InDesign tips

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Below are page layout and typesetting tips for InDesign I’ve learned along the way since the days QuarkXPress was the top software for this type of work.

I’ve used InDesign for dissertations, brochures, business cards, posters, flyers and many other things made with type including photo books and insomnia-curing documents with hundreds of pages.

Accessible PDFs

Learn how to make accessible PDFs so they can be read widely.

Basic paragraph style

Don’t use it. Set your own, and make sure it is not based on [Basic Paragraph], for the sake of other designers you send your file to.

Bold and italic shortcuts

Shift+Cmd+I = Italic

Shift+Cmd+B = Bold

CMYK and RGB

An equilateral triangle made of nine smaller triangles of primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors. After the color theory work of Joseph Albers.

Understand the difference between CMYK (print) and RGB (screen) color.

Print rich black (and brown) colors in CMYK print. Standard Black ~ C:0 M:0 Y:0 K:100
Rich Black ~ C:20 M:20 Y:20 K:100
Deep Black ~ C:60 M:40 Y:40 K:100

For print projects don’t forget to work in CMYK and convert all colors to CMYK before packaging your project to send to the printer.

Talk to your printer and ask for samples of the paper you will be printing on. The type of paper has an effect on color and typography. Once you’re more experienced and confident don’t be afraid to break the rules.

Colors look different on different screens. Accept this. If you don’t, and need to choose a color, get a lot of different screens in the same room all displaying the same color, then choose the color that looks best in all the screens at the same time.

Find and replace using GREP

GREP expressions can be used to quickly find and replace specific strings of text or typography formats. You can ask AI tools like Claude to write them for you. Here’s an example.

Grid made quickly

Using the Rectangle tool (M) click and drag to draw a box, and without releasing the mouse button, press ↑ ↓ ← and → arrow keys to make a grid.

Drag multiple images from the Finder into your document and click and drag as above without releasing the button and use the arrow keys. The images will be loaded into the grid.

Hierarchy and styling of typography

Understand typography and its structure in the InDesign software:

A Story flows across many Text Frames that contain lots of Paragraphs made of Characters.

Use Parent Pages to create custom page styles for specific sections.

The word “Helvetica” set in the Comic Sans typeface.

Style paragraphs and characters for consistency and the ability to change everything quickly when your boss decides we need Papyrus or Comic Sans instead of Garamond or Helvetica. Name your styles in a sensible manner, like Main Title Heading 1 Heading 2 Heading 3 Body Text Bullet list Number list Figure Caption Quotation Dropped Capital Hyperlink Smallcaps Sidebar Footnote, Small Text, and so on.

Use Space After under Paragraph Style Options → Indents and Spacing instead of hard paragraph breaks in the text.

Link to a page in the current document

  1. Select some text or an object you want to be the link
  2. Menubar: Type → Hyperlinks & Cross-References → New Hyperlink.
  3. Link To: Select Page from drop-down. Destination: Select page number to link to.

Math calculations in inputs

Any input box with numbers in it supports math functions so you can type things like 300/1.618 to get 185.414.

Optical margin alignment, hanging punctuation

Make your document’s typography look nicer by turning on optical alignment so that bits of odd letters and elements like curly quotation quotes align in a pleasant way:

  1. Menubar: Window → Type & Tables → Story Panel
  2. Check the Optical Margin Alignment checkbox.

Preview without guides

Press W to switch between Normal and Preview screen modes.

Save locally and often

Save your document on your local machine often.
Make a backup copy of your work daily.

Selecting with clicks

1 click = character insertion point
2 clicks = select word
3 clicks = select line
4 clicks = select paragraph
5 clicks = select story

A heart signifying love, warmth, and affection.

Variables for pages and dates

Use text variables which change automatically depending on the page you are on, the current date, etc.

Warm colors

Add a bit of yellow to a color such as red to make a warmer red.

Zooming and scrolling

Hold Alt while scrolling the mouse scroll wheel to zoom in and out.

Hold Shift while scrolling the mouse scroll wheel to scroll from side to side.


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