Photoshop Ninja
Expert Photoshop tips and tricks for designers and photographers since 2005
InDesign – saviour of the (DTP) universe!
Adobe InDesign – set to revolutionize the DTP industry!
I’m about 2 weeks into converting from Quark to InDesign now – god I love this program! After over 8 years of fighting with Quark to get it to do what I want InDesign is like a breath of fresh air – I just keep finding more and more things I love.
This truely is the saviour of the DTP universe and I can heartily recommend it to anyone involved with print design – it’s got the ninja stamp of approval… especially when you can import layered transparent Photoshop documents straight in, without having to flatten/save in a different format! I know Quark does this too (to a certain extent), but it’s always a kinda workaround with Quark – where as In Design just seems to work. If you imagine a function you would like in a DTP application, Adobe really seemed to have pulled out the stops and put it in for you. 9 times out of 10 with a bit of a look around that dream function is right there, waiting for you to bend to your will…simply fantastic – thankyou Adobe!
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Written by Jonny Allbut - freelance graphic designer
Last modified: 9 March, 2009 (12:48) | First published: 4 May, 2005
Filed under Design opinions and rumors 2 Comments »
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Comment by Jonny
June 3, 2005 @ 1:35 pm
Well, I’ve been using InDesign for a little while now, currently putting together a 16 page magazine (it’s quarterly, always used to do it in Quark). I’m actually starting to feel quite comfortable in it – it is such a fantastic production tool. There are a-lot of things I like about it, and you get a hell of a lot of bangs for your bucks – but it does need a good machine – or you need to turn down the preview quality (boo!). Even on a good spec dual G4, it feels a bit clunky on the standard preview setting (default prefs).
I’ve noticed this when I’ve had to go back into Quark – I have to say, for the old dinosaur it is it’s a bit faster to move around the document. However, it looks absolutely terrible in comparison – I can’t believe we all put up with that for so many years…or more like I didn’t make the switch sooner!
Comment by Jonny
July 29, 2005 @ 2:42 pm
Ive now been upgraded to InDesign CS2 and things just get better! It seems that Adobe have turned their attention to the functions of a not too unpopular word processing application in this version – with auto correction of common mis-spelt words (which you can add to!) and auto highlighting of spelling errors in your text. This last one saves so much time when you are working on large multi-page documents as you dont have to fire-up the spellchecker and trawl through the whole document clicking ignore on words that you dont want in your user dictionary!
The other main new feature is the ability to alter the visibility (but not opacity or blending option) of layers within an placed PSD file. This is a hugely awaited feature, and although it works I feel it is not that well executed. You would expect this to be on a palette, but it is hidden away on the contextual menu. Also you can only switch layers on and off – not alter any other characteristics, which is a bit limiting. I look forward to seeing this functionality greatly enhanced in future releases.
Screen redraw speed seems to have improved a bit though, which was one of my main issues mentioned previously.
There are not loads of improvements, but the ones present will certainly enhance my workflow. I have been working hard to move as many people to InDesign as possible – the rate Im going at I think I should be on commission from Adobe! I can honestly say that InDesign is the revolution the design world has been waiting for, buy it now – it is fantastic!