An Introduction to Graphic Design with Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is industry standard publication app and in this guide we are going create a business card whilst looking at the features.

As with all other Adobe applications, Adobe InDesign features the workspace. If you have used previous applications such as Photoshop or Illustrator, the interface should be pretty familiar by now.

Using Adobe InDesign to Create Business Card

In this introduction tutorial, we will create a business card design. This may be a little cliche, but the business card is an excellent, simple way to cover all the basics and create a functional design.

When creating a new document, you need to be aware of a few properties.

Firstly, the document preset is the default; this is fine unless you create a new preset and wish to use that instead. Presets allow you to change all the options rapidly for those you use often.

Set the number of pages to 2; in this example, we will need a front and a back. We will turn off facing pages; otherwise, the pages will be displayed side by side. You may turn this on for a poster or brochure design. The binding option sets where the pages are bound and configures the pages for duplex, which is how the printer manipulates the paper to print on both sides.

I've set the document size to 88.9mm by 55.8mm, the standard size for a business card.

You can change the orientation and margins. When changing these, they all change together unless you uncheck the padlock symbol.

Click OK to create a new document once all the options have been set.

Creating the Business Card

You can see the familiar Adobe workspace now that the document has been created. Most of the tools should be familiar now; many are used in Illustrator or Photoshop. There are a few new ones which we will have a look at during this tutorial.

You can also see the document's printable margin and the bleed edge. The red line is the bleed line.

As with Photoshop, don't forget to create layers for your work.

Using the rectangle frame tool to give the card a background colour, drag a rectangle from the top left of the bleed edge across to the bottom right of the bleed edge. Now select the fill colour from the swatches or colour picker. It is helpful to create a swatch for each of your document colours so that you can use the same colours repeatedly and consistently. Some printers charge on a per-colour basis for sure print processes, so keeping to a set number of colours can help reduce this.

Ok, So I have created my swatches and a background frame. While the frame is selected, click on a colour swatch to set the colour.

In my design, I've decided on a radial gradient, with the centre of the card being the lightest. To place a gradient, you have to create a gradient swatch. This is done from the swatches toolbar and by selecting "Show Gradient Swatches". From here, choose New Gradient Swatch. Select the gradient type and set the start and end colours. To apply the gradient, I dragged a rectangle shape from the top left of the printable area to the bottom right.

One very cool thing you can do is edit the colour swatch later. This allows all the objects which use this swatch to be updated together should you wish to amend the gradient.

Adding Images in Adobe InDesign

Next, in my design, I would like to have a honeycomb pattern in the background. Adobe InDesign does not allow patterns like Photoshop and Illustrator, but you can place images in the design. Create a new rectangular frame that will contain the image. In my example, it fills the whole page, but you can drag an area where you want the image to show to add a logo or photo. You don't have to be exact at this stage. Next, click on the File menu, then select Place. This will prompt you to select a file. You will then get a file import message box, and for the most part, you can leave the settings by default.

The image will then be placed into the rectangle frame. The image may not fit in the frame or appear blocky or pixelated. Don't Panic! InDesign will show low-resolution images to improve performance. You can change this by right-clicking and selecting Display Performance > High Quality. To get the image to fit, right-click the image and select the Fitting menu. From here, you can choose how the image should fit the container or the container to fit the image.

Next, to add some text to the design, after creating a new layer to hold the text, simply drag a text box onto the design and enter some text. This is done in the same way as Photoshop. You can then apply different fonts and swatches or gradient swatches to the text.

Behind my contact information bar, I've added another rectangle and set the colour to be the same as the background but with 75% opacity. This creates a more legible contrast between the background and the text.

That is the front of the business card is complete. Now, on to the back, which will contain the company logo, name, and address.

I can replicate the layers for the background and apply the same swatches to the text elements to keep the styling consistent. To import the logo I created using Illustrator, I created a rectangle frame, placed the image inside and selected a constrained image to container-keeping proportions.

Here are the final results:

Exporting for Print

Once you have completed your design, it is time to export your work and send it off to the printers. This is done by clicking on the File menu and then Export.

The best format to use is Adobe PDF. Select a filename, then click OK. This will then bring up windows with lots of options. The main one to worry about is the Adobe PDF Preset option. Here, you should select High-Quality Print. This will set most of the options for getting the best print quality. You can tell it to export your marks and bleeds if you have them set up. The settings should be in the 3-5mm range but check with your printer for the best settings for their processes.