Learning Print Production: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign
2h 1mBeginner2021-05-10
Authors

Claudia McCue
20+ years of print and prepress production experience
Course details
If you work in print production—whether you're a designer, a production artist, or a prepress operator dealing with client files—the goal is generally still the same for everyone: use the software without causing problems when the job hits the press. While the software is extremely helpful in layout and designing, sometimes the software doesn’t know best and it’s good to know the pitfalls. In this course, Claudia McCue takes you through layout best practices with Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Acrobat. Claudia covers features to look out for, best practices, and important topics like text basics, how to import graphics, layout tips, color swatches, and pre-flighting. After this course, you’ll be better prepared to create documents that print successfully.
Skills covered
Print ProductionInDesignIllustratorPhotoshopGraphic DesignAdobeLearning
Concepts
Introduction
- Introduction to building your artwork for print
- Prerequisites
Photoshop
- Image resolution
- Color space
- Text in Photoshop
- Limitations of Smart Objects
Illustrator for Print
- Building a simple three-panel brochure
- Using swatches
- Working with effects
- Cautions about blending modes
- Gathering up the pieces
- Saving as a PDF
InDesign for Print
- Setting InDesign preferences
- Create a three-panel brochure, folded size
- Create a three-panel brochure, flat size
- Working with color swatches
- Understanding rich black
- Creating correct color-plus-black gradients
- Managing graphics
- Using Overprint Preview in InDesign
- Transparency issues across applications
- Preflighting in InDesign
- Packaging a print job
- Generating PDFs
Acrobat
- Using Output Preview
- Using touch-up tools
- Converting colors
- Fixing those white lines
Conclusion
- Final thoughts
- Next steps