Best InDesign Classes Chicago, IL: Find Courses & Onsite Training

Adobe InDesign Bootcamp Learn The Skills Guarantee™

Learn how to design professional page layouts with text & graphics in Adobe InDesign. this course covers styling, importing, packaging, and advanced techniques like styles, master pages, and tables. Perfect for creating books, magazines, and ads.

Learn more & register Explore Noble Desktop’s InDesign courses
- $975
- 18 hours
- Free retake
- Live Online or NYC
- 1:1 Bonus Training
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Noble Desktop Graphic Design Certificate

In this certificate program, participants will learn the skills needed to become a graphic designer. Attendees start by learning industry-standard apps such as Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. Students then learn and put into practice design fundamentals such as design theory, composition, typography, color, and more. During the program, students will work on multiple design projects including logos, social media graphics, album art, advertisements, and more. Attendees will learn the skills needed to start a career as a graphic designer and walk away with projects they can use in a portfolio to show prospective employers or clients. The program includes a free retake and several step-by-step workbooks.

Available live online (virtual training) from anywhere
- $2,995
- 84 Hours
- Weekdays, Evenings, or Weekends
- Beginner
- Free Retake
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Noble Desktop InDesign Certification Program

This program covers basic through advanced InDesign skills needed to earn an official Adobe certification. Receive comprehensive InDesign training through interactive classes, private tutoring, and preparation for the Adobe Certified Professional exam, with the flexibility to opt for additional private tutoring if the exam is not your immediate goal.

Available live online (virtual training) from anywhere
- $1,699
- 24 Hours
- Weekdays, Evenings, or Weekends
- Beginner
- Free Retake
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Ledet Training Adobe InDesign 101

This 2-day program on Adobe InDesign teaches the essentials of this publishing layout software. Students in this class will learn how to design and publish many types of content, such as marketing materials, newspapers, magazines, catalogs, and more. With no need for previous experience, students will leave this program ready to create high-quality layout designs.

In-person @ 17 North State St, Chicago, IL Also available online
- $899
- 2 Days
- Weekdays
- Beginner
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Ledet Training Adobe InDesign 201 - InDesign Advanced

Elevate your Adobe InDesign skills in this two-day, intermediate-level class. Using the most current InDesign version, participants strengthen their document construction skills, maximize work efficiency, and incorporate the latest design standards into their creations. Specific topics include advanced transparency techniques, blending modes, page layout, shape conversion, stylesheet techniques, tables, and text flow, linked file management, Creative Cloud utilization, long document management, PDF accessibility, and HTML/CSS exports.

In-person @ 17 North State St, Chicago, IL Also available online
- $799
- 2 Days
- Weekdays
- Intermediate
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Ledet Training Adobe InDesign 301 - InDesign Tablet Publishing

Further develop your Adobe InDesign Tablet and Mobile publishing skills in this one-day intermediate course. Participants who have successfully completed an InDesign Essentials class learn how to create new documents, or modify existing ones, to formats like EPUB, Kindle/AZW, MOBI, PDF and HTML for Kindle, iPad, and other such users. Added interactive elements, like video and music, enhance your creations. Specific topics include creating e-books, hyperlinks, and EPUB documents, converting graphics, redefining reading orders, adding metadata, exporting HTML code, creating and exporting documents, and learning best practices for Section 508 compliance.

In-person @ 17 North State St, Chicago, IL Also available online
- $499
- 1 Day
- Weekdays
- Intermediate
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Ledet Training Adobe InDesign 303 - Automated publishing using XML with InDesign

Advanced your Adobe InDesign knowledge with this two-day, advanced-level class. Participants learn how to optimize publishing workflow without writing code. That enables users to preserve design aesthetics and stay on deadline. Through a combination of hands-on learning, class discussions, and instructor leadership. Students look at topics like XML basics, DTD structures, cross media exports, anchored objects, and advanced CSS styling.

In-person @ 17 North State St, Chicago, IL Also available online
- $1,199
- 2 Days
- Weekdays
- Advanced
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Ledet Training Adobe InDesign 501 - InDesign Bootcamp

Get comfortable with Adobe InDesign in this five-day beginner course. Participants learn basic desktop publishing skills, as well as basic desktop publishing concepts. That includes both physical and virtual documents. Using hands-on, instructor-led learning, students examine topics like creating marketing materials, advanced page layout and troubleshooting, and desktop publishing. This class prepares students to take the Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) examination for InDesign.

In-person @ 17 North State St, Chicago, IL Also available online
- $1,899
- 5 Days
- Weekdays
- Beginner
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Computer Training Source InDesign Part 1

This introductory 1-day InDesign course will teach students the basics of layout publishing, from organizing document pages, working with master pages, and understanding how to use columns and guides. Students will earn a working knowledge of how to format text, photos, and graphics, finishing off with creating a newsletter. Document preparation will be discussed for exporting to a printer as well.

In-person @ 420 N Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL
- $349
- 1 Day
- Weekdays
- Beginner
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Computer Training Source InDesign Part 2

From text styles to page elements, this intermediate one day InDesign course will take students through the program’s more in-depth capabilities. The story editor will be explored, and participants will learn how to anchor graphics in text, work with libraries and layers, and use tables. Projects involving long documents will be developed, and students will come away understanding how to import and export files.

