Design Bookshelf for designers, desktop publishing, graphics and digital photography

List Price: $45.00 Our Price: $27.00 You Save: $18.00 (40%) Paperback - 456 pages Book & Cd edition (September 22, 1999) Adobe Press, Dimensions (in inches): 0.77 x 9.04 x 7.37 Adobe InDesign Classroom in a Book by Adobe Creative Team Adobe has most everyone hogwashed that the new InDesign is the bees'knees, and that just anyone can pick it up and instantly begin producing top drawer, award winning designs. Well, we all know that is Adobe's programmers were as gifted as their marketing hype writers we'd be lucky indeed. Unfortunately they're not, and the program is very nearly as steep to learn as Quark XPress. The best news today is that the Adobe InDesign Classroom in a Book has all the benefits of both a manual and a tutorial. Since it was written by the Adobe staff, in their usual lack-luster tone of voice so you get a cool, confident authority common to books written by an application's creators. One of the main selling points of InDesign is its commonality and integration with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. The book begins with a Quick Tour, which is actually a lesson in itself since it covers many of the basic text, page, and image-handling features of InDesign. Each subsequent lesson goes deeper into these topics. The files for each lesson are provided on the cross-platform CD-ROM. The lessons range from working with text and typography to working with graphics, using advanced frame techniques (frames hold text or images), and prepress document preparation. There is a color section with illustrations that clarify many steps, especially those that use color, and show the finished projects. Each lesson begins with an overview of what's covered and ends with review questions. Don't worry: answers are provided on the same page. Reading the overviews and review questions first is a good way to decide whether that chapter can be skipped or should be read in depth. This makes Adobe InDesign CIB useful for both beginners and intermediates. For example, it is easy to jump ahead to the fairly advanced section on filling one block of text with a different block of text to which a gradient has been applied. The fact that executing this involved graphic becomes a simple process is a credit both to the InDesign application as well as to this book. Topics covered: Features of Adobe InDesign, including lessons on the work area and interface; creating and setting up a document; working with frames; applying color; importing and editing text; working with typography; placing and drawing images; color management issues; and preparing a document for high-resolution printing. If you plunked down your money for InDesign, then you should go ahead and invest another few bucks so you can actually get a little more value out of that investment. Keywords: Desktop Publishing: page layout, printing, dtp, design, Quark, Pagemaker, (DTP) - 11/6/99