Graphic Design CoursesThe most efficient way of working with Adobe programs is to use templates. This is especially true of Adobe Indesign, whether you’re creating brochures, newsletters or flyers. In our Indesign training courses we show you how to create Indesign flyer templates from the initial setup to print stages.
To create a template design like the flyer like the one shown here we first create a new document. Indesign now shows a large screen of various preset page sizes, depending on whether the end product is for print, web, or devices, etc. Many of these are useful, but in our case we wish to create a DL size flyer in a landscape format.
This is not available in the list of presets so we can simply enter the values into the fields and save our own preset. In the case of a DL flyer type in 210mm for the width and 99mm for the height. Also ensure that the resolution is set to 300 ppi (for commercial quality printing), with a 7mm margin on all sides.
Colour mode should be set to CMYK for print runs of over 1000, and RGB for print runs of under 1000. The former is known as Offset printing, whilst the latter is for Digital printing. Offset printing is traditionally cheaper for larger print runs.
Note the Save Preset button at the top right of the panel – this will ensure that you don’t need to type all this information in again.
When you hit the OK button Indesign opens a blank document based on your settings. Note that we only have one layer – this is all you generally need for a simple flyer document.
Create some guides to assist with the design process. Make sure that the Rulers are visible at the top and left of your screen. If not simply go to the top View menu and choose Rulers > Show Rulers (or Ctrl+R). Next select the Selection tool and drag from the white space of the ruler down into your page – note the small numbers which appear at this point, bot at the cursor and at the top left field in the Control panel. Set horizontal guides to 10mm, 25mm and 60mm, and a vertical guide to 160mm.
Now we want to import our main photograph. Use the Rectangular Frame tool to create a frame which covers two-thirds of the page. Then go to File > Import (or Ctrl+D) and choose a good photograph. This image is called Katoomba Stars. Make sure that the image is between 150-300 ppi for printing purposes. 150 ppi is adequate for in-house printing, whereas 300 ppi is best for commercial printing. 72ppi is only good for web or on-screen images.
Then click the Fill Frame Proportionally icon at the top of the workspace, or choose this from the right-click context menu, under Fitting. You may use the Direct Selection tool to adjust the position of the image within the frame.
Next create a blue footer panel using the Rectangle tool. Use a blue fill and no stroke in this shape. And create one more yellow header shape, but this time note the Opacity slider at the top Control panel – change it from 100% opacity to about 75% opacity. Lastly we will lock these items in place by selecting them, then right-clicking and choosing Lock. Note the small padlocks which appear on the top left of the shapes. Alternately we could have created separate Graphics and Text layers, which is usually the case for larger documents like newsletters or reports.
The final part of the design of the Indesign flyer is to create text boxes for the titles, in the case The Art and Science of Sales, and the bottom details. Create these as two separate text boxes in order to be able to manipulate them with ease later. We would format this text either in the top Control panel, or in the Character and Paragraph panels at the right-hand side of the interface.
Once the document is complete we would save this as an Indesign flyer template: File > Save As > Indesign Template (indd file). This means that it can be used as many times as we want in future, and the overall design will remain consistent. Using templates, once they are set up, will save you a lot of time and energy in the production of your communications and publications.
More tips and techniques can be found at Adobe.com. There are many tutorials and forums for designers to discuss topics and the latest Indesign features.
See also many examples of our own clients’ work on our Facebook page.
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