5 Quick InDesign Tips
Even though designers don’t have traditional degrees like journalism or business it is still important for us to be able to spot grammatical and commonsense mistakes. It is truly up to us to be 110% positive that we deliver flawless final projects to our clients. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not always the best speller and I don’t always use proper punctuation, and that’s why I am spell checks #1 fan.
I’ve compiled a list of 5 quick tips to makes sure you tie up all your lose ends before finishing your design projects up when working in InDesign.
Extra spaces can cost you
Find/Change is truly one of the simplest InDesign features. There are ways to utitlize Find/ Change so that it benefits you every time you are finishing up a design project. It is very easy to accidentally add extra and unwanted spaces to your document. So, what I like to do is open Find/ Change and tap the spacebar twice into the find field and type one space into the replace field. InDesign will automatically pick up any double spaces that you’ve mistakenly keyed into your document and replace it with a single space.
Hidden characters
It can get a little distracting working with your hidden characters turned on but it is good to give your document a couple of final proof reads with them turned on. Hidden characters will help you locate and unwanted paragraph breaks, spaces, tabs, etc.
Colors
Before I even think of starting my design project I take the liberty of deleting all of the default color swatches from my library. By doing this I don’t allow myself to mistakenly use any colors besides the ones I manual create. A big no no is sampling colors from other images or elements using the eyedropper tool. When you sample color in InDesign and then use that sampled color it usually samples in RGB and is never an exact match of a chosen color swatch.
Image PPI and color space
Another handy little feature InDesign offers is Preflight. By going to File > Preflight you are presented with a column of preferences to click through. You can check your fonts, links, colors, and a few other elements that are present in your document. By clicking on Links and Images you will be able to scroll through all of the links and images in your document and view what type of element they are, what their effective ppi is (effective ppi is what’s important here not actual ppi) and what color space they are using. This is a fast way to make sure all of your elements are the proper size, type, and using the right color space. (Usually if you’re working in InDesign you want all of your images to be in CMYK given that you are using InDesign for its print purpose.)
Last, but not least, Spell Check
Spell check is very important. Of course spell check doesn’t always offer the right word to change a misspelled word to (if it is even misspelled) nor does it always offer you the correct grammatical suggestions and that is why it is important for you to read over your document as well and not to 100% rely on spell check. Spell check will catch all of your misspelled words and perhaps offer proper grammatical suggestions, but it is up to you to make sure that you use your knowledge to catch anything spell check doesn’t.
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On September 8, 2009 at 8:44 am Mike Oliver wrote:
Good stuff to point out, I do a monthly newsletter and the lady who sends it to me double spaces after every sentence… ughh! Find/replace saves my sanity on that. If I can add to the list… Any logos or vector art made with a pantone you import will bring a spot color into your color palette, and unless you want to pay for a spot plate make sure you change it to a process cmyk instead. I sometimes sample photos to create color palettes that will work with the ad or whatever I am doing, I just make sure they are cmyk so the sample comes in cmyk. G’Day Mate!
On September 8, 2009 at 6:18 pm Vonnie wrote:
Good article, but just one thing!
“Even though designers don’t have traditional degrees like journalism or business…”
Since when? We have been getting degrees for Graphic Design for years. I’m one of them, and have many friends and connections who also are either working on or have their degrees. We have everything from Associates up to a good old PhD.
When you go to apply for a job, the portfolio is important yeah, but many potential employers wont even look at you if you don’t make it past their HR department; who btw looks for that degree.
If you don’t go to college, then you’re probably not getting that good rounded education that you need to succeed in a career for graphic design. That said, many can and have done well without a degree, but it’s not the “usual” thing. There are always special circumstances.
On September 8, 2009 at 6:30 pm Kevin Garcia (@kg_creative) wrote:
Since when is a BFA in Graphic Design not a “Traditional Degree” ? I must have missed a memo somewhere.
On September 8, 2009 at 7:36 pm Antonea Nabors wrote:
Thanks for your comments Kevin and Vonnie.
I think I just worded myself wrong because of my education. I got a BA in digital art and design and it wasn’t from a traditional university, it was more so a trade/taft school. On another note, my school (Full Sail) has transformed into a university in the past year or so. It is much more common/popular to major in design these days. I think we have a different view on a design degree over the general public because it is what we do for a living. When someone asks me what I majored in there is always that extra pull to know more because it is actually an interesting and different field to major in.
On September 8, 2009 at 8:57 pm Vonnie wrote:
@ Antonea
We all make mistakes.
You worried me a minute when you said we didn’t have traditional degrees. I thought, what have I been doing all this time then?! lol
On October 20, 2009 at 3:50 am Omar wrote:
I think you guys took it to personally.
The university I attend in Texas has a web and graphic design concentration that is part of a bigger Interdisciplinary Degree alongside other concentrations not focused on traditionally, as in something maybe an ivy league university has been founded for. Such as finance, marketing, teaching, law, or science. Yes I know, this field is growing since technology has advanced so much, but it hasn’t always been this way.
On October 23, 2009 at 2:19 pm Xaby wrote:
hmmm, a lot of my designers and designer friends have degrees (though not necessarily in design).
but its a fairly attention grabbing statement i must say.
On November 10, 2009 at 2:56 am website design wrote:
Hey that was a really nice post… I work in a website designing company and appreciate it a lot…
On January 3, 2010 at 6:55 am honour chick wrote:
great tips, thanks for sharing them