In-person @ 420 N Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL
- $399
- 1 Day
- Weekdays
- Intermediate
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Showing 10 of 21 courses

Adobe InDesign is a powerful desktop publishing software widely used to design complex printed and digital content, including books, magazines, brochures, interactive PDFs, and webpages. Training in InDesign equips professionals such as graphic designers, publishers, and web designers with the essential skills to produce visually appealing layouts and interactive documents.

Key Insights

Adobe InDesign specializes in creating sophisticated layouts for both print and digital media, offering extensive control over typography, text flow across pages and frames, image placement, and interactive elements such as hyperlinks and form fields.
Professionals equipped with InDesign skills can pursue a variety of career paths including book publishing, magazine layout, production art, graphic design, and web prototyping, as the software supports the design and export of documents tailored specifically for print, web, and interactive digital formats.
InDesign training typically covers fundamental principles of graphic design and typography, interactive document creation such as eBooks and fillable PDF forms, and integration techniques with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications like Photoshop and Illustrator.

Learn more below

Learn More About Chicago InDesign Courses

What is InDesign?

Adobe InDesign is a software application in the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. InDesign specializes in desktop publishing and page layout design, helping users to design printed and digital media in detailed layouts incorporating text and images. InDesign is a popular tool for publishers creating multiple-page documents like books, magazines, and newspapers, including electronic versions of these media. Graphic designers and production artists also use InDesign to design single-page products like cards, signs, brochures, packaging, and digital graphics. Web designers can build webpages and interactive forms in InDesign using hypertext features. Students and researchers may find InDesign more useful than a word-processing application when composing presentations, posters, and reports, especially those with multiple embedded images.

InDesign is the successor of Adobe PageMaker and is similar to programs like Affinity Publisher, QuarkXPress, Scribus, and Microsoft Publisher. It is particularly distinguished from other desktop publishing programs by its ability to handle large, complex documents. For this reason, it is especially preferred by textbook publishers. It also gives users minute control of element details like size, placement, overlap, and shading, and accepts a wide array of font and image formats. Multi-layered templates help InDesign users to follow exact design specifications set by clients or project managers. Users can also output InDesign files in a variety of formats, usually PDF or HTML but also eBook and graphic formats, with high control over output details. These features combine to yield precise products that are ready for use without any additional formatting. Further, InDesign is integrated with other Creative Cloud programs for compatibility and supports Java for cross-platform scripting. It is usually bundled with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Acrobat in the Adobe Creative Suite.

What Can You Do with InDesign Training?

InDesign is best known for its use in book publishing. Using preset guides or custom settings, you can structure text, illustrations, titles, and icons to build any printable layout from a simple booklet to a complex textbook. InDesign allows you to add varied book elements like a copyright page, table of contents, bibliography, citations, and appendices, each differently formatted yet edited together within the same document and output exactly as designed. Hypertext links, image anchoring, and reflowable text support eBooks in EPUB format or interactive PDF documents. You can also create a book’s cover with confidence that the finished product will match your intended design. While used by professional publishers, InDesign is equally valuable for self-published authors and is recommended by many print-on-demand services to ensure consistent, reliable results. In addition to text-heavy books, you can use InDesign to assemble publications focused on images, like graphic novels, magazines, and yearbooks. Scientists and students also employ InDesign to create reports, journal articles, research posters, and presentations.

Graphic designers, print designers, and visual artists also use InDesign to assemble complex single-page layouts like posters, signs, brochures, product packaging, and cover art. With this program and some practice, anyone can achieve professional-looking results for similar desktop publishing projects. Using InDesign, you can produce custom business cards, event flyers, invitations, or greeting cards. You can also create custom layout templates to ensure consistency across repeated publications like club newsletters or church bulletins. In addition to print-ready designs, InDesign helps assemble design components like logos, infographics, composite images (e.g., photo collages), and digital graphics ready for web display or incorporation into software products.

Beyond eBooks, InDesign supports other kinds of interactive designs. You can create interactive PDF forms for business documents or personal organization, such as an invoice template or a continuously updated resume. You could also create an indexed, searchable portfolio of your art, writing, or designs. Web designers use InDesign to build similar forms for inclusion on websites, in addition to creating custom images, image layouts, and webpage prototypes. While InDesign is not specifically a web development application, it can export documents as HTML files and often suffices for simple designs.

What Will I Learn in an InDesign Class?

Print Design Tools

The core tools of InDesign center on desktop publishing and print design, the skilled creation of printed images and goods. These tools include minute control over text elements. Students in InDesign classes learn not only how to use these functions but also how different options affect the appearance, legibility, and impact of documents. Often, InDesign classes include practice with general word processing techniques like typesetting, importing and formatting tables and images, formatting different document types, and reviewing and editing. More specific to this program, classes will teach you how to place and shape text within frames, flow text across frames and pages, wrap text around images, anchor elements to keep them together, share styles across elements, and build master pages to maintain consistent structures across multiple pages. You will also learn how to finalize and prepare finished documents for a variety of output types, from book printing to digital documents.

Graphic Design Tools

InDesign expands beyond any word-processing program in its ability to create and incorporate multiple visual elements, building elaborate designs that integrate text, shapes, and artwork. These graphic tools are especially valuable for graphic and visual designers. InDesign classes often address the tools and principles of graphic design: the ability to structure visual media to achieve intended purposes.

