So far we explored the work area of InDesign and how to set up a document to the wanted size and with the proper margins, grids, columns and needed guides.
We are now going to talk about how to work with your Colour palette, Swatches palette and we will also briefly explore the Gradients palette.
Before I do any of that, I want to make sure that you understand how colours work in Desktop Publishing. There are different ways colours are reproduced in Desktop Publishing and you need to have an understanding of these ways first and foremost.
Colour Basics: If you are new to desktop publishing and working with colour, the basic color information in the following articles is vital to understanding the colour options in InDesign (or any desktop publishing software):
- Definition: CMYK
- Definition: RGB
- Definition: Spot Color
- Pantone Spot Color Name Suffixes
- Color Wheels in Desktop Publishing
- RGB & CMYK Color in Desktop Publishng
- Hue, Tints, Shades, & Saturation
- Perception of Color
- Specifying Colors
Navigating This Lesson: There are 3 separate tutorials for lesson 3. The Colour Palette tutorial has 4 steps. The Swatches Palette tutorial has 8 steps. There are 3 steps in the Gradient Palette tutorial. Navigation among the steps in each part of Lesson 3 is found at the bottom of each step.
To navigate from one tutorial to the next, use the links in the sidebar under "Working With Colour in InDesign CS" or bookmark this page and use the links below.
Lesson 3 - Working With Colour in InDesign CS:
- The Colour Palette
- Colour Modes
- Using the Colour Palette
- No CMYK Equivalent
- When to Use RGB or CMYK
- The Swatches Palette
- Record Frequently Used Colours
- None and Paper Swatches
- Black and Registration Swatches
- CMYK, RGB, and Gradient Swatches
- Buttons in the Swatches Palette
- Creating New Swatches
- Editing Swatches
- Relationship Between Colour and Swatches Palettes
- The Gradient Palette
- Create Gradients
- Remove, Move, and Edit Gradients
- Gradients in the Swatches Palette
Self-Study: To get the most out of this lesson, open up InDesign and find the colour, swatches, and gradient palettes and use them to change colours in a document, especially as described in step 2 of the Colour Palette tutorial and steps 6 and 7 in the Swatches Palette tutorial. Then, do the Assignment (below) and post your results in the DTP Classroom.
Next Steps: With this lesson we smoothly slid out of the document set up phase and we have started to get into how to change objects' attributes (in this case colours). In the next lesson The Tools, Part 1 we will learn how to use some of the tools in the Tools palette of InDesign. Part 1 focuses on the selection, type, drawing, frame, and shape tools.
Assignment:
- Draw a rectangle
- Make a gradient using your Color, Swatches and Gradient palette as I explained in the lesson 3 tutorials. Follow the specifications below to make your gradient.
- Colour on the left to be 100% cyan, 20% yellow and 30% magenta.
- Colour on the right to be 0% cyan, 55% yellow, 100% magenta and 12% black.
- Location (remember what "location" is when talking about gradients?) in the gradient to be set to 75%.
- Angle 30 degrees.
- Save your gradient in the swatches palette.
- Post a screenshot of the end result in the DTP Classroom in the thread titled Lesson 3 - Assignment. You can also post a screenshot of your Swatches and Gradient palette.
