Suppose you had a magazine with ads from clients. If you put the PDFs in as is (ie: don't convert them in any way) and package the file for printing, does InDesign convert them? Or do they get sent to the printer with their RGB elements intact? Is there a method of converting PDFs to CMYK without opening them in Illustrator (which presents its own problems concerning fonts, shading types, etc).

Thanks!

My client's document is divided into three large sections, which all have subsections, such as the example below. Since it's not a book per se, I have not been thinking of it as "chapters" and "sub-chapters", but it might be useful to start thinking of it like that, since I've now been asked to do a running header.

https://preview.redd.it/pan0gjbevyzd1.png?width=1892&format=png&auto=webp&s=623ca9fd58d0d1334da314116f3b43800ecb9773

Here's an example of the kind of header they are looking for. Like a navigation bar in web design, it highlights the one that the reader is in.

https://preview.redd.it/1lbt2iypwyzd1.png?width=1488&format=png&auto=webp&s=a239eda5d3cde52e5dc48d98e4432eac00b90c07

The difference being, we would also like to show both the "Chapter" and "Sub-Chapter", but they don't have to be adjacent.

So if "Step 1. DIET" were the Chapter, and "A. Grains" were a SubChapter, both would show if you were on the page about grains.

https://preview.redd.it/nxr1ow1gxyzd1.png?width=1590&format=png&auto=webp&s=eba6a5ed69532e61e374c3ef7217f2a571e14b54

The client is flexible on how this is implemented. So "Step 2" could be in a header, and all the subheadings could be in a footer, or whatever the best placement is.

I suspect the answer involves either Chapter Numbering, Section Markers, using a Text Variable, or some combination...but wanted to see if anyone else had thoughts on the best way to go about this?

Also, I 'm not sure how highlighting the "active" section while still displaying all the other would be done. But I'm praying hard that the answer isn't copy-paste-manual formatting!! 😭😭😭😭😭

https://preview.redd.it/vm12v2y9xyzd1.png?width=1904&format=png&auto=webp&s=2219525de85e631a607729527e389cd51e64c273

My page numbers have so much space in between to digit numbers, how do I fix this?

looking for someone to create a flyer for me for a business. should be a quick project and willing to pay someone $30. need it within a few hours if possible. let me know if you can create a flyer and I will pay through PayPal upon completion if it meets the criteria.TIA

I’m currently a student studying graphic design and we’re working on a publication project. I want to make a custom pilcrows of mice instead of having paragraph breaks, but i can’t figure out how to import the vectors and turn them into glyphs.

has anybody ever done this before? if so, how? thank you so much!!!

It is driving me crazy. The smart guides were working just fine, until at some point they just stopped. i have snap to guides and smart guides checked, I went to Preferances>Guides and Pasteboard and All 4 boxes under Smart Guide Options are checked, but not a quide in sight, i am eyeballing it where how do i fix it??

I don't know what is happening. I was able to pull photos in a data merge in the past without issues. But now it's not working correctly.

When it goes to pull the photo location to place the pictures, it keeps popping up that it can't find them because of the source file. It brings up this error:

https://preview.redd.it/c9lqhj2i1rzd1.png?width=1242&format=png&auto=webp&s=eef0b25c0ec7a1ff9a4ad7efa8b9b5fdcff3e92c

The first half of that location is where the .csv file is saved.

/Volumes/New Artwork/Artwork to Print/ARTWORK/Dealers/Dealer#4600-4699/4649 Interstate Ford/Holiday Cards/Drew Schendel/List/

and the second half is where the picture is saved.

S:\Calendar Cropped Photos\4649\0558856_0558856-R1-019-10.jpg

I don't know why it keeps thinking that they need to be together. I've checked the original Excel File and the CSV file to make sure they were written correctly and they are.

https://preview.redd.it/ufjwjt082rzd1.png?width=858&format=png&auto=webp&s=3e558acb0579506402b5d05e4a25cda7fb0e09a2

I've even made brand new files and put all the information in brand new. And this is still happening.

How do I get it to pull correctly?

Let me know if you need more information at all.

I am interested in creating an automatically numbered/lettered list with several levels. My document is in Greek, however, and I would like the "a, b, c, d..." part of the numbered list to use Greek characters. Is it possible to do this using automatic numbering?

I am working on a file in a shared drive, the file being used by one Apple and two PCs. On one of the PCs, its InDesign is not recognizing tabs the same as InDesign on the other two.

It is a list of items, with basically Description, Year, Price. We are tabbing across to align these as we create the list.

On the problem machine, it looks like sometimes the first tab is not recognized the same. It will create a full tab instead of the pro-rated tab when the item Descripton is a certain length. So the next item, Year, loads as misaligned, but appears fine on the other machines. If I delete the tab on the problem PC, aligning Year, the Years become misaligned on the others.

