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35 Adobe InDesign Tutorials – Enhance your Print Medial Skills

admin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:25:19 +0000

35 Adobe InDesign Tutorials – Enhance your Print Medial Skills

Quick Tip: Create a Highlighted Text Effect With Adobe InDesign

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:00:41 +0000

Sometimes using a highlighted effect text gives a stronger emphasis and style to your design. In this quick tip we are going to achieve that effect by utilizing Paragraph Rules in Adobe InDesign. Let’s begin!

Step 1: Insert text

Create a new document at any size you want. Then insert… read more

Use Layer Comps in Photoshop to Improve Your InDesign Workflow

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 21:30:45 +0000

Layer comps are a great way to organize content inside Photoshop files. They allow you to save multiple design ideas in a single PSD while reducing the need to create duplicate layers. As you’ll see in this tutorial, layer comps can flow from Photoshop to InDesign making your workflow even… read more

The Future Of Screen Typography Is In Your Hands

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:52:34 +0000

We do more reading on the screen today than we did even a year ago. If we are ever to have a golden age of reading on the screen, this might be the start of it.

Tablets, Nooks and Kindles make buying a book or magazine for the screen almost unavoidable…. read more

Hands On: Apple’s iBooks Author App

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:59:41 +0000

Apple is hoping its new iBooks Author app will turn educators into authors, the same way iMovie and Garageband turned amateurs into audio and video editors.

Apple launched the app at its education event in New York City in conjunction with the revamped iTunes U and partnerships with various textbook publishers…. read more

Working with Professional Typography in Adobe Illustrator

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:00:20 +0000

I would like to dedicate this tutorial to typography, which are the methods of processing printed text for better legibility and beauty. Typography is composed through the graphic design of printed text using the specifics for that languages rules. In this Basix tutorial will be apply the typography methods and… read more

Using Mini Bridge with InDesign CS5

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:53:25 +0000

Jeff Witchel talks about the integration of Mini Bridge into InDesign CS5, which has made it much easier to use. Use Mini Bridge to open InDesign files, edit file names, show linked files, save snippets, and place images.

10 Full Magazine Layout Templates for InDesign and Photoshop

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:45:19 +0000

10 Full Magazine Layout Templates for InDesign and Photoshop

20 Inspiring Minimalist Web Designs

admin — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:48:11 +0000

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Minimal websites can be a pretty polemic issue, especially when we stop to think how minimal should a minimal site be? Some people think that a good minimal website is that which has few design elements as possible. While others believe that the number of elements… read more

Quick Tip: Locating Images using Mini Bridge in InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 21:00:42 +0000

Mini Bridge opens up within InDesign just like a panel. Mini Bridge doesn’t hold all the capabilities Adobe Bridge does, instead it operates efficiently by navigating and working with linked files. During this tut we are going to explore the potential for locating images via another InDesign document. Note,… read more

Best of the Vector Web – December 2011

admin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:00:13 +0000

Each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we showcase high quality tutorials on creating cubist style logos, speeding up your work in Illustrator and InDesign, and more. We have loads of tutorials, in addition to… read more

21 Examples of Subtle Textures and Patterns in Web Design

admin — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:22:20 +0000

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First of all, we would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! To kick things off for 2012, we’ve gathered some amazing examples of subtle textures and patterns in web design. The web sites in this collection demonstrate that you don’t always have to over… read more

75 Outstanding Tutorials, Quick Tips, Articles and Interviews from Vectortuts+ in 2011

admin — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:00:57 +0000

As the year comes to an end and we pack up our vector tools for some well deserved rest and relaxation, let’s take a look back at some of the best and most inspiring Vectortuts+ articles and tutorials for 2011.

The following collection is just a fraction of the fantastic content… read more

Six CSS Layout Features To Look Forward To

admin — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:02:04 +0000

A few concerns keep bobbing up now and then for Web developers, one of which relates to how to lay out a given design. Developers have made numerous attempts to do so with existing solutions. Several articles have been written on finding the holy grail of CSS layouts, but to… read more

A better project approval process

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:04:09 +0000

Source

15+ Best Desktop Publishing Resources and Beginner Tips

admin — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:04 +0000

Desktop publishing has become a critical business skill today, and the use of the Internet means that creation of print content is no longer the only consideration.

Now the documents you create likely have to be displayed in both print and on the web.

This article looks at how to determine… read more

Page Numbers in InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:45:16 +0000

AJ Wood opens up InDesign CS5 and talks about easy ways to add page numbers, continued page numbers, and sections to your InDesign document.

Quick Tip: An Introduction to Live Preflight with InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:00:04 +0000

Traditionally designers would check their layouts manually for errors by using a host of different menus or panels. Commonly known as Preflight, this process has now been turned on its head by the introduction of Live Preflight to InDesign. This feature checks for errors as you work displaying errors in… read more

Top 50 Web Development, Design and Application Icon Sets from 2011

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 18:05:46 +0000

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This is now our fourth year rounding up the the best icon sets for web designers and developers. And what another fantastic year 2011 it has been! You’ll love this selection.

All of the icon sets below have been split into several categories: Glyphs & Pictograms,… read more

Anchoring Objects in InDesign CS5.5

admin — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:14:05 +0000

Learn the basics of anchoring objects inside text using InDesign’s anchor options.

Quick Tip: Using Quick Apply in InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:00:18 +0000

Quick Apply is a feature that holds the ability to allow an InDesign user to save time when accessing styles, commands, scripts and features. The Quick Apply panel is a shortcut to everything InDesign offers.Find out more about this handy feature at the jump.

Step 1

Make sure you have an InDesign… read more

Best of the Vector Web – November 2011

admin — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:00:04 +0000

Each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we showcase high quality tutorials on creating interactive magazines in InDesign, which are destined for the iPad. We also work with basic geometric shapes in Illustrator, learn the… read more

20 Festive Holiday Theme Tutorials from Vectortuts+

admin — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:00:13 +0000

With the holidays fast approaching we have bundled together a collection festive illustration and decoration tutorials from the Vectortuts+ archives. Covering a variety of subjects from effects to illustration there’s plenty of projects to keep you busy during the silly season.

Quick Tip: Make a Cut Out Gift Tag with Adobe… read more

Quick Tip: Creating Live Captions in InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 21:00:13 +0000

Live captions are perfect for adding descriptions to images placed within an InDesign document. InDesign uses the metadata from an imported file and generates a text frame. For example, if you have a contact sheet set up from an image library you can use Live Caption to automatically add descriptions… read more

Clipping Masks in InDesign

admin — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:55:50 +0000

Without a dedicated menu item for creating a clipping mask, InDesign need to know the tricks for getting an image into a shape or text. AJ Wood shows InDesign users how to use the paste into command to insert an image into any fill-able frame or shape and to create… read more

Catalog Template – InDesign Freebie

admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:00:26 +0000

Today we have a catalog template, made available as a freebie for anyone to download. The design is by StockInDesign.com available in InDesign CS5 format. Have fun customizing the template for a project that calls out for a fun and unique design.

