Movable type was a revolutionary change in communication and hot lead type was still being used for many major publications as late as the 1980s. But phototypesetting had begun to take over and then, suddenly, PageMaker and Ventura Publisher put typesetting in reach of anyone who owned a computer. Both of those programs were discontinued years ago and InDesign is almost the only game in town.
First, let's consider what InDesign is and who it's for. Because "design" is right there in the name, you doubtless know that it's for designers, but which designers? After all, isn't Illustrator for designers, too? And some designers use Photoshop. The various Creative Cloud applications give designers of all the tools they need for the job. The trick, sometimes, is choosing the right one.
In general, Illustrator is used to create icons, symbols, logos, and sometimes full page compositions. Photoshop is usually a good choice (beyond its photographic uses) to design objects that will be used on websites. InDesign is the application that's used for magazines, booklets, brochures, and sometimes single-page layouts. It's also the right choice when many people are involved in the production process because a single InDesign manager can give writers, editors, photographers, graphic designers, and others access to parts of the publication with a companion application called InCopy.
Unfortunately, Adobe won't provide even a short list of clients that use InDesign. The consensus among designers I've talked with is that a substantial number of publishers have adopted InDesign. So I tried searching for companies that are currently advertising for InDesign professionals. The list includes the Washington Post, Farmers Insurance Group, Progressive Business Media, IBM, the University of Colorado at Boulder, Penn State University, Macy's, Discover Financial Services, the NYC Office of the Mayor, Crocs, Bank of America, ADP, and a lot of design agencies.
Additionally, several Facebook groups are revealing: InDesign (7400 members), InDesign Secrets (5800 members), Adobe InDesign (740,000 members), and InDesign Magazine (7800 members) and searching Adobe's Behance website shows a huge range of print design projects that use InDesign. Clearly this applicationis used by a lot of people and some large organizations even if Adobe isn't willing to identify them.
Click any of the smaller images for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.
So InDesign is the application that will be used for large, complex documents that will be produced on a printing press, with possible optional output to the web or ebook formats. The 2019 version has dozens of new features and improvements, but I'd like to concentrate on the 5 that seem to offer the most significant advantages for designers. To keep this as simple as possible, I'll create a single page document using A4 paper. A4 is a European paper size that's closest to the letter size used in the United States. You'll see why a chose A4 instead of letter in a moment.
The document has a headline that spans the text columns and an introductory paragraph that spans the columns and is set in caps and small caps. The text in the document is nonsense Latin, but it's called "Greeking". If you wonder why Latin text is called Greeking, it might be because of the expressions "it's Greek to me." In any event, it's meaningless text that's used to illustrate what a document will look like before the final text is available.
This is what Greeking would look like if it really was in Greek: Αυτό θα έλεγε ο Έλληνας αν ήταν πραγματικά στην ελληνική γλώσσα. So don't waste any time trying to read it.
I wanted an image on the page, so I (1) placed it in a frame. The image is larger than the frame, so it doesn't work well. Until now, the best option would be (2) fill frame proportionally, but that creates a crop that would need to be adjusted. The new (3) content-aware fit does a remarkable job of analyzing the image and cropping it so that the most essential parts are visible. Picky designers may still want to make minor adjustments, but Adobe's artificial intelligence (AI, Sensei) adjustments will save time and effort. That's why I rate this the most significant change for the 2019 edition.
Those who design print publications pay careful attention to details: The typeface, the size of the typeface, the amount of space between lines, space above and below headlines, space between paragraphs, and a lot more.
Creating a numbered list or a bullet list with space before or after the list, but not within the list, used to be a problem. A paragraph style with (1) space before and (2) space after would have the space applied within the list, where it wasn't wanted. The designer would then have to create an override for the first and last paragraph to add the required space or create a special style for the first and last paragraph. Now there's a new setting for (3) space between paragraphs using the same style.
Setting this value to zero eliminates all of the extra space between like paragraphs, but settings could also be used to reduce the space without eliminating it.
Adobe's software engineers have been improving the Properties panel in all applications. This panel changes depending on what's selected. Placing the cursor (1) in a line of text displays a lot of information about (2) either the text style or the paragraph style. In the example, I have the paragraph style selected. The user can (3) change the paragraph style or create a new style, (4) change the color of the text, the fill, or add a stroke to the letter and specify its size, color, and line style. In the Character section, (5) the typeface, size, weight, and linespacing can be changed, along with kerning for individual characters and overall tracking. The (6) ellipses dots below the section provide access to more character settings. The Paragraph setting is where justification can be specified and clicking (7) the ellipses dots displays more properties. The user can switch between (8) bullets and numbering and change the (9) options.
Possibly the most useful addition to the Properties panel is (10) Quick Actions, which is where you'll find commonly used actions that might be several levels deep in the menu structure. Inserting a footnote, for example, requires a single click instead of selecting the option from the menu.
Typefaces are more accessible from within the application now, as they are in other Creative Cloud applications. When text is selected, that text will appear in the font browser and the face will be substituted in the document as the user scrolls through the list of available faces.
If you're looking for a truly remarkable new feature, it's called Layout Adjustment. This is something that should occur infrequently, but it does happen: You've designed a document and the client loves it, but then decides that it needs to be another size. That's why I started with an A4 design. Maybe the document was made initially for distribution in Europe, but now it needs to be used in the United States.
Making this change for a single-page document wouldn't be difficult, but it would involve changing the page size, the margins, adjusting the position of photographs, and more. Automating the process may not get everything exactly right, but it will save a lot of time for the designer. I tried two options.