Any suggestions are very welcome, thank you.

So I have several long docs that will need to be set up for print (facing pages, page numbers on outside corners etc) AND for digital (single pages, page numbers all on the right). These documents WILL have ongoing changes so I ideally need ONE document that I can export BOTH ways.

What is the simplest way to do this? I was thinking parent pages that I change them all to and from depending on what version I'm exporting but wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking some other great feature.

EDIT: Question answered, and thanks so much for everyone's help!

When I have a simple shape in an art box of the same size, the edge of the shape has a flat artifact against the box edge. Doesn't matter if it's a flat TIFF with a white background or a PSD with transparency -- unless I manually drag the affected edge of the art box away, that pancaked edge is there. If I have a catalog with several thousand round shapes, that's a lot of adjusting. Is there a setting I'm overlooking?

https://preview.redd.it/6r1nxteijozd1.png?width=1101&format=png&auto=webp&s=f8d47fa28e1f2313ec99e9f7f04d367c8a497535

Hi, im trying to resize multiple images, to make every edge move towards the centre, and have the image scale along with it. If I drag any of the handles, it will always move 2 edges towards the top left corner. Any way to make the images shrink towards the centre instead?

I'm new to Id, and I could definitely use some advice. How can I create gaps such as the ones in the picture? Is there a way to place them inside a line (as an object/character) so that the part of the sentence that comes after is moved accordingly? I'd appreciate any help.

About to bite the bullet on a new M4 mac mini for InDesign work. What is it that makes indesign run smoother/faster? Is it Ram, graphics card, or the chip or the Pro chip? Is it worth going all out and getting the top spec M4 Pro. Trying to decide.

Moving from M2 Air connected to screen.

Hi! As a Christmas gift for my family this year, I've decided to write a cookbook of my grandmothers recipes and adding a bunch of images of her throughout her life. I'm using the website LULU to get the book printed, but I used Indesign to create my book which is why I'm posting my question here, I hope someone will be able to help me haha

I'm at the point where I'm ready to submit my PDF and I've run into a few issues, and the customer service is having a hard time understanding my questions, so I'm hoping someone here would be willing to quickly review 2 pages to make sure my setup is correct (all my pages have the same template, so really if those two pages are OK then all my pages are ok).

Really simply put : If I have titles and page numbers in the margins, is that ok, or should the margins be left completly empty? I know anything in the bleed area will be cut, but I'm a little confused about the importance of the margins and leaving those empty... I've taken a screenshot of the preview of what 2 of the final book pages will look like to better help you understand what I'm talking about :)

Thanks in advance!

https://preview.redd.it/n03nbik6tizd1.png?width=1461&format=png&auto=webp&s=df8649281ea88254b60b5533f211e03624536bbf

Hello! I'm updating an existing manual for volunteers who do taxes. There are tip boxes with different icons like this little exclamation point. I figured out how to anchor the icon inside my tip box in the correct spot, but I can't figure out how to edit the "Anchored Object Options" inside the object style for the tip box. Ideally I would love to have the exclamation point appear when I apply the tip box object style. Can it work that way? Thanks in advance!

https://preview.redd.it/twwss0omdizd1.png?width=911&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e4ad5b972242b587dcd01776916d2e45bc806a7

Hi ya'll. Im having an issue with Idesign all of a sudden for one small area of text. Im updating to the latest version now, but i wanted to post here to see if anyone knows a setting or something that might be causing this also. When i increase the kerning number, instead of spacing the letters farther apart, the get tighter. when i go to the negative numbers it's also tight.

im trying to update my resume and need to apple to a few job postings, so the more replies and the sooner the replies would be extremely appreciated. thank you!

Hi Reddit, I’m working on a project that has a lot of text frames on a page that aren’t and can’t be linked. Unfortunately, I have to edit each of them - is there a keyboard shortcut to move between these text boxes without having to click with my mouse?

And quick second question while I have your attention, is there a way to increase or decrease the size of text in a box that has multiple sizes/paragraph styles/character styles?

Thank you for your help and time :)

https://preview.redd.it/664ko6cqzgzd1.png?width=676&format=png&auto=webp&s=761c4b81192e0ed048c03659555ebea094f6be62

Hi friends,

As per the screenshot above, im putting together some brand guidelines and I want the left hand side of the doc to have a small running index by which they can see and navigate the doc. I have set up the index using the 'table of contents' feature in a parent page of the doc. Its all working fine but I want that index to show you which page you're currently on/under, for example if you click on Introduction, you'd be taken to this page, but the introduction text in the little index would be bold and the rest regular, so you can see by looking at the index which page you're on.

Any idea how I can achieve this?

Hey so my school has forced us to use Indesign for some of our projects this year, without giving us as much as like a single course around the program, expecting us to just "learn it on our own" sort of deal.