15 Illustrator Tutorials for Creating Isometric Illustrations

admin — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 19:00:21 +0000

We’re all looking to improve our vector illustration skills, and if your focus is on learning illustration or icon design, then getting familiar with how to use Adobe Illustrator to create isometric drawings will improve your technical illustration skills greatly. Learning how to use Illustrator to create isometric diagrams, set… read more

Quick Tip: Designing a Business Card with InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:00:29 +0000

Today we are going to take a business card design from first idea to preparing the file for print. So whether you need a business card for yourself or a client read on.

Step 1

Start sketching out a few ideas for your card, think about any special attributes you want to… read more

Ode To a Wooden Spoon – How The Right Tool Can Help You Design Better

admin — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:08:30 +0000

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Every chef has their favorite tool. Mine happens to be a wooden spoon I’ve had since forever. I call it “Suzie” (because I’m a weirdo). Some people actually keep their wooden spoons in the family for generations – talk about a collector’s item! Today, I’m… read more

Four Yahoo! Web Development Tools You May Not Know About

admin — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 14:55:48 +0000

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Anything that can save time for a web developer is well worth its weight in gold. Whether you’re looking to cut loading time for your website or make light work of placing interactive elements into a design, these four tools could help speed things up:

YUI… read more

DIY: Producing Your Photography Book

admin — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:00:56 +0000

Bike-tography: Combining Bicycling with Photography

Back in July, I wrote a review of Publish Your Photography Book by Darius Himes and Mary Virginia Swanson.

I finished that review by saying, “If you’d rather shun the commercial publishing route and travel the do-it-yourself road, be prepared for quite the learning experience. Because… read more

Bullets and Numbering in InDesign

admin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:53:09 +0000

A.J. Wood talks about bulleted and numbered lists in InDesign. These tips include how to create a forced line break inside a bulleted list, how to import lists from other documents, how to create paragraph styles to use with bulleted lists.

Style.com Goes Retro, Launches Print Magazine

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 22:07:34 +0000

The inaugural print issue of Style.com made its debut Monday, in an unusual move for a web magazine.

The issue, a recap of the spring 2012 runway collections, is an interesting adaptation of the web to print form. Large-format layouts, which are adorned with graphic elements from ’80s-era operating systems, look… read more

Best of the Vector Web – October 2011

admin — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 18:00:59 +0000

Each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we showcase high quality tutorials on creating layered, limited color, vector style artwork. We also have tutorials on creating self promotional books, using Illustrator’s Brush tool to create… read more

Quick Tip: Designing a Halloween Invitation with InDesign

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:00:28 +0000

It’s Halloween next week and if you are having a party you might need some last minute invites. Today’s tut contains the knowledge of how to design an invitation quickly. We are going to make the most of free online resources, including vectors and fonts.

You may want to print this… read more

13 Illustrator Tutorials for Creating Successful Print Self Promotions

admin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:00:47 +0000

We’re all looking to creatively reach out to potential clients and secure new work, grab interesting projects, and expand our network of professional contacts. Designing self promo print materials are a proven way to get attention. The more creative your graphic design self promotion is, the better you will stand… read more

Interview with Nicholas van der Walle

admin — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:00:08 +0000

Today our guest is Nicholas van der Walle, the proprietor of Astute Graphics. Astute Graphics has become world famous thanks to its Phantasm CS and VectorScribe plugins that make our work easier and more convenient. Among their customers there are such world famous brands as Adidas, Apple, NASA, Nike, Philips,… read more

A round-up of great vlogs and podcasts for designers

admin — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:39:08 +0000

Being a designer is not your average job: your work is constantly evolving, giving you new tools to either become more productive or to simply create better work. For that, we all do our best to read books, brush up our skills following some tutorials, subscribe to blogs or attend… read more

25 Unique Adobe InDesign Tutorials for Newbies

admin — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 09:45:11 +0000

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Masters of the Adobe software suite often lean towards graphic design or web development. When creating documents for print this can easily be transcribed in both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. However, Adobe InDesign allows you to create entire projects such as a magazines, online e-books, cover… read more

Quick Tip: Designing a Basic Compliment Slip with InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:00:34 +0000

Make the most of InDesign’s tools and features to create an Compliment Slip for yourself or client. During this tut we will explore the Page tool and palette, Guides and Rulers.

Before starting, if you haven’t done so already please read and complete my previous Quick Tip: Designing a Basic… read more

Interview with Shelby White (Wanken) + Giveaway

admin — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:46:55 +0000

Shelby White also known as WANKEN is visual designer and photographer currently living in Portland, Oregon. His blog is part of a quality content that will surely inspired your retro side on visuals and photography and more. He’s also the creator of Designspiration.net, image-based inspiration resource that is really on… read more

Quick Tip: Designing a Basic Letterhead with InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:00:33 +0000

For today’s Quick Tip we are going to set up a letterhead within InDesign. However, before we can start, you need to have a logo, some content (you can also use place holder text) and contact details ready. I will be using a logo from GraphicRiver which happens to be… read more

Guidelines to Writing a Web Design Proposal

admin — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 15:24:09 +0000

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Writing website proposals is boring. There are no two ways about it, but they’re a necessary evil. The proposal is the final push before our client signs on the dotted line. We need to make sure we have all our bases covered and that we project,… read more

How To Make An eBook

admin — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:58:08 +0000

Making an eBook is easy, regardless of your coding experience. This is good, because 99.9% of your time should be spent on writing and getting your book out there, rather than on technology.

EPUB And Kindle

Any electronic book can be called an eBook, but because over 90% of all eBooks are… read more

Weekly Design News – Resources, Tutorials and Freebies (N.105)

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:20:51 +0000

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This is our weekly column were we share our favorite design related articles, resources and cool tidbits from the past week. Enjoy :)

If you would like to receive our daily updates you can follow us on Twitter, on Facebookor by subscribing to our RSS feed.

How to… read more

30+ Genuinely Useful Mac Apps for Designers

admin — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:00:19 +0000

It’s hard to believe that we’re coming up on a year since the Mac App Store was first announced. It seems like only yesterday we were itching to get our hands on a marketplace full of great utilities, games and other goodies all custom tailored to the Mac platform.

While… read more

Quick Tip: An Introduction to Scripts in InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:00:45 +0000

Scripting is a sure way to save time when performing repetitive tasks within InDesign. Scripts will automatically complete a task for the user, for example, creating crop marks to a specified object. The following tut will serve as an introduction to scripting and will explore a few of the useful… read more

The Wisdom of Others: Turning Your Favorite Quotes Into a Book

admin — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:48:29 +0000

Most of our cultural tales, traditions, and legends started as stories that were handed down orally, generation to generation. The sayings and phrases that we think of without thinking were engrained into our consciousness by years of repetition, saying and hearing the same phrases over and over. Sometimes it might… read more

Quick Tip: An Introduction to Threading Text in InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:00:16 +0000

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. Lets take a look at the basics.

Step 1

Create a new… read more

Quick Tip: An Introduction to the Page Tool in InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 20:00:56 +0000

You may have missed the addition of the Page Tool to InDesign CS5. If you did, take ten minutes out to discover the capabilities this superb tool offers when working with multiple page sizes.

Step 1

For the purposes of this tutorial we are going to set an A4 and A5 page… read more

What’s new for designers – Sep. 2011

admin — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 15:34:15 +0000

The September edition of what’s new out there for web designers and developers includes new web apps, JavaScript frameworks, a couple of fun dummy text generators, useful apps for working with clients, and a number of great new fonts.

Many of the resources below are free or very low cost, and… read more

MailerLite Review, Save Time with Simple Email Marketing

admin — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:00:17 +0000

I work for a magazine publishing company with a very small staff. We use email marketing to let our advertisers know what is coming up in future issues, enticing them to advertise. There is no way our sales team can personally call and visit each and every one of… read more

Making Communication Valuable

admin — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:00:38 +0000

Design without functionality is useless. With the resources needed to design websites, videos and graphics at the fingertips of those who crave them, the value of communication today is evident. Many factors will shape the future of the creative design industry, so the more we share ideas the better. We… read more

Quick Tip: Creating Quick Grids and Using Live Distribute with InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 20:00:53 +0000

Within this tut we are going to explore the Grid and Live Distribute features. The following information will help you create fast grids as well as explaining how to distribute frames quickly. Let’s begin!

Step 1

Create a new document by going to File > New > Document or use Shortcut … read more

Adobe Muse Now in Free Public Beta, Makes Website Creation Easy

admin — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 02:53:25 +0000

Adobe released the public beta of its new website creation software, code-named Muse, on Monday.

Unlike Dreamweaver, Adobe’s flagship web development tool, Muse is for graphic designers who want to create elegant websites without having to code.

We’ve been playing with Muse for the past two weeks as part of the… read more

Mind Your En And Em Dashes: Typographic Etiquette

admin — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:37:39 +0000

An understanding of typographic etiquette separates the master designers from the novices. A well-trained designer can tell within moments of viewing a design whether its creator knows how to work with typography. Typographic details aren’t just inside jokes among designers. They have been built up from thousands of years of… read more

How Blurb Tapped Into the Burgeoning Self-Publishing Industry

admin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 23:00:28 +0000

The Extraordinary Entrepreneurs Series is supported by Diet Coke®. Now, the drink that helps you stay extraordinary brings you extraordinary people. Find Diet Coke® on Facebook for access to a whole lot of extraordinary.

For the last six years, Eileen Gittins has made it her mission to help anyone and everyone… read more

Better proof approval and management

admin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:51:29 +0000

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored review for Approval Manager

Any time you’re working in a team environment, it’s likely you’ll need a series of permissions and approvals for various stages of your project.

Managing all these approvals, making sure that they’re done on time, and making sure that the right versions of… read more

Typography Mania #92

admin — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:39:35 +0000

Typography Mania is a weekly post series that comes around every Wednesday with the best of Typography design works on the web, from type videos to images everything is full of great design and typography inspiration. Users can submit their typography designs.

Click here to check out all the previous… read more

Best of the Week #183

admin — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 21:29:33 +0000

It’s time for our best news of this week. We have a lot of graphic and web design, a bit of architecture, ads, tech news, awesome reads and other crazy stuff! So take a look at the links we’ve selected for your inspiration and to keep you updated about what’s… read more

Quick Tip: Create Compound Frames in InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 20:00:50 +0000

By using the pathfinder panel within InDesign CS5 it is possible to create a compound frame that can be used to import an image to create a unique effect. Find out more about Compound Frames at the jump.

Step 1

Start by creating a number of frames to work with. Select the… read more

Day of the Designer: Simon Birky Hartmann

admin — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 02:03:47 +0000

Editor’s note: This is the first in an interview series called Day of the Designer, where we’ll have a designer cover the basics of one of their works days. They can include pictures and screenshots of their day, share workflow tips, describe how they promote themselves and utilize social sites,… read more

Best of the Vector Web – July 2011

admin — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 22:25:55 +0000

Each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we showcase high quality tutorials on creating isometric 3D architectural lettering, rockstar clubtastic shades, as well as stylized logos, and more. We have loads of tutorials, in… read more

Quick Tip: The Gap Tool in InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 20:00:18 +0000

The Gap Tool can be used to adjust the white-space in-between and around page items. This tool holds the ability to allow the user to work quickly with item heavy layouts as well as viewing real-time changes.

Step 1

The Gap Tool is an awesome tool in its own right however,… read more

Quick Tip: Using the Auto-Fit feature in InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 20:00:13 +0000

The introduction of the Auto-Fit feature to CS5 should not be over looked. By the end of this Quick tip you – the designer – will be able to save some valuable time when importing images and graphics. Let’s take a look.

Step 1

To open the Auto-Fit feature go to Object… read more

Illustrator’s Type Tool: A Comprehensive Introduction

admin — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:00:51 +0000

A few times a each month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history of Vectortuts+. This tutorial by Ian Yates was first published on October 4th 2008.

Type is an essential part of Illustrator; whether you’re desktop publishing, designing logos, or using type for image building,… read more

The Secrets Behind Successful Design Podcasts

admin — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:13:58 +0000

In a time when designers are often too busy to network and seek further education, podcasts have become available to teach so we can learn while we go about our business. I recently “met” Kitty Florido on Twitter when I asked for graphic design podcast recommendations. Florido is a graphic… read more

50 Must Have Cheat Sheets For Web Designers & Developers

admin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 22:02:23 +0000

Today we are featuring a collection of more than 50 extremely useful cheat sheets that every designer and developer must have. A cheat sheet is a guide of a peculiar programming language, software or framework that can be printed for easy access.

Cheat sheets are basically intended for those designers and… read more

Quick Tip: Adding Movies and Sounds to InDesign PDFs

admin — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 20:00:43 +0000

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Did you know that you can add movie and sound files to an InDesign CS4 project letting you build an Interactive document? In this Quick Tip you’ll learn how to embed files and export your final work to Adobe PDF.

Introduction

This quick tip was written using the features of… read more

Tool Hints in InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:24:55 +0000

Questions about a tool? Use InDesign CS5′s new tool hints menu option to get information.

Top Freelance Jobs from Job Board – Week 2, July

admin — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 21:00:21 +0000

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Looking for a new client? The FreelanceSwitch job board is a great resource of freelance gigs and opportunities. These opportunities are in various fields, from development to writing to design, and come from a wide range of potential clients. The job board is hand-moderated by dedicated… read more

Quick Tip: How to Use Notes and add Comments to InDesign CS5 Documents

admin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:00:28 +0000

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The notes mode is perfect for adding comments to existing copy within an InDesign document. Notes can be added, but are not visible in the body of the text, instead these notes are hidden and can be viewed in the Notes panel or Story Editor. If you usually keep… read more

Best of the Vector Web – June 2011

admin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:00:57 +0000

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Each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we showcase high quality tutorials on creating dramatic lighting effects in Illustrator, making super-sweet chocolaty styled lettering, designing neon vector effects, and more. We have loads of… read more

22 Professional Video Tutorials of Adobe InDesign

admin — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 07:50:39 +0000

22 Professional Video Tutorials of Adobe InDesign

Working with Track Changes in InDesign CS5

admin — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:00:15 +0000

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The Track Changes panel is a handy feature that gives the user the ability to view all significant changes made to an existing story. Changes can be kept for reference or discarded once checked and approved. The feature can also be useful when there is more than one contributor… read more

HTML5 and CSS3 Form References, Resources and Tutorials

admin — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:47:02 +0000

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This article explores some of the new HTML5 form features and how it has greatly improved text inputs, search boxes and other form fields by providing better and cleaner controls for validating data allowing you to build complicated forms with far less code and even less… read more

A Web Developer’s Guide To Adobe InDesign

admin — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 22:10:06 +0000

Over the past several years, there has been a big divide between designers: those who work in print distribution and those in digital distribution. The irony is that, despite the disputes, name-calling and flat-out arguments between the two camps, their techniques and methods are far more common than many believe…. read more

Get Started with Adobe InDesign and Illustrator, Basix Tutorials from Vectortuts+

admin — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 20:00:53 +0000

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Get started with Adobe Illustrator and Indesign with this handy collection of beginner tutorials from the archives at Vectortuts+. We’re adding to our Basix category all the time, so be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay upto date with all the news, articles and tutorials… read more

Working with Track Changes: InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:00:26 +0000

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The Layers Panel: InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:00:15 +0000

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The new layers panel added to InDesign CS5 is packed with features that can really speed up your operating pace. The panel now resembles Adobe’s Illustrator Layer panel and has borrowed many of its useful features. So if you are new InDesign or have simply overlooked this addition read… read more

TypeDNA 2

admin — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:01:12 +0000

Much More Than Just a Font Manager

The text-handling tools in Photoshop are mostly adequate, assuming you know which fonts you want to use and have them activated. But what if you’re exploring and you want to try combinations of fonts that aren’t currently active, and maybe get a little… read more

10 Clever Laptop Cooling Solutions [PICS]

admin — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:47:59 +0000

As the weather heats up for summer, we’ve taken a look at some laptop cooling solutions to help keep your portable PC nice and chilled.

Whether it’s a full-on fan stand or simply a pad to prevent your thighs from getting too toasty, there’s something for everyone. And with prices starting… read more

All About Grunge: 60 Useful Examples, Tutorials and Free Resources

admin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 19:03:39 +0000

Grunge style and look is getting quite popular these days and it doesn’t look as if it is going to be disappeared soon. A grunge style stands apart from other design styles and mostly holds a worn or stained look that also can appear worn out, old or out of… read more

Working with Nested Styles in InDesign

admin — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 19:45:57 +0000

Using nested styles, InDesign users can create a single paragraph with multiple character styles inside of it.

Poll Results: What Type of Computer do you use for Design?

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 20:00:01 +0000

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Some of you may remember that a few weeks ago we asked the question, "What type of Computer do you use?". The results are in and it looks like a tie between Mac OS and Windows. See the breakdown and read some of the reader responses after the jump.

Question

“Mac… read more

Quick Tip: InDesign Working with Tabs

admin — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 20:00:09 +0000

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If you ever worked with a text processor you should be familiar of "Tabs". When you press the Tab (Tabulator) key the cursor is displaced to the next tab stop; this is particularly useful when you need to organize content in a document. This Quick Tip is an introduction… read more

Clipping Path Options in InDesign CS5

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:59:24 +0000

AJ Wood shows viewers how to use clipping path options to separate image subjects from their backgrounds when working with InDesign documents.

Quick Tip: Using the Story Editor in InDesign CS5

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 20:00:06 +0000

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The Story Editor feature within InDesign is a great tool to know and utilise. Once mastered, you will be able to edit text clearly without distraction from formatting. Story Editor also has other advantages when handling text heavy documents. Instead of zooming and moving back and forth, the Story… read more

Best of the Vector Web – May 2011

admin — Tue, 31 May 2011 18:00:36 +0000

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Each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we showcase high quality tutorials on creating vector portraits, composing character based type illustrations, creating shiny illustrative icons, and more. We have loads of tutorials, in addition… read more

The Secret To Freelancing – FOLLOW DIRECTIONS!

admin — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:00:28 +0000

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A young digital Illustrator e-mailed me after seeing a post of mine on a business networking site. He asked, “After reading your profile, I would love to hear anything else you have to offer regarding the inside of the industry!”

Credit: Mykl Roventine on Flickr

I wrote back,… read more

3 Steps to Igniting Your Design Planning Process

admin — Fri, 27 May 2011 17:00:18 +0000

Advertise here with BSA

Credit: elenathewise on Photodune

More than once, I’ve made the mistake of diving head first into a project, full of enthusiasm and brimming with ideas. After a quick consult with what seems to be an agreeable and understanding client, I’m already half a dozen logo concepts down… read more

Quick Tip: Eleven Tricks That Will Help Your Workflow in InDesign

admin — Wed, 25 May 2011 20:00:01 +0000

Advertise here

Today we have 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. Let’s begin!

1. InDesign the Calculator

Within the Control or Transform Palette it is possible to calculate and resize objects…. read more

InDesign Preflight Profiles

admin — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:16:37 +0000

This video gives some tips on setting up your own custom preflight profile in InDesign.

Quick Tip: Working with Text Wrap and Fit Content Options in Adobe InDesign

admin — Wed, 11 May 2011 20:00:00 +0000

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Adobe In Design lets you wrap text around any object, including text frames and imported images. There are different styles to choose from and some features you can set up including the distance between the text and object frame. In the following Quick Tip you will learn more… read more

Quick Tip: Create a Unique Table of Contents with Adobe InDesign

admin — Thu, 05 May 2011 20:00:25 +0000

Advertise here

Today we will take a quick look at how to be creative with style sheets and make a unique and highly editable table of contents in InDesign. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Document Setup

Create a new document; the default setting should do just fine. Create a text box… read more

Acrobat X Pro

admin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 21:23:28 +0000

The Emperor Has New Clothes
Considering Acrobat 9 has been out for almost two and a half years (a long time—software years are like dog years), Acrobat X is surprisingly short of new features. Granted, Acrobat X (read ten) is a mature program and new, exciting features are harder… read more

Cutting Corners in InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:10:00 +0000

Explore the new corner options that are available when designing with InDesign CS5.

Should Your API Be Free or Pay-to-Play?

admin — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:50:03 +0000

The Web Development Series is supported by Rackspace, the better way to do hosting. Learn more about Rackspace’s hosting solutions here.

