Adobe InDesign
Contents
About
Adobe InDesign is a professional product for producing printed works like magazines, books and business cards.
InDesign supports a mix of vectors and bitmap and "print publication" concepts like pagination, bleed area, page templates, paragraph styles (headers), table of contents, etc. While Illustrator can be used to design logos and single-page designs, InDesign is much better for something like a book.
In this article, I will keep track of the main tips and tricks I want to remember.
Page Templates (and Editable Text)
Open the Pages panel and by default, you'll see just one master called "A-Master". Double-click it to edit. Changes here apply to the background of all other pages. Click the hamburger to add a new master, apply a master to particular pages, or change the options. This is great for adding styles in the background (borders, watermarks etc).
Editable Template Text
Often you'll want the text in the same place (think: Chapter pages), but obviously different editable text for each page. To achieve this, make your text boxes in the Master Page, but then in the actual pages use {Cmd}+{Shift}+click to select the text box in the background and edit the text. If you move it in the master page it should still move across all your custom text pages.
Nested Masters
Hot Tip: In the Master Options you can base a master on another Master... so for your first mast you might just want to add page numbers and call "Blank" (and 2-page span if you want numbers on the left and right side respectively)... but then you might have different styles (different colours) laid over different sections all based on your "Blank" Master.
Master Layers (master objects on top of page objects)
In some cases, you'll want objects (eg: page numbers, watermarks) in your Master to appear above any graphics or images on your page. To do this press {F7} to bring up the layers panel and put these objects in a new Layer. These layers appear for all masters and pages, so you might even do three layers ("BOTTOM", "MIDDLE", "TOP") and do most of your page contents in the middle layer.
Adding Page Numbers
The next thing you'll probably want is page numbers. Best to do this in your template. Insert a text box at the bottom left and then go: Menubar > Type > Insert Special Character > Markers > Current Page Number. Done.
Adding a Table of Contents (TOC) based on Headings
The steps to create a table of contents (TOC) are:
- Open the Paragraph Styles panel via: Menubar > Window > Styles > Paragraph Styles.
- Add a style called "CHAPTER_HEADER" and "HEADING_1" (etc) and set the font.
- Apply your header styles to the right text pieces.
- Click: Menubar > Layout > Table of Contents.
- Add your heading Paragraph Styles as the sections you want to be listed, and you can also add a level order.
- Click done and then you can drag the TOC onto any page (probably you want a blank page).
- Extra notes:
- You can click this TOC later and select Menubar > Layout > Update Table of Contents.
- Now when you export to PDF, you should have your headings appear.
- More details: (webucator.com) How to Create a Table of Contents in Adobe InDesign
- If you want to export to a fixed layout EPUB publication tick the "Make text anchor in source page" when you create the TOC as per the pic below. This single TOC serves to tell Kindle where the chapters are.
To make the nice dots:
- Add your TOC...
- AND/OR add and highlight a line of text called "Test 10" where you do a {shift}+{tab} before the page number.
- Create a new paragraph style called "TOC - Level 1" (etc).
- In the "Paragraph Style Options" make sure "preview" is ticked.
- Click the "Tabs" option and add "." as the "leader".
- Drag the right stop (see image below) icon onto the margin.
- In your test text, you should see it update. Click done and apply "TOC - Level 1" to your TOC via the menu so it persists.
Paragraph Styles
A great feature of InDesign is that both Colors and Paragraph Styles can be added, and will change the whole document. Notice for Paragraph Styles, you have to go to the Character tab to change the text color.
Adding a Bleed Area
When you start a project you select a bleed area. To produce a book on Amazon, you'll want 0.125 inches on all sides, and you'll notice bleed shown in a red dotted area. At the bottom of the toolbar you can switch between "Normal" view (which shows the bleed area) and "Preview" to see it without the bleed.
Exporting with Bleed
When you save your PDF, make sure you go to the "Marks and Bleeds" tab in the Export Adobe PDF window, and make sure "Use Document Bleed Settings" is ticked, but none of the markers.
