy user can turn InDesign into a robot secretary.

Five Healthy Habits in InDesign

Editor in Chief — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 02:24:28 -0600

Everyone knows the healthy habits we should practice regularly, like flossing our teeth, cleaning the litter box, and recycling bottles and cans. But too often, we're in a rush and skip the routine. Similarly, there are healthy habits for working in InDesign that can make your life much easier. If you don't practice these software habits, your teeth won't fall out, the cat won't attack you, and the recycle police won't arrest you, but you will deprive yourself of some of InDesign's power.

New Binding Guide Is Fun and Free

Editor in Chief — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:21:52 -0600

UK design agency the Media Collective has supplemented its Print Handbook for Designers with a small guide to binding. Like the full Handbook, the helpful binding guide combines short bits of text with images. Together, they explain the binding methods saddle stitch, loop stitch, stab stitch, perfect bound, singer sewn, and case bound. Here's one panel of the guide: