Assignment: Compile your AI-generated “artifact” into a magazine article or a print ad.
You should try to generate the text with ChatGPT but feel free to edit it or write your own words.
As a writing style reference you should use the Smithsonian magazine, a history/science/technology/art/travel publication.
You can use up to 6 pages, depending on the project.
We will use this InDesign template as a starting point.
Feel free to change the layouts entirely, just try to keep it consistent so they articles will look like they belong to the same magazine.
Let’s look at some physical magazines
You can find a lot of references if you look up specific magazine titles on Archive.org
10 Graphic design mistakes to avoid (plus a couple of extra ones)
Basic InDesign tips
To change units: edit > preferences > units & increments
Pan – space left click
Zoom – alt + scroll
View > screen mode > preview and normal
You can change the layout of the interface on the top right. Default is essentials, I’ll be using the advanced preset.
If you can’t see a panel go to the “window” menu.
Layers and groups
Like most applications inDesign has layers and groups.
Let’s do a quick recap.
Fills and Strokes
A key aspect of vector graphics. Let’s play around with them.
Text
A few things to try.
Changing advanced typographic settings.
Linking textboxes with the import and outport handles.
Anchoring a graphic element to a text box with the anchor handle.
Let’s briefly look at the paragraph styles and character styles.
Bleed, gutter, and safety margins.
Fonts
The template provided uses on fonts from the Adobe cloud. You want to ADD them the first time you open the document.
Let’s install some free fonts from Adobe creative cloud
https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/source-serif
https://fonts.adobe.com/fonts/ofl-sorts-mill-goudy
From Google
https://fonts.google.com/
From dafont
https://www.dafont.com/
Frames
A designer may start to layout a project before all the content is ready by using frames, typically text boxes and image frames.
Placing/importing images
Indesign will import the image but also retain the link to the original file in case you need to edit it.
So create a folder for the project and put all of your images in there before you import them.
Let’s try to modify an imported image.
Use the central circle to position the image within the frame (it will be cropped) or the handles to change the box.
Right click on the image and try fitting the content to the frame proportionally or vice versa.
Image Resolution
Use 72 DPI for project that will be seen on screen (website, social media designs) and 300 DPI for high quality print.
Let’s see what happens when we change the resolution in photoshop.
You can also use an AI upscaler or the Photoshop’s super zoom to allucinate the details preserving the crispness of the image.
CMYK vs RGB
Additive vs subtractive
Modern printing techniques generally accept RGB files but it’s a good idea to convert your images in CMYK mode to avoid discrepancies with the final product.
.TIFF is the most common file format for CMYK but it’s uncompressed so the files are big. Jpg also support CMYK.
Master Pages
In the paces panel above, you will see a series of master pages. Double-clicking and changing the master will affect all the pages that are under that master.
Exporting
When your project is ready for print you want to check it in preview mode and export it as High Quality PDF.
File > Adobe PDF presets > high quality
After you select the file location you can select various options like the range (ie export only page 2-3)