One of these principles, shared with print design, is typography. Typography not only includes the arrangement of text, it includes its font, size, orientation, color, and shape. The spacing, orientation, and contrasts between elements affect their clarity and perceived organization. An understanding of color theory will help you to choose attractive, effective options, and InDesign contains many controls for selecting and adjusting color. You can also draw custom shapes and fit imported elements into those shapes, creating further visual distinction and interest. InDesign can import images from vector graphics to digital photographs and has precise controls for size and resolution. Studying InDesign, you will learn how different images can be integrated into documents and how to ensure they are viewed as intended. Finally, by using all these tools in practice projects, you will gain experience with the principles of composition that underlie all graphic design work.

Interactive Text

InDesign supports the creation of several kinds of interactive documents, including eBooks, interactive PDF forms, and webpages. The most important interactive tool you will learn is hypertext, text which can be clicked to navigate to another document, a webpage, or a different location in the same document. You can also add links to images, creating clickable buttons. These links create the navigation for webpages but are also used to create page links from a table of contents, references to a glossary for highlighted keywords, citations in a bibliography, credit for illustrations, or cross-references to related passages throughout a document.

Other interactive elements to learn in InDesign include checkboxes, fillable text fields, and functional buttons. These elements are used primarily to create interactive PDF forms but can also be used in webpages. You can also embed custom animations, video, and audio within documents, to be either automatically played or triggered by the user. Beyond webpage design, you can incorporate these elements to create interactive eBooks that expand beyond printed texts.

Digital Publishing Tools

Many documents and designs made in InDesign are intended for digital use. In addition to interactive digital documents like webpages, interactive PDFs, and eBooks, you can generate presentations, portfolios, and advertisements, or digital graphics for use in other documents or applications. You might design these products for viewing through a web browser, directly on a desktop PC, tablet, or smartphone, or all of the above. Studying InDesign, you will learn how to create digital documents of different types by setting the appropriate options when composing these documents and when exporting the results. With this knowledge, you can be confident that your resulting product will be correctly formatted for its intended uses: text and graphics will maintain their original placement (or adjust appropriately to different formats) and images will be correctly sized and keep their proper color and resolution.

Communications

All the technical considerations that InDesign supports — layout, graphics, coding, and output — serve effective communication. When you design a document, you are aiming toward a response in its viewers, whether to inform, persuade, or entertain them. When studying InDesign, you should always keep in mind the goals you want your designs to accomplish. InDesign classes often highlight the communicative value of different options to explain their purpose and necessity. The structure of text, for example, helps it to be better understood, both when processing its linguistic content and when recognizing its importance. Graphics convey information of their own, whether as the direct illustration of accompanying text or as a complementary message. The organization within a document, aided by structural design, separates different kinds of information and helps readers to navigate more easily. Finally, the output format of a document makes it usable in its intended environments, ensuring that it can be easily accessed and viewed in whatever ways its users require.

How Hard is it to Learn InDesign?

It is easy to start using InDesign, but mastering its full potential takes study and practice. You can learn its basic functions and key features in a single short class. This simple experience is sufficient to start using the program and to create basic designs like signs, flyers, and booklets. Longer courses give you a broader survey of the program, familiarizing you with its more advanced features and uses. Some students, especially those with prior print or graphic design experience, need only a few such classes to create multi-part print layouts like books and magazines or detailed designs for advertising or packaging. However, fully understanding and consistently using InDesign’s advanced features like style libraries, templates, interactive elements, and digital formatting takes more training. Novices are particularly prone to errors like inconsistent visual styles, broken links, and variable formatting depending on the viewing device. Skilled instruction and longer practice will help you to spot and correct such mistakes. Just as important, you will need further experience with InDesign to improve your efficiency, both through improved fluency and through better use of streamlining tools like style libraries and master pages.

What Are the Most Challenging Parts of Learning InDesign?

For many users, the greatest challenge with InDesign is not learning the program itself but knowing how best to employ its abilities. If they have not previously studied graphic design, it can be difficult to decide how to build a project, and they may spend hours trying different arrangements of elements. Tools like shape and color can yield a confusing array of options for users not already familiar with the principles of visual design. Other experienced users consider the technical aspects of document formatting to be the most difficult part, especially when they are building interactive documents and exporting documents for digital use. Creating documents that function as intended requires additional knowledge about relative sizing, anchoring, text and graphic display, color and resolution, and file formats. InDesign also has limits that students must learn to recognize, using other programs as necessary to supplement the application. For example, eBooks must be exported differently and reformatted for non-EPUB formats like .PRC or FictionBook.

How Long Does it Take to Learn InDesign?

A single class session can introduce you to InDesign and demonstrate several of its key features, which is enough to get started exploring the program and building simple documents. However, a longer course of several sessions is necessary to learn most of InDesign’s important features and become practiced enough to use them effectively. For many users, this study is sufficient to start experimenting with complete projects, particularly desktop publishing products like cards, signs, and books in both printed and PDF versions. Additional, more advanced classes will explain more complicated features like interactive elements, templates, style libraries, and digital publishing, enabling users to generate more complex documents with fewer errors. Further study also improves students’ proficiency and efficiency, both through routine practice and through mastery of InDesign’s project streamlining tools. Just as important, extended practice improves your design techniques through exposure to a variety of design options and project types. Expert users suggest that several months of study and practice are necessary to learn InDesign thoroughly enough to be capable with any type of project. Professional skill takes longer to achieve: at least a year or more of active work on diverse projects that challenge you to expand and refine your skills.

Should I Learn InDesign In Person or Online?

Some students are more comfortable with traditional in-person learning, seated in a classroom with an instructor physically present. For software like InDesign, this teaching model’s main advantage is that the school usually provides the computer hardware and software along with any printed instructional materials. Interaction with the instructor is also easier, being face-to-face without delays or technical problems. However, in-person classes do require you to travel to the class site, adding time and transportation costs. You also have to find a class site close enough to reach, and you are limited to the class times and instructors available in your area.

