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Indesign

mtmdesigns

New Member
everyone seems to be asking me if i know how to use it lately... Any help on what it does, benefits, etc. thanks in advance
 

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
InDesign is the Adobe application that is the successor to Adobe Pagemaker and competes directly with other page layout applications such as Quark Express and Microsoft Publisher. It's primary use is to be able to freely layout pages, single or multiple with world class control on graphics and text. You use it to create anything for print from a simple business card to a brochure to a book. If you also have Acrobat, you can then save it as a PDF and supply that to a printer or for electronic distribution.

InDesign is an integral part of the Adobe Creative Suite.
 

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
ok sounds good so far.. what can it do that flexi sign can't. just asking

It is designed for creating documents to be printed on paper and to generate PDF's of the highest standard. It is excellent at that. FlexiSign can do layouts but is definitely not geared to producing multipage documents for print and cannot approach either the speed or quality of the finished document.

If you are doing layouts and typesetting for brochures, books and various other documents, you will love InDesign. If you want to be able to generate professional quality PDF files, you will love it. If you are not than there is no reason to consider getting it.

The catalog and userguide I supply with my clipart collections is done using InDesign. The files in each clipart collection are created in part or in total using FlexiSign.

Comparing it to Flexi is pretty much apples and oranges.
 

Techman

New Member
most commercial printers prefer Quark files

Not much any more. They take several just and as fred says they like PDF and now they like indesign but will take quark.

Quark has just about shot themselves in the foot.
 

mtmdesigns

New Member
It is designed for creating documents to be printed on paper and to generate PDF's of the highest standard. It is excellent at that. FlexiSign can do layouts but is definitely not geared to producing multipage documents for print and cannot approach either the speed or quality of the finished document.

If you are doing layouts and typesetting for brochures, books and various other documents, you will love InDesign. If you want to be able to generate professional quality PDF files, you will love it. If you are not than there is no reason to consider getting it.

The catalog and userguide I supply with my clipart collections is done using InDesign. The files in each clipart collection are created in part or in total using FlexiSign.

Comparing it to Flexi is pretty much apples and oranges.



Nice fredd... great info.

Why is it that the digital printer guy at my works takes so long for a print?
Is flexi a bad program for digital.
what exactly is a pdf.
Will Indesign work on a digital printer..


just thought i'd ask.. I keep looking at the guy running the sol-jet while i program 3 cnc'c and run the plotter, watching him sit on his ass waiting for the pic to rip.
 

weaselboogie

New Member
Not much any more. They take several just and as fred says they like PDF and now they like indesign but will take quark.

Quark has just about shot themselves in the foot.

Agree. Seems like they haven't changed anything since I went to college 12 years ago!!

But as a Johnny come lately, Quark 7 will now introduce transparencies and true feathered drop shadow capabilities. Wonder where they got that idea from?

Quark is nice and simple, but my opinion is Indesign is where its at. Publisher seems like a big mess to me. I hate it when people submit stuff to me in publisher. I HAVE publisher just to open it. I take a screen shot and recreate it in corel.
 

Flame

New Member
Nice fredd... great info.

Why is it that the digital printer guy at my works takes so long for a print?
Is flexi a bad program for digital.
what exactly is a pdf.
Will Indesign work on a digital printer..


just thought i'd ask.. I keep looking at the guy running the sol-jet while i program 3 cnc'c and run the plotter, watching him sit on his ass waiting for the pic to rip.



Cuz some pics are 1-2 gig, and that takes a freaking long time to RIP. Doesn't matter what kind of program you're using for a RIP, it's gonna take a while.

Unless you're packing like 8-12GB SDRAM of course.:tongue:

Flexi is fine for sign stuff, but use the right tool for the job. If you want to be a do it all shop, you gotta have all the right tools. Which includes programs. Use InDesign for books, brochures, magazines etc. like Fred said, and use Flexi for signs. :thumb:
 

Rick

Certified Enneadecagon Designer
You can use InDesign (and Quark) for posters and some large format if you scale correctly. As a production monkey I recieved a lot of files from graphic designers who did large graphics in Quark all the time (this was before InDesign) with no problems and it did not shorten or lengthen RIP times...

There are going to be long RIP times printing directly from InDesign and as Flamey pointed out, it depends on RAM, and processor speed too. A better solution is an external RIP matched to the printer or a design and production station with the correct print software, so the designer can do something while waiting for the computer to do it's thing.

One nice thing about designing in InDesign is that file saves are faster because the files are linked and not embedded as they "might" be in Illustrator or Flexi so designing in InDesign is faster.....depending on the operator, especially when you are doing multiple layouts within the same grid or design format.
 

mark in tx

New Member
I like a simple explanation for what indesign can do that flexi doesn't, you can layout a 600 page book, or a 100 page magazine complete, in one file.
 

Fred Weiss

Merchant Member
what exactly is a pdf.

A PDF is a Portable Document File also known as an Acrobat file. It is the file type that anyone in the world can open, view and use with Adobe Reader as per internal permissions set by the creator of the file. It has become one of the most widely accepted standards in the world for exchanging files and for electronic publishing.

It is based in PostScript like most Adobe products and is the logical successor and replacement to EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) for supplying files to producers of graphics in print, vinyl, and a host of other mediums.

Many commercial printers have adopted what is termed "The Acrobat Workflow" for their production.

If you are not familiar with the many benefits of Adobe Acrobat PDF technology, you should tune in and learn about it. It is going to be important to anyone involved in graphics production.
 

ChicagoGraphics

New Member
This question is for any avid illustrator user:

This question really has nothing to do with your post, but seeing it looks like your an avid Illustrator user, is there something in Illustrator CS you can make one copy then do a step and repeat like as in Flexi pro?
Any help would be greatfull
Thanks Tom
 

Rick

Certified Enneadecagon Designer
There is no step and repeat in Illustrator but if you are familiar "move" check the "copy" box and then "command D" or using the keyboard short cuts for that, it is quick...or the plug-in CadTools has a step and repeat too and it will do it full size or too scale.
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
Super random bump to a zombie thread, and irrelevant to the thread title. I was looking for a hidden link to Whatsapp.
 

JBurton

Signtologist
Evidently they stole a reddit guy to use as their avatar from some canadian on reddit. I mean, they aren't really wrong in their comment, aside from being 16 years late to the party!
 
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