A basic use of a layout program.

I like it! It seems like I hardly see InDesign tutorials too much!! Cool!
- Greg

This shows the basics well and still has a good looking result. InDesign is THE way to go if you’re designing anything for print.

a) Why is an InDesign tutorial involving NO use of vector objects on VECTORTURTS?
b) This is a very basic tutorial that does not teach good design and fails to explain why this layout should even be done in InDesign in the first place. Sorry TUTS editors, but if you’re looking to start introducing InDesign tutorials, this is not it.

Disappointing end result, music magazines typically have LOT more ’stuff’ on the covers and it would have been nice if the tutorial explored a more diverse range of techniques used to achieve these effect.

I think this is great to begin understanding the basics of InDesign. I’ve owned the program for almost a year now, and this tutorial is helpful even for me.

Thanks so much!

great for an introduction!

I agree with Greg: there are hardly any InDesign tutorials anywhere. I’ve had to teach myself how to use it, to lay out the program for my daughter’s school play and the directory for my wife’s church, so I am already beyond this particular tutorial. I would like to see a tutorial for an entire magazine, that gives details on using Master pages and the other advanced features. Thanks for posting this!

This is only useful if you’ve never used InDesign. Disappointing if you work with it often.

@John
I think it’s a brief introduction to indesign, not a tutorial on how to create a magazine cover.
Dunno if that’s what the author supposed to do.

…mastheads are very rarely if ever half way down a cover for one simple reason that when magazines are on a shelf you have a thousand others on the shelf below covering most of the cover up…

…unless you design a cover you know has its own stand then masthead position is more critical, it even states at the beginning of the tutorial how important the mast head and the image are, yet they aren’t in the most important positions…

Hey!
Just got quick eye for this nice looking, basic Indesign tutorial. Works nicely as introduction but, for step six I would ad clicking the more options and adjusting bleed.
This is easier way to get bleed (IMHO) and have possibility to get objects snap to it. Getting thins kind of built in basics correct way just from start is important matter as it helps you later on.

I’m glad to see an InDesign article, but it strikes me that anyone who has used Illustrator could get that far, but they sure might not know about creating master pages which was skipped. Using the master page feature is an important thing to learn, even for a cover.

it seems good…u give great introduction THANX

Please note that this design is not usable for print. There a lot more steps to take to make a magazinelayout like this ready for print. And some techniques (like trapping) are a lot easier to do in an other way then described in the tutorial.

Great article, sure magazines have loads more on their front covers but this was just to show you the basics!

cheers for the article, going to give this a go now

Nice intro on the subject, for novices.

The most important thing to remember is that tutorials aren’t necessarily put together for the sake of a spectacular design, rather, for demonstrating how to do something.

@Hey everybody – we appreciate the criticism and this tutorial is meant as a basic introduction to InDesign.

As far is this not being a vector tutorial, I would like to put some InDesign tutorials up on VECTORTUTS this year even if they aren’t completely vector oriented. Ideally we’d have tutorials that work between programs like Illustrator to show workflows, and make some that are more vector oriented, but we have to start at the beginning and cover more of the basics first.

If anyone who works with InDesign on a regular basis would like to write a tutorial on this subject feel free to pitch an idea http://vectortuts.com/about/write-a-tutorial/ as I’d love to hear from you.

My background with layout programs is actually with QuarkXPress, as I used to put together a large catalogue, which was one of my first design job, though it was low end stuff. I have much more experience with Illustrator.

I’d like to learn more about InDesign and we’ve received enough requests for this that it makes sense to have a couple TUTS each month on this subject.

Let me know what you think though. We’re always open to feedback. Thx.

Credit where credit is due…this is a good basic guide for someone who’s never used the prog before. You’ll struggle to find a more simplified format in such little time spent putting the tutorial into action. More InDesign tutorials would be great. There’s a lot of Photoshop and Illustrator professionals that have no clue about how DTP works. Simple tutorials like this will help those people. It would be cool to see more advanced ID tutorials in the future, but a lot of people out there don’t know the basics yet. I’m sure there’s a lot reading this who have kept saying “I’ll learn InDesign at some point”, but have never got around to it.