In our ongoing series on APIs, we’ve covered whether to offer an API and how to get people using it. Now, we’re delving into one of the… read more

Adobe InDesign CS5, Advanced Typography and Special Characters

admin — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 18:00:59 +0000

Adobe’s InDesign is considered to be the most advanced multi-page editor software, but we need to take advantage of it’s full power to quickly create and deliver professionally formatted documents. In this article, we’ll review the nine advanced and special character topics, as well as corresponding shortcut keys, and additional… read more

Improve Your Illustrator Skills

admin — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 15:39:30 +0000

There are countless tutorials available on the net to learn the basic skills of Adobe Illustrator. Some of them are of very basic, while some help you with learning the more advanced skills. Adobe Illustrator is an amazing design tool with such depth that exploring its many possibilities can take… read more

Quick Tip: Master Text Threading in Adobe InDesign

admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:00:21 +0000

Using InDesign’s Text Threading capabilities can save you time when you need to make changes to the content because when a text frame is filled up the content will move on to the next frame; this is particularly helpful when working with magazines or brochures layouts. Threading gives you the… read more

A more affordable Adobe CS 5.5

admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 17:27:16 +0000

Source

25 Indesign Tutorials

admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 08:20:59 +0000

25 Indesign Tutorials

Webpop Review – Cloud CMS For Web Designers And Clients

admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:10:04 +0000

I’ve had the opportunity recently to beta test a new application made specifically for web designers called “Webpop”.

Webpop is the Cloud CMS for Designers and their Clients with integrated SEO and Analytics Tools that allows full control over the design and a very easy and awesome dashboard for the owner… read more

Quick Tip: Working with Rulers and Guides in Adobe InDesign

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:00:26 +0000

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.

Rulers

By default when you open any document you’ll see the rulers on the top and left… read more

Top Freelance Jobs from Job Board – Week 1, April

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:00:09 +0000

Quick Tip: How to Batch Replace Characters and Glyphs

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Whether you live in a non-english speaking country, or find yourself editing text for clients in other languages, you’re very likely to need a quick way to add glyphs and diacritics to words in InDesign. In the following Quick Tip you will learn how.

Introduction

Suppose you receive a text document from… read more

A Crash Course in Typography: Paragraphs and Special Characters

admin — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:11:26 +0000

Body copy makes up the majority of many websites. Headlines and other bits of typography are often considered more fun to design, or more artistic, but without a good design for your body copy, your overall project will suffer.

Body copy design requires you to consider two separate… read more

How to Make Your Own Digital Photo Book

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:06:53 +0000

A Guest Post by Photo Book Girl.

Since jumping into the world of digital photography – like most folks, I rarely ever printed out my photos anymore. Slipping photos into plastic sleeves had long lost its charm and my photos gathered virtual dust, hidden away in some long forgotten folder…. read more

Best of the Vector Web – March 2011

admin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:00:38 +0000

Each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we showcase high quality tutorials on vector poster design, designing cafe menus, shooting your print work for your digital portfolio, and more. We have loads of tutorials, in… read more

Quick Tip: Working with CS Review and InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 20:00:38 +0000

This tutorial shows how you can quickly upload your InDesign document for collaborative online commenting via Acrobat.com. This is a great trick if you work as part of a remote team, or need quick feedback from clients, best of all, the comments stay in your InDesign document!

Step 1

Design… read more

Architecture Sources of Inspiration

admin — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:54:58 +0000

Architecture surrounds us everyday, and because of that we sometimes overlook it as a potential source of inspiration. But architecture and interior design can inspire us for virtually any project. There are dozens of architectural styles out there, both formal and informal, to appeal to almost every taste.

Quick Tip: How to Fix Corrupt InDesign Files

admin — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:00:20 +0000

If you regularly use InDesign, you may find that from time to time a file may be corrupt and glitch. In this Quick Tip you will learn a technique that may help recover your file in just a few easy steps.

Introduction

If you have a file that wont open, keeps… read more

19 Free UI Design Tools, Toolkits and Resources For Designers (Part 2)

admin — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 22:35:24 +0000

Having a nice and complete set of web user interface always come in handy for a web designer in order to simplify and ease the design process. Designing user interface particularly in the initial stages is a difficult thing and UI design elements can come handy.

This is… read more

Design Charts for Better Typography and Color

admin — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:04:05 +0000

We’re designers, so it makes sense that a lot of us are visual learners and do better looking at charts and graphs than reading an article or listening to a podcast. Typography and color are two great topics that are perfectly suited for infographics, charts, and other graphical learning tools.read more

Our Favorite Tweets of the Week Mar 14-Mar 20, 2011

admin — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:37:49 +0000

Source

Adobe InDesign Tips I Wish I’d Known When Starting Out

admin — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 08:40:04 +0000

Adobe InDesign Tips I Wish I’d Known When Starting Out

Using Camera Raw Smart Objects in InDesign

admin — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 00:24:16 +0000

Use the power of Camera Raw Smart Objects to create an editable design layout in InDesign. Dave also shows users how to use Photoshop layer comps to experiment with different versions of the image.

Art Files 2

admin — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 22:00:46 +0000

ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR FILE COLLECTION

A feature long missing from Illustrator is the ability to collect graphics and fonts similar to the InDesign Package feature. Art Files was created to fill that oversight. Of course, I think file collection should be a basic function of Illustrator but I blame Adobe, not Code… read more

Adobe InDesign Tips I Wish I’d Known When Starting Out

admin — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:06:41 +0000

I love Adobe InDesign. For multi-page documents, it’s the most flexible and complete application out there. Yet I remember how counter-intuitive some things were when I was learning it for the first time. Here are some tips I wish I had known when starting out, as well as some answers… read more

Using InDesign to Publish Your iPad Magazine

admin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 22:01:38 +0000

Adobe just took the wraps off the long-awaited Digital Publishing Suite that powers the Wired magazine and The New Yorker iPad apps. With InDesign CS5 at the core, you can now author your layouts, including interactive content, and export it out in the new .issue format.

1 CREATE A NEW… read more

8 Powerful & Inexpensive Desktop Design Apps

admin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:06:49 +0000

The Cross-Platform Apps Series is supported by VMware Fusion, the best way to run Windows on your Mac. Click here to learn more about VMware Fusion. To keep up with VMware Fusion updates, follow the “TeamFusion” blog or on Twitter or Facebook.

One of the most costly and… read more

InDesign Tutorial – How to create Rounded Corners on a Table in InDesign

admin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 06:40:04 +0000

InDesign Tutorial – How to create Rounded Corners on a Table in InDesign

Quick Tip: Create a Gift Voucher in InDesign

admin — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:00:51 +0000

In this tutorial you will learn how to create a simple gift voucher. You will use pictures and text to create nice clean layout that’s perfect to print.

Step 1

Create a new InDesign document and set the page size to 210 x 99 mm. This specific size is also known as… read more

10 Easy Secrets to Quickly Become a Great Web Designer

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 08:28:29 +0000

There was a time, not so long ago, when business was good for designers. Jobs were plentiful, and being a “good” designer was good enough. Then the economy tanked, and the world was thrown into a nasty recession. Many businesses stopped hiring, many designers were laid-off, and competition for all… read more

Art of Type: How Fine is Too Fine

admin — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:22:49 +0000

InDesign offers fine control over your type, but there’s such a thing as too fine: You can waste lots of time making minute changes that yield little. In this column, we’ll look at some of those controls to see just how fine is fine enough.

