Until recently, Adobe InDesign had been one of those software items that we owned, but hardly ever touched, a sad mistake on our part. You see, when we started to peel back what the software could actually do, we discovered a lot of ways in which we could streamline our production line, increase our revenues, and gain super powers. Okay, so maybe that last one was a joke, but still, if you’ve not used InDesign to create your page layouts, you’re really missing out. If you need more convincing, though, we completely understand. Below, you’ll find our top reasons to ditch Photoshop and use InDesign for page layouts:
- Text Editing: We’re going to just go ahead and say this out loud—Text editing in InDesign, when compared to what we’ve done in Photoshop, is like the difference between night and day. We’re really not kidding here, nor are we particularly exaggerating. You see, InDesign has a lot of built in functionality that’s aimed at improving the speed with which you crank out completely professional looking text effects and designs. This includes stuff like simple drop caps, auto alignment, rag definition, and even spacing containers that can be edited to the umpteenth degree. It’s so quick it hurts us.
- Boxes: On a similar note, all of the text that you edit or create is contained within a simple text box. In fact, so are all the other graphics you throw in. The idea behind this is simple: You take those elements that you’ve put into your boxes, and you move them anywhere you want. Then, InDesign offers a quick set of tools that lets you align them properly in a snap. It’s so much faster than Photoshop, and though the end results are likely the same, you can bet that you’ll have scraped a few extra hours out of the day by using InDesign.
- It’s Connected: And lastly, InDesign is completely connected to Photoshop. This means that you can create a wicked background in our favorite illustration software, and then immediately load it into InDesign without any fuss at all. It’s this connectivity that makes the transition from one to the other completely pain free, and easily worth pursuing. You don’t have to give up the old to enjoy the new!