InDesign Video Tutorials

InDesign is Adobe’s page layout design software, and it is among the most commonly used creative tools in the print media industry. Learning InDesign can be an ideal step for aspiring Graphic Designers who wish to turn their creative passions into a career. Watching video tutorials online is a popular method of learning InDesign. Video tutorials are ideal for helping students familiarize themselves with the application's basics and give them increased control over the pace and style of their early education. While tutorial videos won’t be deep enough to let students master InDesign, they are ideal places to start one’s education. This article will cover a range of videos, including what they teach and where to find them.

What is InDesign?

Released in 1999, Adobe InDesign is the industry standard in page layout design software, and it is one of the software programs that comprise the Adobe Creative Cloud. Together with Photoshop and Illustrator, InDesign is one of the most commonly used creative design tools across a number of industries, ranging from publishing to graphic design. Built to streamline the process of designing page layouts for books and magazines, InDesign has a plethora of uses that make it a versatile tool for many creative endeavors. As part of a heavily integrated array of creative tools, Adobe InDesign gives creatives the chance to create compelling and vibrant page layouts.

Unlike its sister programs, Illustrator and Photoshop, InDesign serves a specific but vital function, building page layouts. Creatives will use InDesign to build prototype layouts for everything from brochures to web pages, and the program has tools for populating those prototypes with graphics, texts, and even interactive elements. While it is primarily used in traditional print media, InDesign is seeing increasing use in the digital sphere, such as the world of ePublishing and website design.

Read more about what InDesign is and why you should learn it.

What Can You Do with InDesign?

Adobe InDesign allows users to create vibrant and memorable design layouts that can be used for anything from print advertisements to promotional brochures to newsletters and magazines. Almost any print layout can be built with InDesign, and the tool is often used to help Web Designers produce mock-ups of web pages. Users can add text, color, and images to their layouts to ensure they communicate what they are trying to communicate. InDesign also lets users easily create templates or replicate pages to streamline the multi-page design process.

InDesign also has numerous non-professional uses for users who are hoping to create eye-catching posters, infographics, or flyers for their own organizations or communities. Visual design skills can help users share information in memorable and effective ways, and learning InDesign will help anyone hoping to communicate with the masses. Additionally, many small businesses or private commercial organizations like Etsy shops or local bands can greatly benefit from having individuals on staff with InDesign training, as the program helps non-professionals make professional-grade graphic page layouts.

Additionally, because InDesign is so closely integrated with the rest of the Adobe Creative Cloud, users who are familiar with other programs can seamlessly integrate their work in other programs into their layout designs. Photos and illustrations can be edited or created in Photoshop and Illustrator and then easily brought over in InDesign to populate a layout. Users can also transfer work between InDesign and XD to help build prototype web layouts. These connections help expand the functionality of all Adobe Creative Cloud applications.

Why Are Video Tutorials Helpful When Learning InDesign?

Video tutorials are a great way to introduce yourself to Adobe InDesign for a number of reasons. First, most initial challenges with any design program come from users having difficulty interacting with an unfamiliar interface. Video tutorials are a good place to watch someone guide you through the various aspects of the interface, allowing students to familiarize themselves with what the icons and menus mean. Additionally, Adobe InDesign is part of the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription service, so aspiring designers who aren’t part of schools or companies that have deals with Adobe might want to watch tutorials first to get a feel for the program before subscribing to a relatively expensive service.

Tutorials also have the advantage of being free and giving students greater control over the pace of their own learning. Tutorials can be rewound and paused to give students the ability to linger on a complicated problem they are having without falling behind the instruction. Additionally, there is a wide range of video tutorials available online, so switching from one platform to another is effortless. There is no commitment, and almost never a fee, associated with a video tutorial, so students can more easily move from one learning style to another as the need arises.

This also allows students to use video tutorials to dictate exactly how long they want to spend in any given session. Rather than having to work at the pace dictated by an instructor, students can put down their lessons at their pleasure, making it easier to fit their training into their schedule. This may be helpful for students who need to slow down their pace of learning or who don’t have a set schedule that allows them to commit to even night or weekend classes.

Types of InDesign Videos

Tutorial videos will come in wide varieties. Some videos reproduce large-scale introductory lectures and will run for 90 minutes or longer. These videos are like online, asynchronous college courses, giving students the chance to move around in a large recording at their own pace. They are often made by training providers such as Noble to replicate the feel and experience of a live, online training course, and they are good onboarding practices for more in-depth, hands-on training.

