Denver InDesign User Group

June 5, 2007

Meeting Business

1. Check out the Denver ID User Group Web site www.idugdenver.net for announcements, a community forum, and more.

2. Discussed switching to an auction format next meeting. 

InDesign Tips and Tricks: Presenter Erica Gamet

Presenter Erica Gamet went over some fun and functional tips and tricks. We covered tips and tricks for type, menu items, master pages, shapes, and much more. Have you installed some of the free scripts that Adobe has on the install disks? If not, you might want to. There could be some things to make your life a lot easier and save you from some extra gray hairs.

One of the highlights was “Let ID do the math!” For example, if you have a text box that is located at 6.347" and 5.12" and you need to move it to the right 1/4 inch, just type “+ .25” next to the X-axis measurement in the Control palette, and InDesign will do the math for you.

Do you have an InDesign file that is having problems? Go to File > Export and save as an InDesign Interchange Format. Then, reopen the document in InDesign. This purges out all of the extra data to help prevent file corruption.

Also, if you get a chance, go into the Strokes palette and click on “Stroke Styles." Go to New, and type in the name ‘Lights,’ ‘Woof,’ or ‘Feet’ and then click Add. You will see some fun custom strokes added to your list. This is one of the fun Easter Eggs in InDesign. 

Font Management: What it is and Why Should I Care?: Presenter Jeff Gamet

Anyone who deals with print or Web projects has had some issues with font management. There are a lot of fonts that aren’t cross-platform. However, OpenType fonts are. Use those as often as possible, especially when dealing with file sharing to avoid that evil word: reflow.

Jeff Gamet went over some helpful tips in dealing with font management horror. But if there was anything to take from this presentation, it was…BEWARE OF FREE FONTS! Dealing with bad fonts can be very time consuming. It is best just to buy from reputable sources. If you have fonts made before 1992, upgrade them. The ID numbers for fonts changed after that time. Sometimes when there are RIPing problems in your file, the culprit is the font that you have used. There are many programs available to help fix these troubled fonts. One of them is Font Doctor, which is found at www.extensis.com. This program can analyze the font, find the problems, and can fix them (most of the time).

There is also a program called Smasher found at www.insidersoftware.com that does the same job. Do your research on what program will work best for you.

A couple of programs to research to manage your fonts are Suitcase Fusion, found at www.extensis.com, and FontAgent Pro, at www.insidersoftware.com.

Jeff also covered which program works with which platforms, as well as which has Photoshop Auto Activation (a real plus).

In the end, Jeff left us with some great font management tips for the beginner.

1. Pick a single place to save your fonts. Saving fonts in multiple places can be confusing to keep up with. Your font management software will do the organizing.

2. Organize your fonts how they make sense to you. Create sub-folders for you fonts, for example, script, serif, sans serif, etc.

3. If you have OS X, there is a free program called Font Nuke found at www.jamapi.com/pr/fn/ that will clean out your font cache.