Images
Image are easy, often I just drag them into InDesign to where you want them placed (from an explorer window etc). The important thing is to put your images in an "image" or "import" folder in the same folder as your InDesign file, as the path can then remain relative. The size of your .indd file can stay small, because the images are linked in.
Applying a Image Mask
Just create the shape you want (eg: Circle)... now drag the image into your shape and the mask is implied just as you'd expect. Easy.
Text
Vertical and Horizontal Text Alignment
Hit {Cmd}+{B} to bring up the Text Frame Options and you can set vertical alignment to top, center, or bottom. For horizontal alignment, you can set that in the Paragraph Style Options or the Properties tab (down in the paragraph section).
Text Overflow
When text doesn't fit in a box you can click the little red plus and drag it into a new textbox. To have pages automatically created (if you have a huge amount of text)... you can import text from a .txt file with File > Place and hold shift when you add it (it will show a squiggly line). The video shows how that works:
And if you're looking to make an entire book of text you definitely want this video:
To insert a page break click the menubar: Type > Select Insert Break Character > Page Break.
Text Symbols and Emojis
If you paste text with text symbols and emojis, they often appear as a red box - indicating it wasn't found. One solution to this is to highlight that symbol, then in the Properties Tab > Character, change the font to "EmojiOne"... this seems to work.
Folder Configuration
Similar to Adobe Illustrator when you drag an image into your document (which is recommended), it will be linked... meaning that at the start of a new project, you should setup your project with an "import" folder. For a big project like a book, you might want to Photoshop or illustrator to edit certain images, so suddenly a full-blown setup might look like this:
- DOWNLOADS/ ..................... to organize stuff you find
- IN_DESIGN/ ..................... self-contained in design + imports
- import/ ..................... all your linked files in InDesign
- orig/
- pg_1_photo.jpg
- pg_2_photo.jpg
- photoshopped/
- pg_3_photo.jpg
- pg_4_illustrator_graphic.png
- export/ ..................... files (eg: PDFs) you export from InDesign
- BOOK_MyCoffeeTableBook_6x6.indd ..................... main file you are working on
- FULLCOVER_MyCoffeeTableBook_6x6.indd
- ILLUSTRATOR/ ..................... for adobe illustrator files
- pg_4_illustrator.ai
- import/
- pg_4_graphic_1.jpg
- PHOTOSHOP/ ..................... for adobe photoshop files
- pg_3_photo.psd
How To Guides
How To: Make a Book Cover for KDP in InDesign
Any good publisher, for instance Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) will have a page size guide including page thickness, bleed requirements and a formulas to work out spine width (assuming your book is thick enough to need a spine) and thus cover size. In InDesign, you should only need to know: (1) your book's desired width height, (2) your page count, (3) page thickness and (4) bleed width (typically equal for each side).
Let's take a use case:
• Desired Width: 6 inches • Desired Height: 6 inches • Bleed Area: 0.125" for KDP. • Spine Width: 112 pages * 0.002347" (for color interior pages for KDP) = 0.262 inches • Whole Cover Width: (desired_width * 2) + spine_width = 12.262 inches
This should be everything needed... now simply:
- Create a new InDesign Document for the front cover only
- Specs: 1 page... 6 x 6 (with 0.125 bleed area)... and uncheck "facing"
- You will want to keep this doc separately to render thumbnails of the front cover.
- Export settings: Export as an image or PDF without bleed area.
- Create a new InDesign Document for the whole cover
- Specs: 1 page... 6 x 12.262 (with 0.125 bleed area).
- Drag a marker (from the ruler) to mark the spine... so one at 6" and one at 6.262".
- Create a layer for the "SPINE", "FRONT" and "BACK".
- Copy the whole front cover (from the other doc) to your FRONT layer... then add a spine and back cover design.
- Export settings: Export as PDF with "Use Document Bleed Settings" checked (but no markers) and upload this to KDP.
- See also: Design a Paperback Book Cover in InDesign: Tutorial - Although I actually think this is a bit more complex than it needs to be.
- Tips: To have spine text, your books need at least 79 pages.
How To: Add a Nice Index Page
Another nice feature of InDesign... make sure you create a blank page (or two) for your index then do the following:
- Open the Index window via: Window > Type & Tables > Index, and click Select Reference.
