Indesign templates

by Design Workshop Sydney

The process of creating Indesign templates is basically the same each time: the initial page setup, adding text and images, and saving as an indt template file. This is one of the many topics we cover in our Indesign courses.
In this example we’ll create a DL size flyer, which is basically a third of a landscape A4 sheet.
indesign blog 001Setup: File > New > Document > Facing Pages and Master Text Frame: leave at default > Number of Pages: 1. Page Size: 99 x 210mm > Margins: For a DL flier make them 7mm for Top, Inside and Outside. Make the Bottom 10mm. More Options: Bleed: If your publication has images or colour bars that you want to print to the edge of the paper, you need to set up a Bleed guide to which you’d scale the images/colour bars.
The reason for this is that a DL flier like this example will be tiled and printed on larger sheets (“24-up”), then cut to the DL size. But the high-speed trimmers are not 100% accurate, so you need to provide a 2mm margin of error. Most of the 2mm bleed will be trimmed off. Bleed size varies according to the machines your printing company is using; 2 – 3mm is common. We will use 2mm. Click on the chain icon to make all fields the same> Slug: 0 > OK. Your new document is created. The Bleed guide is the red border, the paper edge is the black border, and the margin (for text) is the purple border.
Guides: View > Show Rulers. Create non-printing guides by clicking and dragging with the Selection tool from the white space of the rulers across the page. Note the number in the fields in the top left hand side of the Control panel. You can also set up a Grid if you prefer.
You could now save this file as a template file: File > Save As > Indesign Template > OK. See a later blog on how to place images and text into the flyer, and finally output to a PDF.
See many examples of our clients’ work on our Facebook Indesign album: www.facebook.com/DesignWorkshopSydney

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