Photoshop enables you to create complex text layouts by placing text along a path or within shapes. You can edit the text after it has been placed along a path; you can even edit the text in other programs, such as Illustrator Cc, and join text and images into unique designs or page layouts.
Sharing images from Photoshop is easy to do. You can share multiple images in a PDF file, or upload images to an online photo service. You can even set up Photoshop to automatically export multiple assets for interactive apps or websites in one click.
It’s hard to believe that Photoshop can be improved on, but Adobe has done it again in Adobe Photoshop CC. Book 3 shows you the diverse capabilities of Photoshop. From drawing and painting to image color correction, Photoshop has many uses for print and interactive design alike.
Introducing InDesign CC
InDesign is a diverse and feature-rich page layout program. With InDesign, you can create beautifully laid-out page designs. You can also execute complete control over your images and export them to interactive documents, such as Acrobat PDF. You can use InDesign to
Use images, text, and even rich media to create unique layouts and designs.
Import native files from Photoshop and Illustrator to help build rich layouts in InDesign that take advantage of transparency and blending modes.
Export your work as an entire book, including chapters, sections, automatically numbered pages, and more.
Create interactive PDF documents that can be used for website or application prototypes or wireframes.
InDesign caters to the layout professional, but it’s easy enough for even beginners to use. You can import text from word processing programs (such as Microsoft Word, Notepad, or Adobe InCopy) as well as tables (say, from Microsoft Excel) into your documents and place them alongside existing artwork and images to create a layout. In a nutshell, importing, arranging, and exporting work are common processes when working with InDesign. Throughout the entire process, you have a large amount of control over your work, whether you’re working on a simple one-page brochure or an entire book of 800-plus pages. Find out how you can take advantage of this feature-rich application in Book 4.
Using Illustrator CC
Adobe Illustrator is the industry’s leading vector-based graphics software. Aimed at everyone from graphics professionals to interactive designers, Illustrator enables you to design layouts, logos for print, or vector-based images that can be imported into other programs, such as Photoshop, InDesign, and XD. Adobe also enables you to easily and quickly create files by saving Illustrator documents as templates (so that you can efficiently reuse designs) and using a predefined library and document size.
Illustrator also integrates with the other products in the Adobe Creative Cloud by enabling you to create PDF documents easily within Illustrator. In addition, you can use Illustrator files in Photoshop, InDesign, and the Adobe special effects program, After Effects.
Here are some of the things you can create and do in Illustrator:
Create technical drawings (floor plans or architectural sketches, for example), logos, illustrations, posters, packaging, and web graphics.
Create multiple screens for websites or mobile design.
Align text along a path so that it bends in an interesting way.
Lay out text into multicolumn brochures — text automatically flows from one column to the next.
Create charts and graphs using graphing tools.
Create gradients that can be imported and edited into other programs, such as Experience Design.
Create documents quickly and easily using existing templates and included stock graphics in Illustrator.
Save a drawing in almost any graphic format, including the Adobe PDF, PSD, EPS, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, and SVG formats.
Save your Illustrator files for the web by using the Asset Export panel, or Export ⇒ Export As menu item.
Illustrator has new features for you to investigate, many of them integrated in the chapters in Book 5. Find out about new tools, including features to help you use patterns.
Working with Acrobat DC
Acrobat DC is aimed at both business and creative professionals and provides an incredibly useful way of sharing, securing, and reviewing the documents you create in your Creative Cloud applications.
Portable Document Format (PDF) is the file format used by Adobe Acrobat. It’s used primarily as an independent method for sharing files. This format enables users who create files on either Macintosh or PC systems to share files with each other and with users of handheld devices or UNIX computers. PDF files generally start out as other documents — whether from a word processor or a sophisticated page layout and design program.
Although PDF files can be read on many different computer systems using the free Adobe Reader, users with the DC version of Adobe Acrobat can do much more with PDF files. With your version of Acrobat, you can create PDF documents, add security to them, use review and commenting tools, edit documents, and build PDF forms.
Use Acrobat to perform any of the following tasks:
Create interactive forms that can be filled out online.
Allow users to embed comments within the PDF files to provide feedback. Comments can then be compiled from multiple reviewers and viewed in a single summary.
Create PDF files that can include MP3 audio, video, and even 3D files.
Combine multiple files into a single PDF and include headers and footers as well as watermarks.
Create secure documents with encryption.
Combine multiple files into a searchable, sortable PDF package that maintains the individual security settings and digital signatures of each included PDF document.
Use auto-recognize to automatically locate form fields in static PDF documents and convert them to interactive fields that can be filled electronically by anyone using Adobe Reader software.
Manage shared reviews — without IT assistance — to allow review participants to see one another’s comments and track the status of the review.
Enable advanced features in Adobe Reader to enable anyone using free Adobe Reader software to participate in document reviews, fill and save electronic forms offline, and digitally sign documents.
Permanently remove metadata, hidden layers, and other concealed information and use redaction tools to permanently delete sensitive text, illustrations, or other content.
Save your PDF to Microsoft Word. You can take advantage of improved functionality for saving Adobe PDF files as Microsoft Word documents, retaining the layout, fonts, formatting, and tables.
Enjoy improved performance and support for AutoCAD. Using AutoCAD, you can now more rapidly convert AutoCAD drawing files into compact, accurate PDF documents, without the need for the native desktop application.
Want to discover other great Acrobat improvements? Read Book 6 to find out all about Acrobat and PDF creation.