(A) Changing the page size from A4 to Letter worked reasonably well, but a small plus sign in the lower right corner of the page tells me that not all of the text fit on the page. For many designers, this will be the preferred option because InDesign hasn't changed the text size. Instead, the photograph could be resized to provide more space for text or the text itself could be edited to reduce the number of words until everything fit.
(B) InDesign can be allowed to modify the size of the text. I did that and everything fit properly. The text was reduced from 12 points set on 14 points to 11.4 points set on 13.3 points. Changing type size is controversial. Some designers accept it and others are vehemently opposed. The change proposed by InDesign is slightly more than half a point and has a minimal effect on legibility. Those who enforce baseline positioning would need to restore linespacing to 14 points.
This feature and others introduced with this version will continue to mature and improve. For now, it's a highly usable first start on a complex function that has the potential to save a lot of time when a page size needs to be modified.
InDesign may have most of the market share, but it continues to innovate like a newcomer.In the 1990s, Quark XPress had most of the page layout market and that's when Adobe began designing a Quark killer. With some help from Quark's attitude toward clients, InDesign knocked off XPress and (with help from Corel's mismanagement of Ventura Publisher) ended that application's run, too. Instead of relaxing, Adobe continues to add more useful features to each new version of InDesign.
Additional details are available on the Adobe website.
When you bring home a cat from a shelter, the cat has a name, but you can change it. My favorite cat of all time came to us as "Jax", but was quickly renamed Tangerine. I mention this because you can also rename your computer. Manufacturers give computers name so that they can be identified on a network, but you don't have to keep the name.
My primary computer is LAPTOP-FAPUO6JL -- not exactly a name that rolls easily off the tongue. I haven't bothered to rename this computer because I recognize its name and nobody else in the household cares what it's called. But maybe you'd like to change the name to make the PC easier to identify in a listing.
There are two ways to do this. Because Windows 10 no longer offers a network mapping feature, I recommend using your router's rename function. This will affect the router's network map. Most routers have something like what Netgear offers. The network map displays all connected devices and offers an option to rename each.
Double-clicking one of the devices displays the IP address, the MAC address, the device name, and the device type. Only the name and type can be changed. The IP address is either issued when the device connects to the network or is a static IP address that's assigned permanently. The media access control (MAC) address has been assigned by the manufacturer.
Changing the name using the router modifies the display name only when you use the router's network map, but that's probably sufficient because Windows no longer offers a network view and network mapping tools are needlessly complex or expensive (or both) for home use.
If you decide to change the computer's actual name instead of just its router-based alias, start with the Control Panel and navigate to (1) System > About. Then click (2) Rename this PC, which will open a new dialog box. Type the (3) new name and click (4) Next. You'll have to reboot the computer to finish the process.
Note that computer names can be a maximum of 15 characters; cannot duplicate the name of another PC on the network; can consist only of letters, numbers, and hyphens; and must contain at least one letter.
Spotting basic phishing emails isn't particularly difficult. The ones created by crooks who aren't much smarter than pet rocks (remember those?) make so many mistakes that the fraudulent intent is obvious. Those who create spear phishing campaigns, though, are much smarter.
Spear phishing used to be aimed almost exclusively at business or government managers and individuals with high amounts of income. That has changed and more of us who aren't managers and who aren't anywhere near being a member of the one percenters group now see sophisticated spear phishing attempts.
They're common around holidays because people tend to be busy before and after a holiday and may pay less attention to details. That's exactly what the crooks want. Businesses in particular often have a lot of people on vacation, which increases the danger.
No matter how realistic a message appears, it's always wise to take a few seconds examining it.
Computers have anti-virus and anti-malware applications installed. Organizations often have anti-phishing applications on their networks. That's essential, but not sufficient. We all are ultimately responsible for our own on-line security.
If Adobe made automobiles, you would rent the car and every month an Adobe technician would come to the car and make subtle changes and once a year the company would take back the automobile and leave a new one in its place. But Adobe makes software, not automobiles.
The December updates for the Photography suite are both subtle and profound.
For example, you might not even notice that Lightroom Classic (the desktop application) now gives users the ability to move tasks around on the Develop panel. It's a subtle change because you won't even see it unless you right-click one of the Develop panel headers. A new option is there: "Customize develop panel...". Choose it and you'll see a list of the headers. From there, you can turn one or more off if you never use it (seems unlikely), but the more essential ability allows the user to move the header panels around.
Why? Maybe you like to visit Lens Corrections before opening the Basic panel, but Lens Corrections is in the bottom half of the list. Placing it at the top means you'll spend less time scrolling. Time is probably less important than wear and tear on your hand. Adobe seems to be paying a lot of attention to the user interface and making it possible for users to modify the application to fit their needs.
A performance improvement worth noting is the speed with which Lightroom switches between Library and Develop modes. This had become objectionably sluggish, particularly on high-resolution monitors, and the December update is noticeably faster.
Those who use collections will be happy about a feature that allows images to be imported directly into a collection. In the past, this was a two-step process: Import the images and then add them to a collection. It's another small but significant time saver.
Lightroom CC (the mobile version that also works on desktop systems) continues to mature. The sharing option has been improved by adding an option that makes it possible limit sharing of images in a folder to only those images with a specific flag or a specific star rating (or a combination).
Users of Lightroom CC on Android and ChromeOS devices will see a new shared albums tab and may notice the ability for ad-hoc photo shares. Those who use Lightroom CC on IOS devices won't see anything new this time around, but more significant updates are planned for early next year.