Live online classes combine the immediacy of live instruction with the convenience of virtual attendance. These classes are still shared, live sessions, but students join remotely via digital video conferencing programs like Zoom. In this way, live online instruction provides many of the same advantages of in-person learning, such as direct instructor contact, faster answers and feedback, and discussion with other students. The main disadvantage is the lack of physical presence, which can slow down discussion, especially for students with technical or learning difficulties. However, many online courses are supplemented by chatrooms where students can type between one another and instructors. While computers and software are not always provided for online classes, students often prefer to use their own familiar computer, and many InDesign courses do include a free or discounted subscription to the program. Most live online courses also provide printed or downloadable class materials. Best of all, you have a much wider selection of times and instructors when you are not limited by geography. You can also choose courses with schedules that better fit your availability.

Self-paced classes, sometimes called asynchronous learning, used to be conducted by mail, first in print then later recorded on tape or DVD, but currently prefer online streaming video. Students can view these pre-recorded video lessons whenever and wherever they want, as long as they have Internet access. Video recordings are typically supplemented by written exercises and reference materials, plus instructor access via message boards, chat rooms, and email. Some self-paced InDesign classes also include a free or discounted subscription to the program, though you usually have to use your own computer. The main disadvantage of this model is its lack of live interaction, which sacrifices immediacy and response time. Self-paced classes are also limited to the lessons instructors have already recorded, which can give these courses less variety and currency compared to live online classes. Still, some students find that the greater convenience and lower cost of self-paced study outweigh these limitations.

Can I Learn InDesign Free Online?

Many free online tutorials are available for InDesign. Most of these tutorials are videos posted on commercial sites like YouTube and Coursera or shared by Adobe. You can find several InDesign video classes on Noble Desktop's YouTube channel. However, free tutorials are limited even when compared to self-paced study, providing only the information on each video without any supporting study materials or instructor feedback. Some free courses are intended only as an audit or demonstration of a full class and are deliberately incomplete. Other courses are not professionally designed and may be poorly organized within and across lessons. At best, free classes can make you more aware of InDesign’s features, better explain a specific feature, or discuss the features used for a specific project type, but they rarely give a complete explanation of any topic. Even with a well-designed free course, students must organize their own study, and their practice will lack skilled feedback. Guided instruction may not be strictly necessary to learn InDesign, but it will help you reach mastery faster and with less confusion along the way.

What Should I Learn Alongside InDesign?

The most important subjects to learn alongside InDesign are design skills: visual, graphic, and print design. To get the most out of this program’s numerous tools and controls, it helps to understand exactly what each feature does and how options work together to build successful projects. Visual design addresses the intentional creation of a visual object’s appearance. Skill with visual design gives you better understanding of and greater control over features like color, shape, texture, and composition. This knowledge will guide both your selection of images within design projects and the appearance of each complete product. The related field of graphic design covers all combinations of text and images that inform, persuade, and evoke other intended reactions. Graphic design more often applies to mixed media like advertisements, product packaging, and book or magazine covers, but also affects the structure of magazine and newspaper pages and the design of digital media like webpages. Print design overlaps with graphic design and more specifically applies to printed media like newspapers, magazines, books, flyers, and posters. Print design also includes considerations like ink color versus on-screen color, page and paper sizes, and printing mediums like paper versus canvas.

Closely related to visual design and print design, digital design covers the skilled creation of electronic images and products including those images. In InDesign, digital design applies to eBooks, interactive forms, webpages, and images for inclusion in applications. Studying digital graphics will help you to create screen-ready images. Learning more about digital publishing will help you build better digital products and avoid errors like broken links and misaligned graphics. This field also includes motion graphics and digital animation in general.

Though InDesign can create many types of projects, it focuses on the structural layout of designs and is limited in other areas like image manipulation or web coding. InDesign is often bundled with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications, particularly Photoshop and Illustrator, and is designed for integrated use with these programs. By studying these other Adobe Creative Cloud programs, you can take advantage of their unique strengths and improve your design range. With Adobe Illustrator, for example, you will be able to create custom vector images for inclusion in InDesign projects. Adobe Photoshop is well known for photograph alteration but includes a wealth of tools for manipulating many image types. Adobe Lightroom is even more specialized for importing, adjusting, and printing photographs. If your projects need animated elements, Adobe AfterEffects creates and edits motion graphics. Your creations from InDesign can also be imported into these other programs for transformation. For example, Photoshop can add overlay effects impossible in InDesign. A composite image made in InDesign can also become part of an animation project in AfterEffects, a physical product design in Adobe Dimension, or a video in Adobe Premiere. And while InDesign can produce simple webpages and components for websites and applications, Adobe Experience Design and Adobe Dreamweaver can expand these designs into more elaborate, multi-functional digital products.

Industries that Use InDesign

InDesign is used in the publishing industry to create printed and digital publications for entertainment, education, and documentation. The media industry also relies on publications as its primary product, alongside video and audio outlets. Media companies may also create elements within InDesign for use in their videos and websites. Marketers use InDesign to create product pitches, designs, and sales campaigns. More specifically, the advertisers who support these marketing plans use InDesign to create advertisements for print or online use. Social media overlap with publishing, media, and advertising, but also have unique uses for InDesign when building online promotional and entertainment content.