- Select any relevant piece of text (title) and click the plus on the Index tab to add a reference. Do this for all references.
- Click the little icon to create a reference, and drag that into your blank page.
- Tips: I like to use "^t" for "Following Topics", and then change the Index Level paragraph styles > tabs to use "." as the "Leader" to help show each line number via a row of dots.
How To: Export as an EBook to KDP (as an EPUB)
There's Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) video that mentions InDesign. This helped me figure out settings that are mostly acceptable for a picture book:
- Book dimensions. I made a version of my book 5"*8" (portrait) with facing pages turned off (very important - you don't want a two page spread) and ~size 13 font (big enough to read easily on even the smallest kindly) and 0.1" bleed margin (not critical, but helpful). These settings seemed to work pretty well. If you are adapting this from a different aspect ratio then resizing everything will be pretty annoying, but I admit I was pretty impressed by what menubar: File > Adjust Layout was able to do in gettin close. This 5x8 is a 1/6:1 aspect ratio, which seems the most recommended for Kindle.
- Limitations. Some features that work fine for a PDF didn't work for me in a EPUB. Some things that failed: circles, rounded rectangles, non-straight lines, images with transparency (PNGs over anything else), text/shapes with transparency. Most of these elements placed big ugly white boxes underneath - even some text boxes did the same. My tips:
- Keep it simple: Keep each page very simple. If you have complex graphics (multiple overlapping images, shapes, transparency and text) you may need to screenshot them an import the screenshot in place.
- A token bleed: Use bleed area (0.1") for all your images - even though you wouldn't think it matters for a web format I sometimes see a white edge around the page if you don't use bleed area for EPUBs.
- Use only compatible fonts and turn off hyphenate: The Amazon KDP default font (Bookerly) usually isn't installed on InDesign, but you probably want to stick with a common font like Arial, Roboto, or Times New Roman to play it safe, else it will really botch them. Even the simple fonts it often botches when you have small textboxes or forget to turn off hyphenation.
- Consider two page spread viewing. Printed books start with the first page of the document on the right, but this is not true of eBooks. If you preview on a landscape tablet you'll see a two page spread, but the first page will be on the left and so you might want to add some kind of dummy page to account for this.
- Create a Book Cover JPG. KDP requires a cover for your book. It's easiest to put it in a separate InDesign file with the same 5"*8", and export it as a JPG.
- Export as EPUB. In Adobe go File > Export > EPUB (Fixed Layout). You'll want dynamic layout if your book is mostly (or all) plain text and you're not worried about pictures. Don't include the cover - you add that separately in KDP.
- Preview carefully. Be sure it presents well in Kindle Previewer before you upload. And one you upload, even if you don't own a kindle (and if you're serious you should probably buy one), you can buy your own book and see it on "Kindle Could Reader" to check once more there are no hideous formatting issues.
- Cover image size. Ideal size of your eBook cover art is a height/width ratio of 1.6:1 (8:5). Ideal dimensions for cover files are 2,560 x 1,600 pixels, which you should export as a high quality JPG in RPG. You add your cover separately to your book in KDP.
Sadly for me, I had pretty complex formatting so it turned out horribly on Kindle E-reader (see below) on my first try because I thought a two page spread of 6x6 inch wouldn't be "too bad". In that time before I realized the formatting was horrible, my first buyer downloaded onto an old kindle and left a 2 star review because it rendered so bad. I realize I had to (quickly) make a new version of my book where I removed most of the fanciness, and made it a 8*5" (portrait) single page spread. And yes, I'm still learning.
- More help:
- Adobe - Export content for EPUB - article.
- KDP ebook video - Mentions InDesign.
- KDP - Create an eBook Cover - ratio of 1.6:1 (height/width).
Shortcut Keys
- {w} -> toggle screen mode (bleed > normal)
- {shift} + {w} -> toggle screen mode (bleed > preview)
To create a new shortcut go: Edit --> Keyboard Shortcuts. A good one: Panels menu --> Panels menu --> Hyperlinks: Edit Hyperlink then click in the box and {cmd}+{k} which is currently "General Preferences", but edit hyperlink is a better one.
