DTP Training
The aim of this set of notes is to provide some 'in-depth' guidance for students wanting to learn about Desk Top Publishing (DTP) and who are contemplating taking courses with us either online or face to face.
Why desk top publishing?
In the modern business world, the 'presentation bar' is being constantly raised. There is a continuing call for the production of better quality documents - be they newsletters, brochures, annual reports, charts, diagrams, location maps, presentations etc. Desktop publishing software enables the preparation of these high quality materials, both in printed from and on the web.
Here are some examples:
A menu for a restaurant menu produced using DTP software. The restaurant sends the menu to past diners by email and it publicizes and markets the restaurant in this way thus saving substantially on costs. [Note that this image has been degraded for rapid downloading on the Internet, but if you would like to view the finished result in PDF format as received by potential diners, click here.]
There were considerable cost savings in working this way. Not only was the restaurant able to market the menu via email and the Internet, but they were able to lower printing costs and dramatically shorten the time to produce a printed version of the menu because they did not have to deal with a commercial printer.
Another example
This time a student has produced an issue of a trade magazine. Here she used Adobe's InDesign for the job. InDesign, a member of the Adobe Creative Suite, is rapidly becoming a market leader in Desk Top Publishing and is increasingly being adopted by commercial printers. As an added bonus, her company was able to make substantial cost savings after she completed the design, because the company was able to tender the job of printing the newsletter each month to a number of printing companies and so received much better pricing than having the print company manage the whole job.
Sheet sizes
With DTP software, there is no restriction on the size of the printed sheet - from large poster to custom paper such as a wine lable (shown here for Ballast Stone winery of Currency Creek, South Australia).
Multi-page newsletters
InDesign enables the production of sophisticated newsletters. Click on the image below to view a multi page newsletter produced by Chelsey Parish for the Australian Seafood Cooperative.
Why not use a word processor rather than InDesign for DTP?
You have, I am sure, seen some terrible publishing efforts when word processors like Microsoft Word, computer aided design software such as AutoCAD, Presentation software such as PowerPoint or even spreadsheet software such as Excel have been used to produce complex documents. The results are poor - word processors are good for creating and manipulating text, CAD is good for generating technical drawings, and Excel is great for manipulating numbers, but none of them are designed to be a page layout (documentation) tool.
DTP using PowerPoint. Note the lack of perpective. This should have been created in CAD software and imported into DTP page layout software.
The 'take home' lesson is - "If you want to produce complex documents and want them to look good, you need to learn to use Desk Top Publishing software." However, learning to use DTP software is not a trivial task. The software tools are complex. You will however have gained marketable skills.
What software candidates are available?
It is useful to know that there is quite a range of desk top publishing software on the market. Products include: Adobe's InDesign, Microsoft's Publisher, Quark Express(much favored by commercial printers), Ventura Publisher, Adobe FrameMaker etc. Each has particular advantages and disadvantages over the other. The choice will be made on a number of factors - price, ease of use, what others in your supply chain are using etc.
It is a simplistic view, but if you want to produce in-house newsletters, menus, flyers etc. then Microsoft Publisher is a good choice. If you want to produce high quality documents ready for commercial printing, be able to control the file size of PDF documents, liaise with printers, etc., then Adobe's InDesign is a better choice. InDesign is a very good DTP tool, but some commercial printers some printers would prefer that you use Quark Express. This is changing as InDesign gains an increasing foothold in the market. The take home lesson here is to talk to your printer before you start the process of laying out documents.
We recommend purchasing the Adobe Creative Suite for DTP (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator etc.) rather than purchasing individual software tools (see below).
Is it necessary to learn to use other tools when Desk Top Publishing?
Most certainly, yes. It is important to realize that InDesign and its cohorts are page assembly tools. Unlike other software applications which tend to be 'stand alone', you will certainly need to learn to use extra tools to successfully produce publications. More importantly, you also need to learn to know when to use a particular tool.
The list below summarizes the additional tools that we contend are required for successful DTP work. This applies whether the chosen DTP tool be InDesign, Publisher, Quark Express or FrameMaker).
Extra software tools for DTP
Expertise with the following is required.
- You need experience with an image editor to enable you to adjust and incorporate photographs into your document. We suggest that you learn to use one of Jasc PaintShop Pro, Gimp or Adobe Photoshop. You may also need to learn to use some type of image library management tool so that you can file your photos and retrieve suitable images in your library when required.