Print Publishing

Chicago is a pillar of the world publishing industry, being the home of legendary mapmakers Rand McNally and the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States and the source of the Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago also hosts multiple large independent publishers, the current offices of Encyclopaedia Britannica, and satellite offices for textbook publishers including Pearson and Wiley.

InDesign is particularly useful to the creators and publishers of printed products, as it ensures that their digital creations will correctly translate to physical formats. With this program, editors and layout artists can quickly assemble text and other components to produce exact designs ready for print. Book publishers, from large publishing houses to small imprints, regularly employ InDesign, and many print-on-demand services recommend it to their clients. This segment of the print industry produces not only traditional trade books but also textbooks, manuals, chapbooks, journals, graphic novels, and art books, and these image-heavy books particularly benefit from InDesign’s layout tools. Print publishing also includes magazine and newspaper publishers, who need complex and exacting tools to make the best use of every printed page. Finally, InDesign is valued in the general printing industry for the creation of single-page products like flyers, signs, banners, and billboards.

Marketing and Advertising

Marketing campaigns rely heavily on graphic design for their visual elements, including many types of advertising, product logos, product design and packaging, and displays for retail and online stores. InDesign can create full designs for some of these needs and components for others. For example, a marketing team’s designer could use InDesign to make the information label for a product’s packaging or a banner for a direct sales website. Marketers may also use InDesign internally to create campaign proposals, sales pitches for clients, and sales reports for executives.

Advertising is both a part of marketing and an industry in itself. InDesign particularly contributes to physical advertising like signage, banners, and billboards. Advertisers can also use InDesign to create images for promotional merchandise, advertisements to incorporate within printed and digital publications (e.g., newspaper ads), and component images for video advertising.

Social Media

The social media industry includes every aspect of public online discourse: content creation, online promotions, and public sites and apps themselves. Individual content creators produce and share blogs, images, and videos for enjoyment, promotion, and/or income. Companies maintain online presences to promote their brand(s) and products. Social media companies themselves create, improve, and promote their virtual outlets. InDesign aids all of these efforts in several ways. Most directly, content creators can use InDesign to create products ready for online publication. For example, a layered composite image with text, photographs, and other graphics can be uploaded directly to sites like FaceBook, Instagram, or Snapchat. A webpage design, exported in HTML, can become a blog post or part of a personal or business website. As in other industries, InDesign can produce elements to add to other projects, like a FaceBook site’s banner or the thumbnail for a video on TikTok or YouTube. Social media companies use InDesign similarly to create digital resources like illustrations, information pages, and advertisements for themselves or their clients.

Media

Alongside its strength in print and publication, Chicago is the third-largest media market in the United States. The city itself is home to multiple major news outlets including the Tribune Group and the Sun-Times Media Group, nationally-known local television channel WGN, and Harpo Studios, the multimedia production company created by Oprah Winfrey. News and entertainment media outlets use every form of visual media to distribute their products and consequently use InDesign for all the same reasons as these overlapping industries. Printed media need publishers and print designers, and some media companies hire their own magazine and newspaper designers. They may also employ advertising staff to create and incorporate ad copy for clients. Television programs include on-screen graphics, many of which can be created in InDesign and added to broadcasts with video editing software. Online media, in addition to their inter-relationship with social media, can also use InDesign to build articles for news websites, format their magazines and newspapers for digital readers, and produce components for digital videos.

InDesign Job Titles and Salaries

Desktop Publisher

Within many publishing businesses, Desktop Publishers are the employees who most directly use print layout software like InDesign. These employees bring together the contributions of creators like writers, illustrators, and photographers, editing and combining these components. Desktop Publishers are responsible for producing print-ready layouts, whether they deliver these to physical printers or digital media managers. In addition to publishers and print shops, desktop publishers may work for media groups, advertisers, greeting card makers, web developers, or other industries producing written materials. In Chicago, a Desktop Publisher can typically earn between $42,500 and $57,500 per year.

Graphic Designer

Using design programs like InDesign, Graphic Designers create appealing, informative, and persuasive visual designs combining text and images. These creations can include printable designs similar to a desktop publisher’s work, digital media like graphics or webpages, brand designs and other marketing materials, or components for other visual media. Graphic Designers may work directly as part of a company’s design team or they may be contractors creating designs for many types of clients, alone or as part of a firm. Thus, Graphic Designers may work within a diverse range of industries, but they are most often employed in marketing, advertising, publishing, and digital media like website and software development. Across employers and employment types, an Entry Level Graphic Designer usually earns from $56,500 to $72,500 per year in Chicago. With more experience and a stronger portfolio, salaries for a Mid Level Graphic Designer rise to $65,500 to $81,500. A Senior Graphic Designer, both due to their significant experience and greater range of responsibilities, typically earns between $80,000 and $99,000.

Digital Designer

A Digital Designer specializes in the creation of digital products, including desktop and mobile applications as well as websites, digital videos and artworks, and components for all these uses. Their work includes aspects of desktop publishing, particularly when creating eBooks, webcomics, and online textbooks, and overlaps with the digital side of general graphic design. Digital Designers, though, uniquely focus on the digital experience, making sure their products are robust across different platforms, tailored to the needs of specific programs, and/or enhanced with additional functions and interactions, as appropriate. As such, InDesign is rarely their primary tool, but it can be a useful part of a broader toolkit. Digital Designers in the Chicago area average between $75,500 and $93,000 per year.