Noble offers free online Graphic Design and InDesign courses that can serve as introductory lessons on the basics of InDesign. Noble’s blog and their Graphic Design YouTube playlist provide students with free introductory videos covering both graphic design principles broadly and Adobe InDesign in particular. These videos are a great place to start getting a feel for InDesign, as they allow students to learn the basics of the program at their own pace. Noble’s videos cover the basic functionalities of InDesign, teaching students how to navigate the interface, add text and images to a layout, and how to export and prepare simple layouts for publication.

Other video tutorials are collections of short videos, often no longer than ten to fifteen minutes, which cover individual subjects such as how to build text wraps, how to use the shape tool, or even more basic ideas such as “Ten Tips and Tricks for InDesign Beginners.” These tutorials have the advantage of being narrow and concise, allowing students to find the particular tutorial that they need at any given moment. These are also the kinds of videos made available through Adobe’s own training website.

Some InDesign videos are more project-oriented than others, providing viewers with demonstrations of how a user builds a layout using InDesign rather than demonstrating the use of individual tools. These tutorials might be more useful for learners who prefer to pick up skills by observing experts instead of learning skills through traditional instruction.

Why Learn InDesign?

Learning InDesign will help creatives and aspiring Graphic Designers streamline the process of building page layouts. The program lets users construct vibrant layouts using text, shapes, and color modification tools, and it is perfect for anyone who designs print advertisements, magazines and newspaper layouts, infographics, posters, or brochures. Anyone, professional or amateur, who wants to create eye-catching printed graphic designs can learn InDesign to take their creative output to the next level.

Additionally, because InDesign is a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud, learning how to create design layouts in InDesign will also help users become more skilled at using other Adobe Creative software. Learning InDesign is often paired with training in programs like Photoshop or Illustrator because the programs are closely integrated. This means that learning InDesign can either help users become more proficient with programs they already know, or learning InDesign can help make learning new programs easier. This means that learning InDesign won’t simply make a user better at building page layouts, but it can also open the door to more easily learning skills like photo editing, vector graphics design, or web interface design.

Read more about why you should learn InDesign.

How Difficult is It to Learn InDesign?

Adobe InDesign is relatively easy to learn but difficult to master. New users can start utilizing the program’s basic features quickly, letting them experiment with the program’s design tools with only a few hours of training. However, more advanced designs will require more advanced training, which can be both time-consuming and labor intensive.

Like most creative design programs, there are no formal prerequisites to learning InDesign. However, users should be familiar with the computer system that they will be using to run InDesign (and they should know that there is no tablet or mobile version). Additionally, users who plan to use InDesign professionally should familiarize themselves with both basic theories of graphic design, like composition theory, and current trends in graphic design industries to understand the kinds of projects clients will want them to make.

While Adobe offers new InDesign users a free trial of the program, after this expires, users will need to pay a monthly licensing fee as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Adobe offers a number of pricing plans to help users find the right price, but most plans range between $20.99 a month for only InDesign access and $54.99 a month for access to all the programs in the Adobe Creative Cloud.

Read about how difficult it is to learn InDesign.

Learn InDesign with Hands-on Training at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop offers a wide range of training options for students seeking to learn Adobe InDesign. Ranging from introductory courses such as InDesign in a Day to immersive career training programs like the Graphic Design Certificate program, Noble has a training program built to fit your needs. These courses are all taught by professional instructors with years of training as both teachers and graphic designers. Each course comes with the option to retake the course for free within a year of the initial enrollment, meaning that students have the option to take the courses again in order to receive more hands-on experience with InDesign or to gain more training in skills that they found difficult the first time through.

The Adobe InDesign Bootcamp gives students hands-on experience working with InDesign through exercises that mirror the kinds of projects that professional Graphic Designers would work on. Students will learn how to create layouts with InDesign’s text, color, and graphic tools, they will learn how to import formats and styles to easily build layouts, and they will learn how to work with parent pages to easily create complex, multi-page designs for projects like brochures and magazines. This course is ideal for students who want to learn the advanced features of InDesign within a professional context. At the end of this bootcamp, students will be prepared to use InDesign as part of their professional lives, and they will be able to demonstrate to their employers that they have received in-depth InDesign training.

Noble’s Graphic Design Certificate program takes this InDesign training and pairs it with career-focused training in Photoshop and Illustrator. Students will learn the background of graphic design, receiving training in philosophies of composition, color theory, and typography. Then, they will learn how to use Illustrator and Photoshop to create digital illustrations and assets that can be imported to InDesign to populate finished page layouts. Bringing these programs together, the Graphic Design Certificate program is built to take students from novice users to trained designers, aiming to help them find a new career once they’ve completed the course. This certificate program also provides students with one-on-one career mentoring so that when the course is complete, graduates will be ready to enter the workforce as Graphic Designers.