Explore page design in InDesign with lessons that emphasize structure and aesthetics. Learn how to organize layouts that communicate your message effectively.
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.
Begin your journey as a professional graphic designer by learning the essential skills and tools used by industry experts. Gain hands-on experience in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator, and create a stunning portfolio to showcase your talent to potential employers or clients.
Advance your layout and design expertise while preparing for the Adobe Certified Professional exam in this hands-on InDesign Certification Program. Through expert-led classes, personalized tutoring, and real-world projects, you'll gain the skills and confidence to create polished magazines, brochures, books, and more.
Adobe InDesign allows users to create page layouts. Artists, designers, publishers, and other creatives utilize the easy-to-use software to create posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, and even book covers. First released in 1999, InDesign has become a widely used tool for creating such works. As traditional print publishing declines and digital publishing rises, the need for InDesign and professionals who know how to use it is increasing.
With InDesign, you can design page layouts for advertisements, books, magazines, brochures—nearly any print layout. Web Designers often use InDesign to create mock-ups of webpages. With InDesign, designers can play with various elements such as color, text, and images. In the designing process, InDesign serves as a means to draft potential layouts before deciding on what will best convey the Designer’s message.
Non-professionals can also use InDesign. The software is part of Adobe Creative Cloud, making it accessible to professionals and non-professionals alike. Individuals who belong to an organization or club can use InDesign to create flyers, brochures, and infographics. Small businesses can depend on InDesign to make visually pleasing, eye-catching layouts to draw in customers and convey their brand’s identity.
As part of the Adobe Creative Cloud family, InDesign can integrate with other Adobe software such as Illustrator and Photoshop. Before working in InDesign, users can create or edit images in Illustrator or Photoshop before integrating them with InDesign to create a layout.
Beginner-level InDesign classes will help students become comfortable with the interface of InDesign. After learning about the difference between tools and features of the program, students will learn how to use them. Classes will dive into a variety of project types and skills, helping students learn how to create powerful layouts.
Professionals use InDesign for layout and design, so they need to have an eye for design and understand important layout principles such as typography and spacing. An InDesign class will cover these elements along with the style features that InDesign offers for text, objects, and other elements. Students can also expect to learn how to create master pages, which include layout elements that users may apply to multiple pages, ultimately saving them time.
An important aspect of the design process for many teams is collaboration. Design teams often have several designers who must work together to ensure that a design is cohesive and conveys the message their company would like. To succeed in collaboration, designers must know how to implement tools like InCopy, a collaboration feature in InDesign, and know how to communicate their ideas. InDesign classes often feature group projects that make use of collaboration tools, helping students gain an understanding of what it means to collaborate in the world of design.
Students may find that learning InDesign is difficult at first if they have no prior experience with page layout design. To successfully use InDesign, users must know not just how to use its tools and features, but how to incorporate good designs and layout principles. InDesign serves as a vehicle for the user’s creativity; without an understanding of design and layout principles, students may find it difficult to know what to do in InDesign. Luckily, with some training and practice, students can overcome this challenge.
Students with an understanding of design and layouts will likely find InDesign easy to use, but difficult to master. The tools of InDesign themselves offer users ways to explore potential layouts. As such, understanding the basics of InDesign often takes just a few hours. Mastering these tools and creating professional, eye-catching layouts, however, is up to the student and how much time they’re willing to put into learning and developing their abilities.
InDesign integrates with Adobe Creative Cloud applications such as Illustrator and Photoshop. To get the most out of InDesign, it’s recommended that students also learn how to use these two applications. With Creative Cloud at their fingertips, students can create images and graphics in Illustrator or edit them in Photoshop before populating a layout that incorporates them in InDesign. Designers across industries rely on these three tools to create designs and layouts for books, magazines, brochures, newspapers, and other forms of print.
Adobe offers a 14-day free trial to Creative Cloud, which includes access to 20+ apps and Adobe Creative Cloud library. Subscriptions come in several forms, with pricing available for individuals and teams, and discounts available for students and educators.
Professionals responsible for layout designs include those in the publishing, marketing, art, and other creative industries.
California has the most publishing companies in the US. A range of book publishers operate in San Francisco, including ones in the fantasy, science fiction, literary fiction, and political genres. The publishing industry makes digital and printed information, including literature and music. As traditional print publishing declines, these companies have looked toward digital publishing as a means of business. Professionals must now have strong web design and computer skills, with InDesign serving as one of the main software used to create digital layouts.