Granted, this design is quite bad, dated and lacks imagination in almost every design element aspect used to create the tut – but that isn’t what the tutorial is about. But in the majority of InDesign reference books the outcome in most are 10x worse than this one, so it’s not all bad

What does this have to do with VectorTuts?!

Don’t know if VectorTuts it’s not the right place or not but i would really enjoy some stuff about InDesign. Especially the workflow to create the final .PDF or .EPS for typography (color profiles management, transparency issues, overprint colors and so on…)

good but I want to learn more. wish you would give the psd free I’m on food stamps can’t afford to pay for the prem membership.

Wow, this is really a great tutorial!

thanks…really hope to see more of ID in future

Hi Sean,

I think it’s great you are considering InDesign tutorials. It’s an application I’ve been using for print layout for about 5 years now. If I get the time I will consider submitting some of my own tuts.

One thing though that stood out to me was you didn’t show how to set-up styles, something that every ‘InDesigner’ needs to know how to do if they want to be re-using certain styles throughout the publication. They are like CSS for print media – if you know what I mean. I understand that might not be the case for the cover of the publication (which may be completely different to what’s behind it) so take that feedback with a grain of salt.

Keep up the good work.

Mike.

To the professional designers who would criticize the design in this tutorial: stop belly-aching the old adage that someone is a “poser” or a threat just because they haven’t had the privilege to afford, financially or socially, a design education and are self-taught. True, some of them may not have the eye for detail that takes a publication from bad to good, or from good to great; but let’s not underestimate the power of an individual, coupled with the power of the internet, to learn those things, and probably exceed the work from those of us who, hogtied by what may turn out to have been a narrow design worldview, lack the fresh eyes a “novice” could possess. Let’s stop “owning” the design field and start being open to a more cooperative discussion on design. We have the opportunity with these new peers to stand on the progressive side of history when our art transcends mediocrity.

what would be even better is a tut for a whole magazine in indesign, i use corel and photoshop, but i wanna migrate to indesign as i heard its much more functional and increases production time

Simple designs are basic and neat. Don’t overdo your designs, it becomes too cluttered. Weird designs comes from bored people who thinks too much and the results are tyro.

1 pica = 12 points

For all of you who think you are such experts and professionals (Jonathan, Jay, John, Steph, Andrew, jj, Chris, Francisco)… if you’re so good and know it all, why are you reading a tutorial in the first place?

If you have nothing better to say then don’t bother commenting.

A lot of work went into this and I appreciate it

Decent tutorial with underwhelming end result.

This tut was okay, though I wish there will be more InDesign tuts that deals with master pages, setting up styles for different groups of text, more indepth features of the program, and what are the necessary color settings/output settings for magazine (or any other type of printing). But this is definitely a good step towards more InDesign tutorials on the site. Keep up the good work!

inspiring method of using InDesign.
thank you!

Great tutorial..Thanks

Thanks for doing an InDesign tut! I use it everyday for doing drink and wine lists for bars and restaurants. I’ve only been doing it for a year, so the more insight and pro help I can find, the better.

great tutorial.

I had to add a Gravatar because I don’t want to be confused with the first commenter who has the same name as me.

@GFW- Everybody can learn something new once in a while. Plus, tut authors can see how other people who make tuts explain their steps so we can improve how we explain OUR tuts.

this is an insult to actual magazine designers

I appreciate your efforts in giving us some basics of InDesign.

For those who are complaining, simply shut up, move on and don’t do the tutorial. There are some people who actually liked it.

Thanks,
this tutorial really helped me get a footing in inDesign. I’m really disheartened by all the negative comments on this page. Obviously to design a real, professional magazine it would involve a lot more than this, but for someone just starting to use inDesign, like myself, it really helped show how to do some basic stuff that you might not be able to sit down and figure out.

thanks for taking the time to make this.

This is a basic tutorial and it is good to that effect… However, I agree with John on one point that the outcome is not really up to the expectations.. a music magazine cover displays a lot more stuff and it could have been explored in a better way..

This is a great basic introduction to Indesign. I haven’t used it for a few years and Im not familiar with the revamped package. So i found your blog and gave it a go. IT did the trick nicely Iv now reminded myself of how it works and familiarized myself with the new layout. Thanks for sharing

Thank you for your effort. I found your style simple and easy to follow. I learned a few things. I have been working with indesign for a few weeks now.