Adobe InDesign Beginner (2023): Graphics

Name: Adobe InDesign Beginner (2023): Graphics
Author: Mike Collins

Learn how to create and edit graphics and use special effects

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 4 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

Hello, my name is Mike Collins. In this lesson, you will learn about how to create graphics in Adobe InDesign. Let's open the application and create a new document. We'll start with creating a line with the line menu on the left side of your screen in the left toolbar. Select the line and click and drag the line however long you want or any direction in the document window. By holding down the shift key, you can create a line that is perfectly horizontal or vertical. You can change the thickness of the line by selecting stroke at the top of the menu. This will give you a variety of line thickness options in points. You can also select the dropdown menu below it to find more options for line thicknesses and types, both decorative, dots, and a solid line. To create shapes, select the shape tool in the lower left toolbar. Notice the menu item has a small triangle in the lower right corner that tells you there are more options within it. Click and hold the triangle, and you'll see in addition to the rectangle tool, you'll see an ellipse tool and a polygon tool. Let's take a look at the polygon tool. Click on the tool, and when the polygon menu opens, you'll see a variety of options you can select, including polygon width, polygon height, number of sides, and star incent percentage. Let's choose our settings. We'll go ahead and create a polygon that's three inches wide, three inches tall, and has eight sides, and click OK to create our polygon. You can also select the polygon tool and click and drag a polygon onto the screen to whatever size and shape you like. If you press and hold the shift key, you'll get a polygon with the same size, height, and width that maintains its proportion however big or small you want. You can now change whatever setting you want in this graphic by selecting what you want from the color menu on the right. You can choose whatever color you like and modify the percentage of the tint. Adobe InDesign also allows you to use vector graphics, which are made up of anchor points and line segments called paths. Vector graphics are typically created in another illustration program like Adobe Illustrator. One feature of a vector graphic is that they are independent of resolution, which means they'll stay sharp and have no loss of quality no matter what the scale is. You can place vector graphics into Adobe InDesign in two different ways. You can select file place, find your graphic, and put it on your page, or use one of our shapes we just created, which also is a vector graphic. Let's take a look at how text and graphics interact in Adobe InDesign. Let's create a text box and fill it with some placeholder text. Now deselect your text and let's place a graphic into the text. If we tried to place the graphic with the text box selected, the graphic would have replaced the text you just created. Vector graphics, as we said, can be imported in a variety of file types. Let's go ahead and place the graphic wherever we like and increase the size, again, holding shift to maintain the proportions. You'll see that it is not connected to the text yet. You have the option to modify text wraps in the top control panel, but are limited to the settings you can select. For more control over how your graphic interacts with the text, let's go to window, text wrap. Now you have a variety of different settings you can choose. You can use a bounding box, wrap around, object shape, jump object or jump to next column. You can wrap to different sides of the text and choose the size above and below. Let's go ahead and choose the bounding box. We can modify these settings however we like, wrap to whatever side we want and you can see the different options how are affected by the text and how the text wraps around it. You can also copy and paste the vector graphic from the program you created and place it into your Adobe InDesign document with control C to copy in your original program and control V in Adobe InDesign to paste it in place as a fully editable InDesign object. You can now edit the vector graphic with a direct selection tool. Experiment with text wrap. You'll find many different options that'll give you the effect you desire. Now you've learned how to make and place graphics in Adobe InDesign and use text wrap. Stay tuned for the next lesson where I will show you how to move and modify graphics in Adobe InDesign. Thanks for watching.

Beginner Provider : Mike Collins 4 Lessons · 23m in English

Course Description

Learning how to create and use graphics and geometric shapes with color gives you an excellent palette to use in your communication. These lessons in InDesign will give you a solid foundation for combining written text and visual graphics exactly how you want, in a way that will connect with your reader or viewer to successfully convey your message. Special effects tools, color, and opacity options can help make your document and layout more interesting to catch and hold the attention of your end user.

In these lessons, you will learn how to create and edit graphics. We will explore InDesign’s Content Grabber to move and modify images, select, and apply stroke weight, style, and color, and use the text wrap feature. By the end of these lessons, you will be able to create, import, and edit graphics and apply special effects.

What You'll Learn

Create and edit graphics and geometric shapes in Adobe InDesign
Move and modify images using InDesign's Content Grabber
Apply and adjust stroke weight, style, and color to graphics
Use the text wrap feature to flow text around graphics
Import graphics and apply special effects, color, and opacity options
Combine written text and visual graphics to convey a message

Key Takeaways

Creating and using graphics, geometric shapes, and color provides a palette for combining text and visuals in your communication.
An image consists of content within a frame, which InDesign's Content Grabber lets you move and modify.
Special effects tools, color, and opacity options can make a document and layout more interesting to catch and hold the end user's attention.
By the end of the lessons, you will be able to create, import, and edit graphics and apply special effects.

Frequently Asked Questions

What will I learn in this course?

You will learn how to create and edit graphics, use InDesign's Content Grabber to move and modify images, select and apply stroke weight, style, and color, use the text wrap feature, and apply special effects.

What topics do the lessons cover?

The lessons cover Creating Graphics, Moving and Modifying Graphics, Text Wrapping around Graphics, and Special Effects with Graphics.

What skills does this course help build?

This course covers skills including Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Graphical Tools, and Adobe InDesign Certification.

Who is this course for?

It is an Adobe InDesign Beginner (2023) course on graphics, giving a solid foundation for combining written text and visual graphics for those starting out with InDesign.

What will I be able to do by the end?

By the end of these lessons, you will be able to create, import, and edit graphics and apply special effects.