A large divide between print and digital distribution designers has carried on for years. What is ironic though is that the methods and techniques used by both are quite common. Each side influences the other. Web design is now strongly influenced by typography and grid systems. While at the same time user experience and usability play a large role in print material development.
Adobe InDesign is the tool used for building print documents and the layout of many pages. Here we will look at how some tools used in Adobe InDesign translates directly into what is currently used by Web designers.
How Folders are Structured
InDesign is similar to other root folders in that it has both a main document and resource folder. The main difference is the file extension, .indd rather than .html.
Document Setup
To set up a document in Adobe InDesign you specify the width, height and the documents purpose. If the file is for the “Web”, you specify this, and if it’s for print you specify for “print”. In the event the file will be used for both, then you set up the document for both.
Main Tools
Adobe InDesign has the main tools grouped to the left side, as does Illustrator and Photoshop. The difference is how building components on a page is performed and how you interact with them. InDesign has containers in which you place vector objects, images and text to place them on a page.
Similarity
Vector object’s can be imported directly into the document, but generally you will use the content boxes for layout positioning. Similar to building DOMs for text or images to be positioned in the layout.
Difference
Positioning objects into a Web document is done relative to their structure while with InDesign, objects are assigned an x and y position that is based on the complete page.
Editing in Adobe InDesign
The main tool used for editing an object and vector based layout is the Selection tool. It is also used when selecting an object to alter its properties. This is vastly different from Photoshop wherein you edit layers individually. Changing an objects color requires selecting it first, then adjusting it using one of many ways available to change the color.
Content boxes are created with the use of many tools. The Rectangle tool is not attributed to any type of content. The Type tool allows you to construct a box for text. The Rectangle Frame tool constructs a box for a linked resource or an image.
The content is styled using option panes and context bars. Similar to Photoshop, many objects open in a context-sensitive toolbar, located at the top. This is used for quick editing.
Additionally, multiple panes are readily available to assist in controlling values related to an object.
Now that you have learned some of the basic components of Adobe InDesign, try using some of the tools to create a document. You will soon see that it is not 100% different from Photoshop and Illustrator, as you may have thought before.
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