Technical Illustrator

InDesign, as a tool for combining text and graphics, is particularly useful for designing technical illustrations, images that make complex information quickly available. A Technical Illustrator is an expert in creating these images. They may assist textbook publishers, make safety or instructional signs, or provide diagrams for technical documentation. Their work combines aspects of graphic design with a keen understanding of visual communication and knowledge of one or more technical specialties. A Technical Illustrator with architectural education, for example, might draft blueprints or create interior design models; a Technical Illustrator with medical training could create anatomical diagrams or medical training texts. Similarly, Technical Illustrators may document designs and procedures for manufacturers, create informational diagrams for news stories, or create illustrations and diagrams for scientific journals. Reflecting this broad range of industries and expertise, the salary for a Technical Illustrator varies widely, averaging between $43,000 and $69,000 per year in Chicago.

Design Editor

Before designs can be published in print or digital media or approved for advertising or product design, they must be reviewed for errors. In some design teams, Design Editors are the last line of review before a design is put into production; they check and fix factual mistakes, spelling and grammar errors, graphical glitches like misalignments or wrong colors, or technical mistakes like broken links or misplaced elements. Some designers may submit their saved InDesign files directly to an editor, who then reviews their work within that program before designs are exported for further use. Chicago’s pay rate for Design Editors is the third-highest for any city in the United States, averaging between $45,000 and $68,000 per year.

Production Artist

Production Artists need an artistic background, but rather than being the primary creators of artistic works and designs, they are the experts who oversee, organize, and finalize complex creative projects. These projects may be as diverse as a marketing campaign, a commercial, a new product’s full design, or a television show or film. Production Artists work alongside Project Managers to determine a project’s needs, assign artists and designers to individual parts, and check that tasks are completed in a timely and coordinated fashion. As such, Production Artists need to understand each specialty’s expertise and tools, including programs like InDesign. They also often act as editors (or cooperate with Design Editors) to finalize components and designs and are usually responsible for the final cleanup of a completed project. Most Production Artists in Chicago earn between $54,000 and $73,000 per year, with this range increasing to $64,500 to $87,800 after promotion to Production Artist II.

Layout Artist / Layout Designer / Layout Editor

Similar to a Print, Graphic, or Digital Designer, a Layout Artist or Layout Designer creates designs for published works, but these specific titles are more frequently used in publishing and print media. These positions are also more specialized to the designers who assemble a layout’s final structure, drawing together the work of multiple other creators. Similar to a Production Artist, these designers consider the overall coherence and impression of the finished design, adjusting elements to work together harmoniously. Thus, compared to other designers, these jobs have the highest likelihood of using InDesign. As noted below, there is often overlap between the corrective duties of a Layout Artist or Designer and a Layout Editor. Layout Artists earn about $66,000 to $82,000 per year in Chicago; Layout Designers, by contrast, earn about $69,500 to $87,000 per year.

In the same way that a Layout Designer is a designer specialized in layouts, a Layout Editor is a Design Editor who specifically checks and corrects completed layouts. In some businesses, Layout Editors have the same duties as Layout Artists plus added expectations of proofreading and revision. In some publishing companies, the title Layout Editor is used to contrast design editing versus content editing. Some Layout Editors, though, do decide what content is ultimately included in a publication and the relative size and placement of articles. In Chicago, across all industries and experience levels, a Layout Editor typically earns between $55,500 and $97,000 a year.

Social Media Manager

Celebrities need to establish and maintain their presence on social media but rarely have time to personally create and post content. Businesses, also, need to take advantage of social media outlets to build and promote their brands. Even full-time Internet content creators may need assistance with one or more platforms. All these employers hire Social Media Managers to handle their social media operations, trusting them to design, make, and share their messages, manage public reaction to these posts, and catch any mentions of their name or brand. A Social Media Manager is a combination of a digital media designer and a marketer, skilled in knowing what content to share where, when, and with what tags, to draw maximum attention and approval. Social Media Managers often create articles, images, and videos themselves, and InDesign is a useful tool for assembling this content, especially in conjunction with other Adobe Creative Cloud programs. Social Media Managers are in especially high demand in Chicago, with several hundred job openings per day and an average yearly salary of around $73,500.

InDesign Classes Near Me

Computer Training Source, Inc. holds in-person software training classes at multiple training centers in and near Chicago. They have divided their InDesign courses into three experience levels. In the introductory class, InDesign Part 1, students become familiar with the InDesign program interface, document creation and customization, page design and common design elements, and document export options. InDesign Part 2 assumes that prior experience and continues with a wider range of document formats and elements, explains how to build and use paths, and teaches how to manage styles, imported documents, and long, complex documents. Finally, InDesign Part 3 is an advanced class that further elaborates and practices the topics in Part 2 and also addresses interactive elements, motion graphics and other animations, sound and video, and enhanced graphic options.

ONLC Training Centers offers in-person IT training across the United States, including a classroom in Chicago. Their InDesign offerings begin with Adobe InDesign Core Skills: Level 1, an introduction to the program that covers its interface and major functions like document setup, page structures, text frames and styles, image importing and placement, color application and editing, and exporting documents for print. Continuing from this basis, Adobe InDesign Core Skills: Level 2 covers each topic in more depth, adding new techniques to improve efficiency and advanced elements like graphic editing and fillable forms for interactive PDFs.