The basics
Let’s start with a… read more

The @Font-Face Rule and Useful Web Font Tricks

admin — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:26:24 +0000

The possibility of embedding any font you like into websites via @font-face is an additional stylistic device which promises to abolish the monotony of the usual system fonts. It surely would be all too easy if there was only one Web font format out there. Instead, there’s quite a variety,… read more

Quick Tip: How to Make Tables With Rounded Corners in InDesign

admin — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 21:00:14 +0000

This tutorial will show you how to make fully editable tables with rounded corners in InDesign, quickly and easily. It’s actually a bit trickier than you would expect it to be, but if you follow this Quick Tip you will be making great looking tables in no-time!

Step 1

Design… read more

Smashing Email Newsletter Turns One Year Old: Comment and Win!

admin — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:39:17 +0000

As most of you may already know, every second Tuesday of a month we send out an email newsletter to our subscribers (over 50,000 at the moment). Every newsletter issue contains exclusive, short articles that present recent design techniques, freebies as well as useful resources and tools. We work hard… read more

Best of the Vector Web – February 2011

admin — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:00:23 +0000

Each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we showcase high quality tutorials on music cover creation, using Illustrator and InDesign to create affordable self promotional material, and more. We have loads of tutorials, in addition… read more

Quick Tip: Quick Masking with the Pen Tool in InDesign

admin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:00:57 +0000

Let’s say you are up against a tight deadline and you need to send a proof within a matter of hours to a client. Within your design you want to include a clipping path and exclude an unwanted background on one of your photographs. You don’t really have time to… read more

Design Makeover: Monster Ball

admin — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:57:48 +0000

Client:
Swing Goth www.swinggoth.com

Before

Swing Goth was born out of an attempt to marry partner dancing with modern music. “We dream of a future where dancing with each other is once again the norm, but we’re unlike other partner dancing clubs in that we dance to modern music,” said Brian… read more

Quick Tip: Setting Margins using InDesign

admin — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:00:53 +0000

As you will have heard countless times, white space is a very important element to a successful layout. A large proportion of a white space will typically be occupied by margins. The purpose of this tut is to give new InDesign users the knowledge on setting up margins and their… read more

70+ Fresh and Creative Single Page Website Designs

admin — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:25:57 +0000

As you’ve already seen in our previous posts about Single Page Website Designs that showcasing your work in single page design is a hot trend now days. It’s kind of ironic to see what designers can do with single pages as modern age designers love to experiment with things and… read more

Quick Tip: Using Em Dashes, En Dashes and Hyphens within InDesign

admin — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:00:32 +0000

When using dashes you have three options available, a hyphen, an en dash and an em dash. Choosing the right dash for the job in hand is usually overlooked and misunderstood. This Quick Tip will outline the differences between the three dashes as well as advice on when and how… read more

Learning at the Speed of Technology

admin — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:00:41 +0000

If you’ve been using design software for as long as I have, you will no doubt have more than a few obsolete skills up your sleeve. Those of you who have mastered the notoriously difficult QuarkXPress will know what I mean. Dropping to a 25% market share, behind InDesign, many… read more

Useful Typography Tips For Adobe Illustrator

admin — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:45:20 +0000

Typography is not only an all-important aspect of design, it is also an art form in and of itself. Choosing the right font, the perfect spacing and even the correct shape of text can be an important factor as to whether a project fails or succeeds. Although Illustrator is not really used… read more

Top Freelance Jobs from Job Board

admin — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:30:16 +0000

25 Creative and Challenging Vector Poster Design Tutorials

admin — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:48:11 +0000

Jump into this roundup of some of the most creative and challenging vector poster design tutorials on the web. There is a large assortment of styles and approaches here to review, from spacey psychedelic poster design, to geometrically influenced poster design, to robotic stomping power, to retro aesthetics and more…. read more

15 Free Alternatives to Popular Mac Software

admin — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:53:21 +0000

There’s a huge range of amazing paid software out there, but more often than not there is some form of free alternative. For those of us who can’t afford to spend up on every great app we desire, gathered here are 15 great free pieces of software that achieve… read more

Quick Tip: How to Impose Business Cards for Digital Printing with InDesign

admin — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 15:00:13 +0000

Sometimes you find yourself in a situation when your client needs to quickly print some business cards and you are the one, who gets the responsibility to do it. In this tutorial you will learn how quickly an effectively impose business card without using any paid imposition plug-in, using some… read more

Quick Tip: Importing Multiple Graphics using InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:00:45 +0000

Since CS4, InDesign has held the capability to import multiple graphics quickly and all at once. The feature allows the user to place a number of graphics on a document arranged within a grid. This can be particularly useful if you are designing a contact sheet, story board or similar… read more

Quick Tip: Create an InDesign Table from an Excel File

admin — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:27:13 +0000

In this tutorial we are going to take a look at how to create a table from an Excel file using Table Styles. To spice things little bit up we will add a neat drop shadow effect to our table and also a nice background image. Let’s get started!

Tutorial Assets

The… read more

Creating an Interactive Portfolio with InDesign

admin — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 15:44:17 +0000

Up until now, whenever I’d mention creating an interactive document with InDesign, the first thing most people would think is, “He must be talking about making a PDF.” While you can certainly still make interactive PDFs from InDesign, you can do so much more using the InDesign CS5 interactive features.

1… read more

Quick Tip: Importing Graphics using InDesign CS5

admin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:00:46 +0000

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… read more

Productive Web Design With… Adobe Illustrator?

admin — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 17:20:22 +0000

Admittedly, Adobe Illustrator is often most certainly not the first choice that comes to mind when it comes to Web design. Fireworks and Photoshop are used much more often, and there are some good reasons for that. Still, although Illustrator has traditionally been used for drawing illustrations and logos, you… read more

Creative Suite Advantages in Photoshop CS5

admin — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 16:25:33 +0000

Creative Suite advantages

Needless to say, Photoshop is an extremely powerful tool. Add in the other Creative Suite programs and there’s even more amazing possibilities. Here we’ll look at how to combine Photoshop, Bridge, and InDesign to create easily updated contact sheets, and then show you six ways to use Photoshop… read more

How to get promoted to a Senior Level Designer or Creative Director

admin — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 05:35:16 +0000

1. Work extra hours

Sure the average is 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. With that amount of effort you will probably stay stagnant and grow moldy (I’m kidding). But I bet if you ask any senior designer or art director if he/she has gotten to that career point… read more

Fantastic InDesign Tuts from Vectortuts+

admin — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:00:59 +0000

At Vectortuts+ we love your feedback, it helps us bring you the very best tutorials and articles about the things that you want to learn. One request that’s been coming though loud and clear has been that you would like to read more fantastic tutorials and Quick Tips about InDesign…. read more

Adobe Captivate 5

admin — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:20:19 +0000

E-LEARNING SOFTWARE NOW CROSS-PLATFORM

Adobe Captivate is a program that allows the creation of online demonstrations and interactive assessments, usually of other software programs, but it can be used for presentations, too. Although Captivate has been around for a quite some time, this is the first version available for… read more

The Art of Type: Stroke, Stroke, Stroke

admin — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 16:19:40 +0000

The InDesign Stroke panel can spice up your type in surprising ways. Veteran readers of this column know that I generally take a dim view of electronically manipulated type. When type is electronically oblique or expanded, it doesn’t look as though it came from another typeface, it simply looks fake—ill… read more

Make the Most of Two Colors in Illustrator

admin — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:33:00 +0000

After an article about 2-color printing from InDesign, Jeff decided to see what he could with Adobe Illustrator.