- At some stage, you will need to learn to use a 'line drawing' or vector based graphics program if you wish to produce your own art work such as logos, illustrative graphics, flow charts etc. We suggest that you learn to use at least one of Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft Visio, Corel Draw, IntelliCAD, Autodesk AutoCAD, ITC IntelliCAD etc.
- If there is a need to turn printed material into digital form for incorporation into your document you will need to learn to use a flat bed or drum scanner and possibly the software supplied with it.
- A PDF editor/writer (such as Adobe Acrobat, CutePDF or PDFWriter) to produce a PDF file of your work. You will need to learn to make high quality PDF files for your commercial printer and low quality PDF files for to distribution across the Internet. In our view, Adobe Acrobat is the tool of choice.
- A text editor (such as Microsoft Word) to create the 'stories' that will be placed on the page(s) that you are assembling with your DTP software. You should develop considerable expertise in Word and be familiar with the use of named styles to control layout.
So, in summary, you need to learn to use a suite of software tools for DTP, but not all are required immediately.
Recommended order of learning
Assuming you choose (as we recommend) to do all your DTP work with the Adobe Creative Suite, the order of learning DTP tools should be:
InDesign>Photoshop>Illustrator>[Acrobat]>Advanced InDesign. Here is the link to more detail and the syllabus of the first course we recommend you take.
Determining your training needs
Your first step in determining a suitable training program for your needs should be to make sure that you understand what it is that you want to achieve i.e. you need to define your aims at the outset.
There are many possible scenarios:
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You may simply want to know what DTP programs can do for your own interest. If that is the case, then read some of the more general articles on DTP in the support section of this web site. Alternatively, visit our online learning site: http://www.softwaretutor.net and play some of the sample modules and instructional movies associated with InDesign and Publisher on that site. No cost is involved there.
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Alternatively, you might be interested in Desk Top Publishing because you have been asked to manage a team of staff involved in a major DTP project, but not necessarily want to become DTP proficient yourself. If so, we suggest that you enrol in one of our introductory courses - Introduction to InDesign or Introduction to Publisher course which are available either 'in-house' or by distance learning. These courses cost $AUD550.00 each when taken one-on-one in-house, or $AUD75.00 when taken as a distance student. Each of the above in-house courses consists of approximately 8 hours of instruction and focuses on the overall process of taking a design idea to a published document without going into comprehensive detail.
Please allow more time if you choose to take the course as a distance student.
The courses listed above are suitable for those who want to know what DTP is all about. They are also suitable as a first step for those who might be contemplating some serious DTP work themselves.
- Finally, after you have taken one of these introductory courses, you may have decided that you want to acquire professional DTP skills and earn at least part of your income by producing quality documentation. We suggest that you take the Introduction to InDesign or Introduction to Publisher courses discussed above, confirm that you like our learning system and then enrol in Photoshop, then Illustrator and finally Advanced InDesign course.*
- Please note that we find it extremely difficult to assist those who want to enrol in our Advanced InDesign course, when they have not taken the 'Introduction to InDesign course' with us. We like our 'Advanced' InDesign course to be workshop based so that we focus on some of your own materials.
Please note that you do need to allocate considerable time if you choose this option in addition to the formal course instruction. We estimate >100 hours practicing skills that we have taught you.
Implementing DTP - some advice for employers
We recommend a graded approach to the implementation of DTP in your office. Consider a scenario where you have decided to bring the production of an annual report 'in house' rather than pay a commercial printer to lay the document out and then print it.
Step 1. Send a staff member on a introductory DTP course.
Step 2. Get feedback from the staff member. Do they feel that they can mange the job of producing the annual report? If yes:
Step 3. Enrol for an advanced DTP course, but make a requirement that your staff member produces a copy of (say) last years annual report (you should have the original 'stories' and images so this should be quite straightforward). Produce a complete copy of last years report in PDF format.
Step 4. Take the PDF file to a copy center and produce one copy of last years report. Take it to management and make sure that the standard of presentation is adequate for the organization.
Now you are ready to produce this year's annual report! There should be no surprises as you grapple with the task.
Our distance learning program
- If you are thinking about enrolling on one of our courses via distance learning, we would like you to try out a one of the sample courses at our online learning web site: http://www.softwaretutor.net.
- Play at least one of our sample movies embedded within the course. Our courses contain many instructional movies and we want to be reassured that your equipment works with the movies that we make to illustrate the use of DTP commands.
- Make sure that you have a copy of suitable DTP software loaded and running properly on your computer.