So I find myself getting so frustrated using the program because I just have no idea what I am even doing, so I just avoid working on the project at all, which obviously cause some issues

So what are some of the best resources and guides to learn the program. If it helps the projects we are working on is documenting museum visits and making a portfolio of our work. Thank you to anyone who answers

Hello.

I’m working with 2 different documents that use the same color palette. When I look the color values they have the same CMYK values but theirs RVB values are different.

How is that possible and how do I fix this ?

Both docs have the same color profile and transparence settings. There’s no filter applied to the color elements (it’s just a background for a page).

I can see the difference clearly on screen and on the PDFs files.

Any help is welcome! Thx

So currently, I'm working in the marketing department of a supermarket and one of my tasks is having to design a larger Banner (549 x1685 mm) that fits 8 Dishes from our Restaurant.
These 8 dishes have to also be printed as A3 Posters (297 x 420 mm). So in Order to save work and not have to do 8 Posters and then 8 small illustrations on the Banner, I created a Document with 8 Pages, creating the Dishes in each page, importing that document into the Banner Document with ctrl+D and placing it with alt+left click to have them placed neatly.

So far so good, and it has saved me a lot of time, the Problem is that both the Banner and the Posters have the same textured Background.
I'd like to make the Background of the A3 posters not visible on the Banner, so it looks more like I placed the dish into the banner, rather than it looking like I just placed a picture into the banner. I hope what I mean is understandbale.

So far I thought maybe there was a way to make the Background layer have a special blending mode to cancel out when put against another background, or maybe have an import option just for the background so that it isn't imported in when placed into the banner.

I'd appreciate any ideas you guys might help me with.

I'm starting to get incredibly frustrated. I used Adobe for years, haven't used it in about half a decade and installed it again and have created some new things in Illustrator.

When I paste something from Illustrator over to InDesign, it has a HUGE white background for no reason. I can't make it copy this one, specific object over to InDesign without it pasting a white background with the object.

To clarify, this is the only object it does it with. I created several other documents and have had no issues and there are no setting differences between one set of illustrator images and this one.

I tried doing "Place..." and turning on transparent background. Which....kind of worked; but tanked the image quality to the point where it is impossible to see.

Anyone see this ever or know how to fix it?

https://preview.redd.it/3uc2z72icczd1.png?width=805&format=png&auto=webp&s=3f1812fc0a17b0649a30d86398bae56213b27d75

I often need to add a drop shadow on display text to place over a busy image. My goal is to not emphasize the drop shadow but simply to make the text stand out against its background. (I'll first add some type of gradient feather to the image if possible.)

I've experimented with many different settings over the years, especially Distance, Size, and Spread, but wonder if you have go-to settings that you use for professional-looking drop shadows?

I know the answer is to put the text on a less busy or more contrasting background but sometimes that's not possible. Any insight or best practices is most welcome. Thanks!

Hi !

I was obligated to take a class that only uses Indesign, I'm used to Illustrator, photoshop and other Adobe Suite but I'm completely lost with in design. Even the ressources i have from the teacher are confusing to me, if any of yall have good resources about cleaning up text and other tips and tricks to work on an magazine for in a couple of weeks i'd be eternally grateful

hey everyone,

i'm trying to export a file in pdf and everytime i do it saves with a different format

its like this in indesign:

https://preview.redd.it/6iyrsop3nbzd1.png?width=145&format=png&auto=webp&s=4a574145b53376858e1e07bac6f942891f29f147

and like this after export in pdf:

https://preview.redd.it/l4f94xb9nbzd1.png?width=195&format=png&auto=webp&s=d1489756bab84aaec7e416e34b8c77969003870c

can anyone help me? is it just a bug? am i doing it wrong? never happened to me before
its a book, so a lot of pages, and im saving without the bleed.

help pleaseeeeee

I have a list of items that have a title and description and I want to select them all and delete all text associated with the descriptionstyle. What is the best way to do this other than clicking in each one and manually deleting

I have create a pullup banner on my Mac in InDesign. When i share this PDF via teams for review the colour changes.

Left is the wrong blue and right correct blue.

• Colour displays fine on my side through teams and as normal view
• Colour displays dark blue through teams and sharepoint
• Colour displays fine when downloaded and opened up in Acrobat

Could this be an export setting problem? Any ideas? Any help will be appreciated

https://preview.redd.it/gtpha482gbzd1.png?width=1750&format=png&auto=webp&s=11ee607a6a538ddb7b669e98bc0df6716c01be0e

Hello guys, I'm currently in the process of creating my architecture portfolio, but when I export the indesign file to a PDF, I get a file size of +50 mb. However, it would be ideal if the PDF is no more than 20 mb. The content consists of vector graphics, images and a bit of text. Does anyone have a solution for this? Thanks in advance!