Quick Tip: Importing Type Using InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:00:15 +0000

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. In turn this will… read more

How to Be Productive Over the Holiday Season

admin — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 15:00:15 +0000

It’s the end of the year and many freelancers and studios will be winding back their work over the holiday period. Rather than seeing this time as a lull in your schedule, take the opportunity to fine tune your folio and get a kick start into the new year! The… read more

Animating in InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 17:41:14 +0000

Jeff Witchel shows InDesign users how to use the Animation panel in CS5 to animate a layout to be interactive.

Designer Spotlight: Lee Calderon

admin — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 17:30:10 +0000

Lee Calderon was born in Southern California, where he lived, dreamt up designs, and created art, until moving to colorful Colorado about four years ago. His creative journey began, perhaps like most budding artists, closely surrounded by a stack of papers and loads of crayons. In fact, even to this… read more

Christmas 2010: 25 cool and unusual things you can buy online

admin — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 08:08:32 +0000

Speak-er | $99.95

Meat Medley Plush Toy & Pillow | From $59.99 to $169.99

Mouth tea pot | From $110.00

Crumpled City Maps | €12.00

Calendar 2011 | From £20

Tea sub | $16

Alien abduction lamp | $100

Rain Level | €69,00

Transformer Filepack | $10.00

Ghost lamps | $69.99

The Duddha Rug | $300.00

Stamp Rug | Contact… read more

Package Central

admin — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:58:16 +0000

AUTOMATED PACKAGING FOR ADOBE INDESIGN

Packaging InDesign files takes up valuable time and computer resources—simply put, Package Central offloads the actual collection of the graphic files to another system. The software is easy to set up and use: Install the Package Central server and then install the User Components… read more

Why Typography is the Soul of Web Design?

admin — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:14:33 +0000

Typography is integral to web design. The various uses of text on the web, from large headlines and bold blocks to small body, indicate the importance of typography; it is a combination of art and science.

Type is everywhere, doing everything; all websites rely on text and font to convey their… read more

Quick Tip: Automatic Formatting using GREP Styles in Adobe InDesign

admin — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 15:00:16 +0000

InDesign’s GREP styles are the magic of automatic formatting. In this Quick Tip we will explain how to set up GREP styles and how you can use them to for a consistent and efficient design.

Step 1: Understanding Regular Expressions

GREP styles are character styles that InDesign applies to a specific part… read more

Creating iBooks (EPUBs)

admin — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:42:44 +0000

There’s no denying that the Apple iPad is a popular and successful product. One of the things I was most intrigued by was the format that Apple chose for their eBooks (iBooks). The good news is that they went with the industry standard EPUB format, and the even better news… read more

Creative Reviews Don’t Have to be Torture

admin — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:20:53 +0000

If you’re a creative pro, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a photo, logo, layout, or video, someone’s got to review and approve your work. I’ve never met anyone who thought this process was fun, and it can be a huge hassle, especially if you have a big team of reviewers… read more

Project ROME: All in One Content Creation & Publishing

admin — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:40:40 +0000

If we choose to forget the outrageous sticker price of Adobe’s creative suite apps, nobody can deny that they make some of the most awesome tools in the digital world. All their tools are built and distributed targeting hardcore professionals who happen to be the experts in their digital domain…. read more

A Close Look at Adobe CS Review

admin — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:30:53 +0000

Adobe’s CS Live online service includes a ton of useful tools for designers and their clients.

Adobe CS Review is just one such tool, but arguably might be one of the most useful for many designers.

CS Review is a free (for the first year, at least) service that allows… read more

Book Cover Design in InDesign CS5

admin — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:44:00 +0000

There is a new feature in InDesign CS5 that allows users to include multiple page sizes in the same document. Jeff Witchel experimented with this new feature and found that it could be very useful when laying out a book jacket design. Watch this video and see how he did… read more

Interactive States in InDesign CS5

admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:58:57 +0000

Dave Cross is working in InDesign CS5 and in shares a tutorial about working with states and the Adobe Digital Publishing System to create an interactive document.

The Ultimate InDesign Toolbox

admin — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:21:14 +0000

by Robert Bowen

Having recently published the Illustrator toolbox, we thought we would continue down the print design path and follow up with our next toolbox in this same arena. Welcome to the Ultimate InDesign Toolbox for all of those designers and graphic artists who use this valuable tool for all… read more

Quick Tip: Creating New Documents, InDesignCS5

admin — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 15:00:18 +0000

This Basix tutorial will give readers with no or limited InDesign experience the basic knowledge on how to set-up a document for print.

Step 1

Open InDesign and you will be presented with an introduction screen. It is here where we will start to create the new document. But before we create… read more

Art of Type: Changing the Rules

admin — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:12:33 +0000

Lines and rules aren’t the most scintillating aspects of typography, but beneath their dull appearances lurk some interesting graphic capabilities you might not have considered. In this column, we’ll look at some useful tricks you can perform combining InDesign styles with its controls over paragraph rules and underscores.

All… read more

Best of the Vector Web – October 2010

admin — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 13:00:34 +0000

As you know, each month, we search the web for the best vector-related content and showcase it here for you all to enjoy. This month, we found some really great tutorials on creating magazine layouts, illustrative vector type, and drawing vector water, among others. Grab your quick dose of colorful… read more

Daily Inspiration #656

admin — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 21:33:31 +0000

This post is part of our daily series of posts showing the most inspiring images selected by some of the Abduzeedo’s writers and users. If you want to participate and share your graphic design inspiration, just send us, via email, the image with the link from where you found it,… read more

New Adobe Suite Helps Publishers Create “Wired”-Style Digital Magazines

admin — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 17:47:13 +0000

At its MAX 2010 worldwide conference in LA this week, Adobe will unveil its Digital Publishing Suite, a set of turnkey hosted services that will allow publishers to more easily create robust, interactive digital publications. The Digital Publishing Suite has already been used to create the iPad edition of… read more

How Predictive Analytics Can Make Money for Social Networks

admin — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:45:05 +0000

Dr. Rado Kotorov is chief innovation officer at Information Builders, and is responsible for emerging reporting, analytic and visualization technologies. He has developed analytic models and applications for the pharmaceutical, retail, CPG, financial and automotive industries.

You’ve likely been experiencing a deluge of online information coming at you in recent years… read more

A Look Inside InDesign CS5

admin — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:00:53 +0000

InDesign CS5 has arrived with lot of new tools, panels and features. Let’s have a closer look at these changes and discover how they can improve our workflow, productivity and, best of all, our creative process. Time to also think outside of the box, since InDesign is starting to explore… read more

URL2hyperlink

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:50:36 +0000

AUTO CONVERSION OF HYPERLINKS

Formatting hyperlinks in InDesign CS3 and CS4 is a pain—they have to be formatted one at a time. That means that every new hyperlink has to be selected and made into a URL destination. Granted this isn’t hard, just unnecessary.

