This Month in InDesign Articles, February 2016

Hold down the Option/Alt key! Double-click! Press Esc and stand on one leg! Okay, that’s enough InDesign tips for today. Now let’s look at this collection of articles and interesting links I’ve been collecting for you:
- Want to make an object look like it’s “flipping” over when you roll over it? Lulu Kwan shows you how in this video.
- Bob Levine nails it with an explanation of why interactive PDF is such a problem (the comments after the post are great, too!)
- Speaking of PDF, did you know PDF 2.0 is coming next year? Check out these stats about PDF in 2016, and these conference videos from the PDFA event.
- Want to learn how to import XML into InDesign? Chad Chelius has a new title at Lynda.com that explains it all for you!
- I love this line: “[Design] is a positive, life-affirming profession.” That’s John McWade reflecting on design and the new Uber logo.
- I’m actually not sure what a “worksheet” is (at least, not in this context), but here’s a little tutorial for beginners on how to create one with InDesign.
- Hey, our friend Cari Jansen has her name on an InDesign book: Learn Adobe InDesign CC for Print and Digital Media Publication (from Peachpit Press/Adobe Press).
- Have your iPad nearby? Why not launch Adobe Comp? Erica Gamet explores some of the ins and outs of sending Comp files to InDesign. Adobe also has a fun story about how graphic designer Jason Robinson uses Comp.
- Erica follows up with a terrific explanation of how you can organize your (too often messy) paragraph, character, and object styles panels
- We can learn a lot by reading “case studies,” where people explain how decisions were made and what tools they used on a job, from start to finish. Designer and artists Sharon Steuer lays out the steps involved with a poster and identity design, in amazing detail!
- “There’s an ongoing commitment to maintain an app, which can become a drain on resources.” This article on the future of apps as a publishing/media platform is important.
- The folks at TFP have posted a new case study on how they helped America’s Test Kitchen
- Twixl (one of the best alternatives to DPS for making apps from InDesign) has a good article on why you may want to export articles based on PDF now.
- Print buyers “understand the value of print and when print is not replaceable.” So what will happen when they retire?
- If you’re an InDesign scripter and you don’t want people to be able to decode/modify your scripts, you may want to try obfuscating them with this script
- What kind of ebook (EPUB, FXL, etc.) should you choose? Kevin Callahan offers some great advice
- If you love fonts and especially script faces, you will go ga-ga for the new Bickham Pro 3, now with Greek and Cyrillic characters (and more contextual alternates). Love it!
- Speaking of a love of type… what’s the 27th letter in the alphabet? The ampersand, of course!
- You should never, ever, ever try to make Tie-Dye in InDesign. (But I’m sure glad Kelly did!)
Enjoy!
This article was last modified on July 25, 2019
This article was first published on February 29, 2016