Hi there!
In this video we’ll be discussing some exporting and printing tips in InDesign, so let’s
get started.
In order to understand printing, you need to understand the difference between the RGB
and CMYK colors.
RGB refers to the primary colors of light, Red, Green and Blue, that are used in monitors,
television screens, digital cameras and scanners, whereas, CMYK refers to the primary colors
of pigment: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black.
These are the inks used on the press in "4-color process printing", commonly referred to as
"full color printing" or "four color printing".
The combination of RGB light creates white, while the combination of CMYK inks creates black.
Therefore, it is physically impossible for the printing press to exactly reproduce colors
as we see them on our monitors.
To make you understand the separation process of the CMYK colors, let’s go to window,
and then output, and select ‘separation process’ option.
Everything you see on the artboard is made up of these four colors.
The ‘K’ of CMYK actually stands for ‘key’, as it’s a ‘key color’, or ‘key plate’.
The colors you see on the screen are in the RGB mode, but when they are printed, they
need to be converted to ‘CMYK.’
Here if I remove the rest of the colors, and make it a grey scale image, it is going to
look much like this.
Which means the highlights, the midtones, the shadows, are all achieved using different
tones of black.
When I select just the yellow color, this image is going to look like this.
Magenta covers quite a lot in this image, as you can see it brings about a lot of details
in the image, and so does Cyan, particularly the sky and the shadows are covered pretty
well using Cyan.
Now on top of Cyan, when the printer adds Magenta, it will start to look something like this.
You can find the different colors forming, of the mountain, the sky, and the ground as
well, but the overall image still looks very dull.
Add Yellow, and it will enhance the image a little further, but doesn’t complete the
image, because the key color is still missing.
You might think that this image does appear to have black in certain parts, but those
dark areas are made up using the combination of Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow.
The moment we add Black or the ‘key’ color, so to speak, the image gets its depth.
So ideally, most of the color images that you see are made up of different tones of
these four colors; they are also called ‘process colors’.
However, there can be spot colors added on top of these colors, like the metallic color,
or pastel color, to achieve certain effects.
Let me add a rectangle to the image to explain this.
Let’s go to the fill option, and let’s select blue as the color of the rectangle,
and then right-click, and go to swatch options.
In the popup menu, update the color type to ‘spot’, and from the color mode, let’s
change the color mode to ‘Pantone - Metallic Coated’, which will further reveal a set
of colors.
These are different metallic shades of the Pantone Metallic coated color, so let’s
pick one for our rectangle here.
Now you can see in the separation, there is a fifth color added, because it’s a spot
color, or a special color that will be added to the image on top of the ‘CMYK’ combination.
Now you might think, can we not achieve this color using the combination of ‘CMYK’?
Yes you can, to some extent, but it can only come close to this color, but not exactly
the metallic shade, that we get using the ‘Pantone’ color.
Try removing Magenta, Yellow and Black, and you can find that although Cyan is closer
to the Pantone color than the rest of the process colors, but the Pantone shade can
still not be achieved using Cyan alone.
Alright, let’s delete the rectangle.
Now let’s say we want to send this document to a printer, so ensure that when you send
someone an InDesign file, you need to send all linked graphics and necessary fonts, along
with the project file, and to achieve that, you need to go to file, and then select ‘package.’
In the dialog box that appears, the moment I click ‘Package’, it is going to ask
me to save the document, as I haven’t saved it.
Let’s save it as ‘export’, and hit ‘save’.
What we saved was the document, and now it’s asking us to save the package, so I’m going
to let the name be ‘export folder’, and also ensure that the ‘copy font’, ‘copy
linked graphics’, and ‘update graphic links in package’ options are checked, and
hit ‘Package.’
It might give you a warning that restrictions to copy fonts apply, so just hit okay.
When you go to the package folder, you’ll find it has the InDesign document, the pdf,
the image etc, so you can either send these documents separately to the printer, or the
better way is to compress this folder into a zip format, and then send it.
Another thing to remember while working on a document is to set a’preflight profile.’
So click here at the bottom panel, and select ‘define profiles’, and in the dialogue
box, click the plus button at the bottom left, to create a new preflight profile, and give
it a name.
I’m going to name it InDesign Print.
The reason why you should set a preflight profile is to ensure that while you edit your
document, the Preflight panel warns of problems that can prevent a document or book from printing
or outputting as desired.
These problems include missing files or fonts, low-resolution images, overset text, and a
number of other conditions, so once your setting is complete, hit okay.
Let me remind you that we’ve just created a preflight profile, we haven’t applied it yet.
To apply it click the dropdown, and select the profile we’ve just created, and as you
can see, there are no errors showing, which means it’s good to go.
To export our document, we need to go to file, and then export.
Rename it to any name of your choice, should you want to, and pick the right format from here.
Adobe PDF Print, is used to share it with your clients or printer.
PDF Interactive is used when you have interactive elements such as videos, sound
clips, buttons, and page transitions.
Export a document or book as a reflowable, or fixed layout eBook that is compatible with
the Adobe Digital Editions reader software.
Exporting to html is an easy way to get your InDesign contents into web-ready form.
The InDesign Markup or IDML format was introduced with InDesign CS4.
A document stored in this variant can be opened across the entire version and improves compatibility
when exchanging data.
JPEG and PNG are compressed image formats, in which jpeg does not support transparency,
whereas png supports it.
Lastly, XML, or extensible markup language format can be viewed in a browser, an XML
editing application, or text editor, so pick the right format, and hit save, which will
lead you to this screen.
It’s always better to use ‘High Quality Print’ from the preset dropdown.
Here you can chose the pages or spreads option that you’d like to print.
Then move on to ‘marks and bleeds’ tab, and chose the necessary printer marks, depending
upon your requirement.
I’m going to check ‘crop marks’, and move on to ‘security’ tab.
Here you can even add an extraction password, so once the pdf is created, and sent to the
relevant parties, and the moment they open it, it’s going to prompt for a password
that you can pass on to them through an email or otherwise, thereby securing the content
within, and then hit export.
Once the document is exported, you can locate it on the computer, double-click to open and
view it.
You see since we set the crop marks, you could find them here, so that’s how you export
your document in InDesign.
Alright guys!
That concludes our session.
Time for a short break, and I’m going to see you in the next one, in just a bit.
Good bye!