In addition to their suite of in-person InDesign courses, Ledet Training, a computer training school with classroom sites in Chicago, offers two specialized classes of note. These classes assume prior experience with InDesign and teach specific uses of the program. Adobe InDesign: Tablet Publishing Training covers eBooks for handheld devices, published in the EPUB and MOBI formats. This class addresses topics like hyperlinking and cross-referencing within documents, formatting graphics correctly across platforms, and exporting and customizing eBook files; it also includes practice with other eBook layout programs beyond InDesign. EPUB: Creating ebooks with Adobe InDesign addresses the EPUB format in more depth and also discusses how to self-publish and distribute eBooks, including how to convert EPUB files to other reader formats.

Noble Desktop’s Adobe InDesign Bootcamp is a live online course that provides comprehensive instruction for anyone seeking proficiency with InDesign. No prior experience with the program is required. In this course, you will learn and practice each of InDesign’s major functions. The course starts with text formatting and structuring, progresses through layout and design tools, addresses style controls and templates, and concludes with several practical projects that combine these techniques and demonstrate complex designs. In addition to multiple instructor-led online classes, students receive a course workbook, can review a recording of the course, and can retake the class once for free for up to a year.

For students who need only a general introduction to InDesign and have limited time, Noble Desktop’s InDesign in a Day is a shorter live online class that covers the program’s major features using several concrete examples. This class provides enough background to manage simple projects or to decide whether you need further instruction.

Noble Desktop also offers an InDesign Certification Program that builds on their Adobe InDesign Bootcamp and prepares students for professional certification. In addition to the same live online classes and support materials as in the Bootcamp, the Certification Program adds six hours of private tutoring with an instructor plus supplementary exam preparation videos. The course concludes with a proctored Adobe Certified Professional exam for InDesign Certification. This course includes the same free retake policy as the Bootcamp, and students can also retake the exam once for free if needed.

Training Connection provides both computer and business skill training through live online instruction. Accordingly, their InDesign classes are designed for the professional user. Their single-session introductory class, InDesign Quick Start, teaches novices practical InDesign skills through five real-world sample projects, including a bulletin, poster, magazine article, and magazine advertisement. The course includes an instructional manual and a course certificate upon completion; it also offers a free repeat for up to six months. Training Connection’s InDesign Advanced course is designed for current InDesign users and teaches advanced techniques and further practical applications through ten sample projects. Students will learn to use tables, GREP search, and scripts and practice building multi-part books, presentations, and interactive documents. This advanced class includes its own training manual and certificate of completion and offers the same six-month retake opportunity.

Another option for live online training, Plexus Creative hosts courses covering the full Adobe Creative Cloud suite as well as individual classes for each of its component applications. Their classes for InDesign begin with an Introduction to Adobe InDesign, a fundamentals class that covers document creation and customization, page setup and layout, text and graphic formatting and styles, and printing and export. For users with some experience, Intermediate Adobe InDesign provides advanced training on document and page layout and graphic creation and editing. Professionals seeking to refine and update their InDesign skills should take the Adobe InDesign Masterclass, which covers both the fundamental and advanced topics in greater depth, further explains interactive document design, and includes extra time in each class session for discussions about portfolio and professional development.

InDesign Corporate Training

If your business’s employees need to know InDesign — whether they are using the program for the first time or updating their existing skills — you can schedule live training classes with Noble Desktop, on-site at your location or online. You can schedule one of Noble Desktop’s existing InDesign courses or create a custom class to fit your specific needs. Course scheduling is also flexible, by request, for both on-site and online classes. For even more convenience, you can purchase class vouchers in advance, at a bulk discount, and distribute these vouchers to employees so that they can book the class sessions that best fit their schedule. All courses include reference materials and online videos to supplement and reinforce live class sessions.

Contact Noble Desktop at corporate@nobledesktop.com to schedule a free consultation session where you can ask questions, schedule classes, purchase bulk course vouchers, or create a custom instructional program for your company’s employees.

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Chicago InDesign Courses by School

Here are some of the top Chicago schools offering InDesign training, including Ledet Training (5 courses), ONLC Training Centers (4 courses), and Computer Training Source (3 courses). We’ve also included 2 schools that offer live online courses you can take from anywhere, including Chicago.

Noble Desktop

NYC location: 185 Madison Avenue, New York, NY

Founded in 1990, Noble Desktop offers part-time and full-immersion courses on anything you can think of from design and coding to business. Located in New York City and providing courses both online and in-person, Noble Desktop prides itself on accommodating dynamic courses and bootcamps with hands-on learning, time-tested curriculums, and education from top industry experts.
- Adobe InDesign Bootcamp
  - 18 Hours
  - $975
- Graphic Design Certificate
  - 84 Hours
  - $2,995
- InDesign Certification Program
  - 24 Hours
  - $1,699
- InDesign in a Day
  - 6 Hours
  - $425
Ledet Training

Chicago location: 17 North State St, Chicago, IL

Ledet Training offers graphics and mobile training courses on-site across the U.S. including Washington, Denver, Atlanta, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Portland, Houston, and Fort Lauderdale.
- Adobe InDesign 101
  - 2 Days
  - $899
- Adobe InDesign 201 - InDesign Advanced
  - 2 Days
  - $799
- Adobe InDesign 301 - InDesign Tablet Publishing
  - 1 Day
  - $499
- Adobe InDesign 303 - Automated publishing using XML with InDesign
  - 2 Days
  - $1,199
Computer Training Source

Chicago location: 420 N Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL

Computer Training Source offers computer training courses in Chicago, Naperville, Schaumburg, and online. CTS provides students with a variety of courses including Microsoft Office, Adobe, web design, project management, and technology/networking.
- InDesign Part 1
  - 1 Day
  - $349
- InDesign Part 2
  - 1 Day
  - $399
- InDesign Part 3
  - 1 Day
  - $425
Certstaffix Training