URL2hyperlink adds a few new menus to… read more

50 New Useful CSS Techniques, Tutorials and Tools

admin — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:42:04 +0000

These are great times for front-end developers. After months of exaggerated excitement about HTML5 and CSS3, the web design community now starts coming up with CSS techniques that actually put newly available technologies to practical use instead of abusing them for pure aesthetic purposes. We see fewer “pure CSS images”… read more

What’s New for Web Designers – Oct. 2010

admin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:30:39 +0000

New apps and websites seem to be appearing on an almost daily basis, but trying to find the good ones among them can be tough, especially considering how many are not that great.

That’s why every month we research and showcase some of the best and latest resources available for web… read more

The Reinvention of Print, One App at a Time

admin — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 23:07:52 +0000

On the ninth floor of a nondescript building in New York City is a very unique company that is poised to change the future of publishing. This company has more than 11,000 apps in the App Store, deals with some of the biggest players in publishing and is able to… read more

Setting Up Live Captions in InDesign CS5

admin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 17:31:24 +0000

Creating captions, one of the most mundane tasks in page layout, can now be automated in InDesign CS5. Using an image’s metadata, InDesign can create live captions. The beauty here is that once it’s set up in your document, your captions will automatically update if the image changes or if… read more

Designing The 2010 Cleveland Browns Season Tickets

admin — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 14:00:10 +0000

Is everyone ready for some football? Today, we have a special treat for you. Chris Modarelli, Art director and Senior Designer for the Cleveland Browns has taken some time from his busy schedule to walk us through the process of creating a season ticket design for the Cleveland Browns. Let’s… read more

35 Excellent Wireframing Resources

admin — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 13:50:01 +0000

By Cameron Chapman

Wireframing is an important part of the design process, one that shouldn’t be overlooked by even the most experienced designers. Wireframes can save development time by outlining exactly how a site should look and function, in a manner that can be shown to and approved by your clients.

But… read more

Use Color-Logic Plug-ins to Create a Metallic Magazine Cover – Vector Premium Tutorial – Part 2

admin — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:45:18 +0000

Today, we have another Vector Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members. If you want to take your layout and production skills to the next level, then we have an awesome two part tutorial for you. Learn more after the jump!

This Premium Tutorial is Filled with Creative Tips

In this two-part… read more

Quick Tip: Creating a Custom Text Box using Type and InDesign

admin — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:00:31 +0000

Setting type using InDesign doesn’t have to be about drawing simple square and rectangle boxes. In this tutorial you will learn how you can use the actual type to create a custom shaped text box.

Step 1

First, create a new document or open an existing document. Select the type tool… read more

Jason Schwartzman Strips Naked for “The New Yorker” iPad App [VIDEO]

admin — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 22:43:47 +0000

Quirky actor Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) introduced The New Yorker’s iPad app [iTunes link] in a hilarious video ad directed by Roman Coppola.

The 2-minute clip opens with Schartzman waking up in bed; it seems innocuous at first. After a rather surprising lick, you know you’re in… read more

Getting To Grips With InDesign Part 7: Working With Book Files

admin — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 05:00:33 +0000

Getting To Grips With InDesign Part 7: Working With Book Files

Clear Your Mind to Focus on What Matters

admin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:02:57 +0000

Mental overload sucks. Having too much on your mind can overwhelm you and prevent you from being effective with your work, enjoying the moment, and having a clear mind.

And it’s having a clear mind that can really help you focus on what matters – in your work and life. Anything… read more

Text Layout Framework in Flash Player 10

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 17:23:39 +0000

If you’d like to download the file used in this tutorial to practice these techniques, visit www.layersmagazine.com and navigate to the Magazine section. All files are for personal use only.

Adobe released a powerful new text engine in Flash Player 10 called Text Layout Framework (TLF). At the time, there was… read more

Our Favorite Tweets of the Week Sep 5-Sep 11, 2010

admin — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 11:24:58 +0000

Every week we tweet a lot of interesting stuff highlighting great content that we find on the web that can be of interest to web designers.

The best way to keep track of our tweets is simply to follow us on Twitter, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick… read more

Placing Images in InDesign CS5

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 16:49:25 +0000

RC goes over his favorite ways to place images inside of an InDesign document.

Getting To Grips With Adobe InDesign

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 13:00:38 +0000

Getting To Grips With Adobe InDesign

What Is The Worst Design or Programming Mistake You’ve Ever Made?

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:53:02 +0000

Mistakes are made every day in the design and development world. It’s nothing to be ashamed of; it happens. In fact, mistakes are one of the most powerful learning tools at our disposal. Our mistakes impart important lessons that we carry with us as we continue to hone our skill… read more

What Apple’s Guideline Changes Mean for Developers

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 22:49:14 +0000

Five months after declaring that iOS apps developed with a cross-compiler would not be accepted into the App Store, Apple has eased up on its policies and reversed course.

Beyond just being less stringent about what sorts of tools can be used to build apps, Apple has also published an App… read more

Designing and Producing Creative Business Cards: Techniques and Details

admin — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:34:17 +0000

Plenty of creative business card showcases are available out there. Many of these are beautifully done and well thought out, and they serve as inspiration for those who would like their business card to be more than the standard rectangular piece of paper. Yet little explanation accompanies these examples, and… read more

InDesign CS5: Layers Panel Rebuilt

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:32:29 +0000

Jeff Witchel explores some of the changes that InDesign CS5 has made to the layers panel, including the ability to affect individual objects inside layers.

Quick Tip: Color and InDesign

admin — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 15:00:27 +0000

For this tutorial I will list a selection of my favorite InDesign shortcuts when working with color. Once memorized these shortcuts will help you become more efficient and give you more time to be creative. First, I would like to share some general color advice that I regard as essential.

Use… read more

How to Make an A5 Print Ready Leaflet InDesign CS5

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 13:00:40 +0000

In this tutorial you will learn how to design a A5 four page leaflet, which can also be saved as a template for future designs. Using some of the new type setting features in InDesign CS5, you will make an appealing design that’s perfect for print.

Introduction

Note: The Premium Download for… read more

Getting to Know Adobe InDesign

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:00:32 +0000

Getting to Know Adobe InDesign

InDesign and Bridge Contact Sheet

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:46:13 +0000

Assemble a photograph contact sheet in InDesign.

Creative Bookmarks: Best of August 2010

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:45:50 +0000

August was another awesome month with great tutorials and articles oozing from everywhere. Here’s Creative Bookmarks August!

Quick Nav:

Photoshop TutorialsIllustrator TutorialsWeb/Blogging TutorialsFreebies, Inspiration, & ResourcesPhotoshop TutorialsHow To Create The Expendables Winged Skull Poster Art

In this tutorial, by Chris Spooner, you’ll learn how to re-create the sinister and gun-crazy poster for the… read more

The Complete Overview of Indie Graphics Software for Mac

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:00:35 +0000

Everyone knows about the big guns in the graphics field. Adobe is pretty much the unchallenged master of image editing with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks. Adobe’s InDesign shares the digital publishing field, albeit grudgingly, with Quark’s QuarkXPress. Serious graphic designers find themselves stuck between these two large corporations, due in… read more