View complete curriculum and sample videos

PDF Publishing Workshop

A complete visual workshop on computer disc
From a pile of prints to a finished PDF publication

As an alternative to publishing photography in print, the advantages of electronic publication are numerous: an affordable publishing budget, an incredibly low per-unit cost, easy distribution, and the inclusion of multimedia components. Unlike paper-based publications, PDF publishing offers unlimited space that will accommodate even the largest projects — without busting the budget.

In this workshop...

You’ll learn the process of building and publishing your photography project as an Acrobat PDF publication.

Discount for subcribers to
LensWork or LensWork Extended

$79

Non-subscriber price $99

Software

This is a demonstration-oriented workshop and "hands-on" experience. The disc includes relevant sample files, templates, and useful presets.

Experience with layout software (particularly InDesign) or even Acrobat is a plus, but not necessary. Software used includes InDesign (CS3), Photoshop (CS3) and Acrobat version 8. If you are using CS2 or CS4 software, Mac computers, or Acrobat 7 or 9 you will have no difficulty following along. There is not much functional difference between these variants.

Curriculum and sample videos

Here is a list of all the individual topics/videos included in this workshop program. This program uses the advanced video features of Acrobat Reader 9. If your computer has an older version of the Reader, you can upgrade for free to version 9 from www.adobe.com.

The sample web versions of these videos require a Flash player, which is used by many websites and is probably already installed on your system. If not, when you click on the sample links below a message will appear allowing you to download the free Adobe Flash player if you so choose.

Introduction

• Welcome
• Objectives for the workshop
• Why PDFs

  • Self-contained (Sample video)
  • Fonts (Sample video)
  • Non-linear Navigation (Sample video)
  • Navigation paths (Sample video)
• Analog versus digital
• Tools and the Basic Workflow (Sample video)
• Not so obvious considerations
• Review of Samples

  • Winter Trees III
  • Tangerine Gifts
  • Wakarimasen
  • Brooks Jensen Arts Catalog, Fall 2007

Design and Layout

• Document Parts
• Document setup
• The InDesign Workspace
• Monitors and document size
• Image size and resolution
  
• A Quick Typography Primer

  • Typefaces
  • Type size and spacing
  • Special characters
    
• Layout fundamentals

  • Simple layout demo
  • Setting a background
  • Setting a background on a Master Page
  • Building a basic navigation bar
  • Placing images
  • Title page image and text
  • Placing images and captions
  • Managing linked images

• Text

  • Adding text
  • Text wraps and baselines
  • Finessing text, widows and orphans
    
• Thumbnails 01 - Basics
• Thumbnails 02 - Improving the Design
• Design Consistency
• Colors and color sets
• Master pages overview
• Creating and applying master pages
• Layers
• Paragraph styles
• Character styles
• Object styles
• Templates
  
• No InDesign? Use Photoshop!

The Initial PDF

• Simple export demo
• Image compression
• Output tab options
• Export Presets
• Naming conventions
• Fixing stuff

  • Page replacement
  • Text touch-ups

Refining the PDF

• Setting up the Toolbars
• Navigation

  • Links 01 - Next page, previous page
  • Links 02 - Specific page
  • Links 03 Named destinations
  • Buttons
  • Fixing buttons
  • Bookmarks
  • AutoBookmark plug-in
• Page transitions
• Finishing touches

  • Document properties
  • A few comments about security
  • Watermarks
• Beyond the Basics

  • Layered PDF documents
  • Cross-document linking
  • Web and email links

Audio & Video

• Audio

  • Audio file formats
  • ID3 tags
  • The basic audio link
  • The advanced audio link
• Video

  • Video file formats
  • The basic video links
  • The advanced video link

Distribution issues

• Molecules versus electrons
• Choosing Media
• Making discs on your computer
• DIY duplication
• Replication and duplication services
• Packaging
• Tech support issues

  • A few comments about tech support
  • Sample tech support web pages

Extras

• Glossary of terms
• Live workshop audio
• Useful links and resources