San Francisco’s art scene is undergoing a renaissance, particularly related to the latest socioeconomic changes the city has undergone in the 21st century. Artists and designers pervade San Francisco, from professionals looking to sell and promote their original works to content creators to digital marketers utilizing their art and design background to promote a company’s brand. As digital art and content creation become more commonplace, InDesign has found its use among artists and designers looking to integrate digital technology into their pieces.
Professionals use InDesign to create content for their brands or others. Popular careers that you can explore if you have InDesign skills include Graphic Designer and Web Designer.
Graphic Designers utilize software and their knowledge of design elements such as space, color, and texture, to form aesthetically pleasing designs that convey their intended message. Most Graphic Designers have a working knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud applications like InDesign and Illustrator along with a solid foundation in design principles. Companies may employ a Graphic Designer to work part-time or full-time, or they may find a Graphic Designer who provides freelance services. This directly impacts the average annual salary of a Graphic Designer in the US, which is currently around $60,000.
Web Designers create websites that make use of design theory, graphic design, and UX design principles. Web Designers employed full-time by a company often work with a team of Web Developers, Software Engineers, and UX Designers. The responsibility of the Web Designer is to collaborate with teammates on the company’s website and provide designs that the team will implement. Some Web Designers are also involved in competitor analysis, analyzing how the websites of their competitors compare and strategizing how to drive more traffic to their company’s site through the use of design implementation. In the US, the average salary of a Web Designer is $53,000.
Schools and training centers online and in San Francisco offer InDesign classes readily available to you. Courses take place during the week, in the evenings, and on weekends. In an InDesign class, students have the chance to learn through hands-on, project-based lessons and collaborate with their fellow students. In-person and live online classes offer the ability to ask an expert instructor questions and receive constructive feedback.
If you’re looking for a quick rundown of InDesign, enroll in Noble Desktop’s class, InDesign in a Day. This six-hour accelerated class will teach you the fundamentals of the software, including page layout, typography, and image manipulation. You can enroll in the single-day course or the two-night course, both of which Noble Desktop offers live online. The class will encourage you and your fellow students to gain real-world skills as you work on a brochure and two-page magazine in InDesign under instructor guidance.
For a longer-form InDesign class, sign up for Noble Desktop’s Adobe InDesign Bootcamp. The bootcamp will cover the basics taught in the one-day course, along with styling, importing, and packaging. The latter part of the course includes lessons on advanced techniques like master pages and tables. If you’re interested in using InDesign to create books, magazines, and ads, this class will prepare you to do so. Tuition is $975 and includes a free retake within one year, as well as a verified digital certificate of completion.
AcademyX’s InDesign Fundamentals Training class provides students with an overview of InDesign to help them create professional documents, including magazines, books, and posters. Lessons cover different types of layouts in the software before putting lessons into practice with two hands-on exercises. AcademyX’s class covers foundational concepts to set students up to accomplish additional tasks with advanced tools, like object libraries. Students in San Francisco can enroll in the in-person group class held at AcademyX or request private training.
Ledet Training offers Adobe InDesign 101, a two-day live online class for beginners. In this course, students will learn how to create professional layouts for single-page and multi-page documents for digital and print publishing. The class begins with an introduction to InDesign’s interface, helping students familiarize themselves with workspaces, presets, and templates. Lessons then cover type controls, graphics file management, layers, and even best practices. Ledet has structured InDesign 101 around developing real-world skills. After the class has finished, students should have the skills necessary to create simple or complex page layouts and know how to use InDesign’s tools and design environment.
If you’re interested in using InDesign for publishing, consider enrolling in another one of Ledet Training’s Publishing Training courses. This includes courses on Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Creative Cloud, and more advanced InDesign courses. In Adobe InDesign: Print Production Guidelines, for example, students will spend one day learning how to assess common problems that arise when preparing InDesign documents for printing. This troubleshooting class intends to help students avoid mistakes when preparing documents with InDesign.
Companies and organizations interested in InDesign training for their team can contact Noble Desktop at corporate@nobledesktop.com to learn about their corporate training options. With Noble, you can choose from several InDesign courses or curate a customized curriculum with Noble’s team that suits the needs of your employees. Noble will provide lessons live online or onsite, offering you and your team flexibility when it comes to scheduling.
With Noble Desktop’s corporate training program, you can buy vouchers in bulk at a discounted rate. This option allows employees to attend scheduled InDesign classes you’ve selected at a time that suits their schedules. To learn more about group vouchers and corporate training options, contact Noble Desktop or visit Noble Desktop.com/corporate-training.