This book provides an overview of Adobe Creative Cloud, introducing you to InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. We have taken the essentials from the individual training books for each application and boiled them down into a single book, so you can get up to speed as quickly has possible.
Includes Downloadable Class Files (works on Mac & PC)
ISBN: 978-1-941333-61-7
Setup & Introduction
Downloading the Class Files
The Tools Panel Expanded & Keyboard Shortcuts
Section 1
InDesign: Letter Creation
- Setting preferences
- The Control panel
- Text frames
- Basic text attributes
- Basic keyboard shortcuts
InDesign: More Text Styling
- Baseline shift
- Small caps
- The Line tool
- Making proper fractions
InDesign: Advanced Word Processing/Formatting
- Paragraph spacing
- Tabs
InDesign: Kerning/Tracking
- Optical vs. metric kerning
- Kerning vs. tracking
- Manual kerning
InDesign: 2-Page Magazine Ad
- Facing pages
- Color swatches
- Defining colors
InDesign: Multiple Column Ad with Text Wrap
- Multiple text columns
- Drop caps
- The baseline grid
- Text wrap
InDesign: Magazine Cover
- Placing transparent art
- Defining & using color swatches
- Type on a path
InDesign: Style Sheets in a Magazine Article
- Paragraph styles
- Character styles
- Nested styles
Section 2
Photoshop: Getting Started
- Zooming
- Scrolling
- Getting around
- Tools
- Copying & pasting
Photoshop: Photo Retouching
- Making selections
- The Healing Brush tool
- The Clone Stamp tool
- The Red Eye tool
Photoshop: Replacing Backgrounds
- The Magic Wand tool
- Image compositing
Photoshop: Annual Report Cover
- More selection practice
- Feathering selections
- Working with layers
- Using type
Photoshop: Selecting with Quick Masks
- Quick masks
- More Magic Wand tool practice
Photoshop: Cropping, Resizing, & Blending
- The Gradient tool
- More pattern practice
- Blending modes
Photoshop: Preparing Digital Photos for Print
- Viewing/setting image size
- Resampling pros & cons
- Saving as PSD
- Saving as TIFF
Photoshop: Saving Photos for the Web as JPEG
- Resizing images for the web
- Reducing image size with resampling
- Setting JPEG quality
Photoshop: Saving Photos for the Web as GIF/PNG
- Comparing GIF & PNG
- Transparency on the web
Photoshop: Adjustment Layers & Masks
- More Curves practice
- Masking out unwanted adjustments
- Organizing layers into groups
Photoshop: Using Layer Masks for Silhouettes
- The Magnetic Lasso tool
- More practice with layer masks
- The Refine Edge dialog
- Color Fill layers
Section 3
Illustrator Preferences: Do Before Remaining Exercises!
- Setting up preferences & workspaces
Illustrator: Straight Lines
- Using the Pen tool
- Adjusting the workspace
- Arranging objects
- Color fills
Illustrator: Curves
- Drawing curves with the Pen tool
- Anchor points & direction points
- Default fill & stroke
Illustrator: Corners & Curves
- Drawing corners & curves with the Pen tool
- Adjusting anchor points
Illustrator: No Smoking Sign
- Fill & stroke
- Basic shape tools
- Grouping objects
- The Layers panel
- Working with templates
- Saving Illustrator files: options
Illustrator: Super Hero
- Live Trace & Live Paint
- Tracing hand-drawn images
- Coloring Live Paint objects
- Brushes
- The Flare tool
Illustrator: Juggling Colors & Gradients
- Dashed lines & stroke options
- Saving colors as swatches
- Blending modes
- The Gradient tool
- Saving gradient swatches
Illustrator: Combining Shapes with the Pathfinder
- Merging paths (Pathfinder)
- Transparency options
- Grouping objects
Section 4
Final Project: Sporktown Brochure
- Placing text, photos, & illustrations
- Gradient swatches
- Drop shadows
- Alignment
- Text wrap
Reference Material
Examples of What You Learn
Why Our Books Are Unique
Our books are packed with step-by-step exercises that walk you through projects. You’ll learn by doing exercises, not reading long explanations. The goal is to give you hands-on practice with the program, getting you started quickly with the things that are most important for real life work.