Chicago location: 205 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL

Certstaffix offers live online classes and group training onsite for corporate entities all over the U.S. They provide courses in End-user/Desktop, IT Pro Skills, Online Marketing, Business Skills, and Programming/Development.
- Adobe InDesign CC (2020)
  - 3 Days
  - $1,330
Virtual Design & Construction Institute
Locations:
- Live Online
Virtual Design and Construction Institute (VDCI) is a nationally accredited educational institution specializing in career-focused training for the design and construction industry. VDCI offers software training in CAD, BIM, and Virtual Design & Construction, equipping students with practical skills for immediate application.
- InDesign Certification Course Online (Self-Paced)
  - 6 Weeks
  - $799
- Introduction to InDesign (Self-Paced)
  - 3 Weeks
  - $579
New Horizons

Chicago location: 525 W Van Buren St, Chicago, IL

Offering on-site training all over the world and online, New Horizons is a computer learning center. New Horizons offers training for top technology providers like Adobe, Citrix, and Microsoft.
- Adobe InDesign CC - Part 1
  - 2 Days
  - $790
- Adobe InDesign CC - Part 2
  - 2 Days
  - $790
ONLC Training Centers

Chicago location: 233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL

ONLC has over 300 training sites and offers courses and certificates in many areas including desktop applications like Adobe, Microsoft Technical like Visual Studio, Server and Security, and Process and Programming like Java and Web Development.
- Adobe InDesign Core Skills: Level 1
  - 13 Hours
  - $795
- Adobe InDesign Core Skills: Level 2
  - 13 Hours
  - $795
Computer Training Source, Inc.

Chicago location: 420 N Wabash Ave, Chicago, Illinois

Computer Training Source, Inc. is a Chicago-based educational institution providing diverse technology courses for corporate and individual needs. The school offers in-person courses such as business software, web development, and cyber security and online courses such as coding, cybersecurity, and Office 365. With more than ten years of experience in the tech training industry, Computer Training Source, Inc. is committed to providing learners with comprehensive educational experiences.
- InDesign Part 2
  - 7 Hours
  - $649
- InDesign Part 3
  - 7 Hours
  - $649

Showing 8 of 8 schools

Chicago InDesign
Corporate & Onsite Training

Upskill or reskill your workforce with our industry-leading corporate and onsite InDesign training programs. Conduct the training onsite at your location or live online from anywhere. You can also purchase vouchers for our public enrollment InDesign courses.

corporate@nobledesktop.com (212) 226-4149

InDesign Training Locations in or Near Chicago

Find an in-person class in Chicago. We found 4 schools offering face-to-face training, 2 schools offering access to a computer lab (remote instructor), and 4 offering live online InDesign courses.

Chicago Careers & Salaries Related to InDesign

InDesign is the primary layout software used by designers across all industries. It combines the detail of Photoshop and the versatility of Illustrator in one neat and powerful package. It’s widely used for creating catalogs, magazines, e-books, and more. Learning InDesign is a great way to break into visual design careers that focus on layouts and multimedia design.

InDesign is one of the core skills needed to secure one of these positions. See the career pages for more information on required skills, tips for landing a job, typical day-to-day work, and where to find job postings.

Graphic Designer

$81,000 / year in Chicago
32% more than the U.S. average
Designer

$73,000 / year in Chicago
7% less than the U.S. average
Digital Designer

$113,000 / year in Chicago
8% more than the U.S. average
Design Director

$140,000 / year in Chicago
7% less than the U.S. average

Showing 4 of 4 career paths

Indeed.com salary data from April 2025

How InDesign can advance your career

Top Certificate Programs

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Key Insights

Learn More About Chicago InDesign Courses

What is InDesign?

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What Will I Learn in an InDesign Class?

Print Design Tools

Graphic Design Tools

Interactive Text

Digital Publishing Tools

Communications

How Hard is it to Learn InDesign?

What Are the Most Challenging Parts of Learning InDesign?

How Long Does it Take to Learn InDesign?

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What Should I Learn Alongside InDesign?

Industries that Use InDesign

Print Publishing

Marketing and Advertising

Social Media

Media

InDesign Job Titles and Salaries

Desktop Publisher

Graphic Designer

Digital Designer

Technical Illustrator

Design Editor

Production Artist

Layout Artist / Layout Designer / Layout Editor

Social Media Manager

InDesign Classes Near Me

InDesign Corporate Training

Chicago InDesign Courses by School

Adobe InDesign 101

Adobe InDesign 201 - InDesign Advanced

Adobe InDesign 301 - InDesign Tablet Publishing

Adobe InDesign 303 - Automated publishing using XML with InDesign

InDesign Part 1

InDesign Part 2

InDesign Part 3

Adobe InDesign CC (2020)

InDesign Certification Course Online (Self-Paced)

Introduction to InDesign (Self-Paced)

Adobe InDesign CC - Part 1

Adobe InDesign CC - Part 2

Adobe InDesign Core Skills: Level 1

Adobe InDesign Core Skills: Level 2

Computer Training Source, Inc.

InDesign Part 2

InDesign Part 3

Chicago InDesign Corporate & Onsite Training Noble Desktop

InDesign Training Locations in or Near Chicago

Chicago Careers & Salaries Related to InDesign

Related Classes

Chicago InDesign
Corporate & Onsite Training