Designers, pre-press professionals, architects, production managers, marketing, small business owners, web designers and anyone who wishes to master the Creative Suite should attend this class. Special attention is paid to keyboard shortcuts, automating workflow and special effects techniques.

By the time students have finished the course they will have know how to:

• Use Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator
• Create a logo using simple shapes.
• Enhance logos
• Create logos using custom paths
• Create a logo with type special effects.
• Create an advertisement.
• Import body type.
• Manage your creative assets using Adobe Bridge.
• Manage the InDesign environment
• Design documents
• Manage text
• Utilize colors, swatches, and gradients
• Manage transparency
• Utilize tables
• Prepare for handoff to a service provider
• Create Acrobat PDF files
• Explore Photoshop.
• Paint and retouch images.
• Enhance an image.
• Work with layers and selections.

To gain the most from this class, students should:

• Be familiar with Windows or Mac OS X
• Be familiar with the web and its terminology

Course materials are provided. This includes pen, note pad and a training manual as well as lunch and refreshments. Our goal is to make sure your class meets your objectives, not ours. Therefore, all of our outlines are treated as guides to help steer the workshop. We may change or alter course topics to best suit the classroom situation. A certificate will be given on completion of the course and you may also have the opportunity to sit for an accredited exam. Courses may also be customized to fit your exact requirements.

Managing the Adobe Photoshop Environment

• Exploring default Workspace & Bridge
• Introduction to the Toolbar
• Palette management & Screen real estate
• History Palette & Undoing Actions
• Navigation shortcuts

Working with Selections

• Creating Selections using Magic Wand
• Adjusting Selections
• Quick Selection and Lasso tools
• Combining Selection tools for complex objects
• Saving and Reloading a Selection

Enhancing an Image

• Using Levels and Curves
• Compensate for flash with Shadow & Highlight
• Variations to quickly decide about a colour cast
• Hue & Saturation controls
• Blurring and sharpening using Filters

Painting and Retouching Images

• Digital darkroom techniques
• Clone Stamp and Heal tools
• Creating, saving and loading custom colours
• Painting with Paintbrush, Pencil or Paint Bucket tool
• Introduction to Gradients and painting with Gradients
• Working with Quick Mask mode & Layer Masks

Working with Layers

• Importing images, Layers and Selections
• Transforming Layer Objects & using the Smart Objects
• Starting to build layered compositions
• Applying Transparency
• Basic Blending Modes
• Other goodies as Text Layers, Adjustment Layers and Layer Styles

Outputting your artwork

• Colour modes, Resolution and Image Size
• Cropping an image vs Extending the Canvas
• File formats & optimizing artwork for Web

Setting Up Your Document

• Be precise with Rulers and Guides
• Add, move & shuffle Pages in your Document
• Paginate Spread Pages
• Using Bridge to organise your creative assets and InDesign Libraries to share them

Working with Frames

• Place Text & Graphics on the Document Pages
• Applying Colours, Tints and Gradients
• Get creative with the Stroke panel
• Shapes & Corner options inside of InDesign
• Transforming Frames Content
• Changing the default Transparency
• Share the Appearance attributes with Object Styles

Importing and Editing Text

• Flowing Text & multiple Columns design
• Formatting with Character & Paragraph Styles
• Leading, Spacing, Tracking and Kerning
• Create Bulleted & Numbered lists
• Explore decorative Fonts & special Characters with Glyphs panel

Working with Graphics

• Image quality & Display options
• Fitting or Clipping graphics with Frames
• Share Colours across the CS4 with Swatch Exchange Format
• Manage linked files & automate updating of your content
• Vector artworks inside of InDesign
• Goodies inside of the Effects panel

Page Layout tools

• Using Placeholders, Eyedropper and Master Pages for different workflow
• Aligning multiple Objects & working with Object Groups
• Wrap text around inline Objects while making use of Alpha Channels
• Be a professional with Baseline Grid alignment

Outputting and PDF Export

• Understanding Bleed & Slug
• Differentiate between Spot & Process colours
• Create a Package to share InDesign Documents
• Manage missing Fonts
• Preflight for Prepress

Creating basic Documents

• Explore the prebuilt Document Profiles
• Shortcuts to navigate the Artboard effectively
• Create custom Workspaces

Drawing in Illustrator

• Draw Paths with the Pen tool
• Add, delete or adjust points along a path
• Understand how Bézier Curves work
• Freeform Drawing tools
• Live Trace to transform images or hand drawn sketches into vector artworks that can be further adjusted
• Create Logo using simple Shapes
• Discovering basic Blends
• Symbols in Illustrator & Symbol Sprayer options

Modifying Objects

• Lasso select and the other goodies in the Select Menu
• Be precise using Smart Guides, Grids & Guidelines
• Align, Group & Duplicate to achieve better results
• Transform objects with Twirl, Bloat & other Warp tools
• Layers palette: Hide & Lock Objects
• Intro to Isolation Mode for effective editing

Working with Colours in Illustrator

• Difference between Swatches and Colour palette
• Applying colour to Stroke and/or Fill
• Adjusting Stroke attributes with Stroke panel
• Introducing Gradients & Patterns

Text in Illustrator

• Point, Area and Type on a path
• Import Body Type & fix Spelling Errors
• Find and Replace Text or Insert Typographic Characters
• Create Text Outlines to design your own fancy headlines

Outputting your Artwork

• Defining cropping area
• Saving your artwork in vector formats
• Save for Web & Devices