This Month in InDesign Articles, August 2019

David Blatner

1

Have you ever wondered why Adobe called it “InDesign”? Why not OutDesign or OverDesign or ThroughDesign? Since the team that built it originally worked on PageMaker, and they were competing against QuarkXPress at the time, why not call it “PageExpress”?! As we continue to celebrate this year—2019—as the 20th anniversary of the release of InDesign, I’ve been thinking about its history and how we got where we are today.
Ultimately, though, the name doesn’t matter nearly as much as how we use it and what we make with it. That’s where these links I’ve been collecting come in handy:

• An interesting article about the psychology of color (mostly focusing on web design, but it’s still very relevant)
• Editorial folks: Wondering what the difference is between InCopy and WordsFlow? Check out this article (by Em Software, the makers of WordsFlow)
• If you’re a CC 2019 user and you miss some of the abilities of the old Layout Adjustment feature, you should know about this free script from Ariel at Id-Extras
• I didn’t realize until recently that Aldus Manutius was also the creator of my favorite punctuation symbol: the semicolon.
• I’m a big fan of book covers, and it’s always fun to peruse lists like this one
• This article has already gotten a lot of play in the press, but the author has some good points: How to pick between InDesign, QuarkXPress and other publishing apps
• This is super geeky, but if you’re a scripter (or you just like Japanese manga), you should read this
• Totally great one-minute video tutorial from Adobe on creating an interactive “mood board” with InDesign
• While we’re on the topic of tutorials from Adobe, here’s a nice one on making a business card in InDesign. And here’s one on making an interactive resume.

Hey, did you know you can buy my course InDesign CC Essential Training from LinkedIn Learning now, even without a subscription? Just click the “Buy this course” button.
Enjoy!