Introducing Adobe Creative Suite 6 - Adobe Creative Suite 6 Basics - Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design and Web Premium All-in-One For Dummies (2012)

Adobe Creative Suite 6 Design and Web Premium All-in-One For Dummies (2012)

Book I

Adobe Creative Suite 6 Basics

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Contents at a Glance

Chapter 1: Introducing Adobe Creative Suite 6

Chapter 2: Using Common Menus and Commands

Chapter 3: Exploring Common Panels

Chapter 4: Using Common Extensions and Filters

Chapter 5: Importing and Exporting

Chapter 6: Handling Graphics, Paths, Text, and Fonts

Chapter 7: Using Color

Chapter 8: Printing Documents

Chapter 1: Introducing Adobe Creative Suite 6

In This Chapter

check.png Looking over InDesign CS6

check.png Drawing with Illustrator CS6

check.png Introducing Photoshop CS6

check.png Getting started with Acrobat X

check.png Creating websites with Dreamweaver CS6

check.png Getting into Flash Professional CS6

check.png Getting fired up with Fireworks CS6

check.png Putting Adobe Bridge into your workflow

check.png Integrating the programs in Adobe CS6

With the Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) Design Premium release, you’re equipped with the tools you need to be creative for printed documents, online documents (including e-books), and interactive applications.

The diverse software in Adobe CS6 Design Premium enables you to create everything from an interactive e-commerce website to a printed book. Each piece of software in the Adobe Creative Suite works on its own as a robust tool. Combine all the applications, including Adobe Bridge, and you have a dynamic workflow that just can’t be matched.

In this minibook, you see the many features that are consistent among the applications in the suite. You find consistencies in color, file formats, and text editing as well as general preferences for rulers and guides throughout all applications in CS6. This minibook also shows you where to find the new features and how to save time by taking advantage of them.

In this chapter, you meet each of the components in Adobe CS6 Design Premium and discover what you can create with each of these powerful tools.

Introducing InDesign CS6

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

check.png Use images, text, and even rich media to create unique layouts and designs.

check.png Import native files from Photoshop and Illustrator to help build rich layouts in InDesign that take advantage of transparency and blending modes.

check.png Export your work as an entire book, including chapters, sections, automatically numbered pages, and more.

check.png Create interactive PDF documents.

check.png Create drawings with the basic drawing tools included in the software.

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.

If you’re already using InDesign, read Book II, Chapter 1 to find out about some of the new features InDesign CS6 has, including the ability to export epubs.

Using Illustrator CS6

Adobe Illustrator is the industry’s leading vector-based graphics software. Aimed at everyone from graphics professionals to web users, Illustrator allows you to design layouts, logos for print, or vector-based images that can be imported into other programs, such as Photoshop, InDesign, or even Flash. 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 Suite by allowing 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. Illustrator allows you to beef up your rich interactive documents by introducing Flash features that give you the tools you need to build exciting interactive designs in Flash.

Here are some of the things you can create and do in Illustrator:

check.png Create technical drawings (floor plans or architectural sketches, for example), logos, illustrations, posters, packaging, and web graphics.

check.png Add effects, such as drop shadows and Gaussian blurs, to vector images.

check.png Enhance artwork by creating your own custom brushes.

check.png Align text along a path so that it bends in an interesting way.

check.png Lay out text into multicolumn brochures — text automatically flows from one column to the next.

check.png Create charts and graphs using graphing tools.

check.png Create gradients that can be imported and edited into other programs, such as InDesign.

check.png Create documents quickly and easily using existing templates and included stock graphics in Illustrator.

check.png Save a drawing in almost any graphic format, including the Adobe PDF, PSD, EPS, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, and SVG formats.

check.png Save your Illustrator files for the Web by using the Save for Web dialog box, which allows you to output GIF, HTML, and JPEG files.

check.png Save Illustrator files as secure PDF files with 128-bit encryption.

check.png Export assets as symbols to Flash.

Illustrator has new features for you to investigate, many of them integrated in the chapters in Book III. Find out about new tools, including features to help you use patterns. Find additional features by reading Book III, Chapter 1.

Getting Started with Photoshop CS6

Photoshop is the industry standard software for web designers, video professionals, and photographers who need to manipulate bitmap images. Using Photoshop, you can manage and edit images by correcting color, editing photos by hand, and even combining several photos to create interesting and unique effects. Alternatively, you can use Photoshop as a painting program, where you can artistically create images and graphics. Photoshop even includes a file browser that lets you easily manage your images by assigning keywords or allowing you to search the images based on metadata.

Photoshop allows 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 CS6. 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, create an attractive photo gallery for the web with a few clicks of the mouse, or upload images to an online photo service. You can preview multiple filters (effects) at once without having to apply each filter separately. Photoshop CS6 also supports various artistic brush styles, such as wet and dry brush effects and charcoal and pastel effects. Photoshop also has some great features for scanning. You can scan multiple images at a time, and Photoshop can straighten each photo and save it as an individual file.

It’s hard to believe that Photoshop can be improved on, but Adobe has done it again in Adobe Photoshop CS6. Book IV shows you the diverse capabilities of Photoshop. From drawing and painting to image color correction, Photoshop has many uses for print and web design alike.

Working with Acrobat X

Acrobat X Professional 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 Design Premium Suite 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 allows 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 Professional or Standard 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:

check.png Create interactive forms that can be filled out online.

check.png 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.

check.png Create PDF files that can include MP3 audio, video, SWF, and even 3D files.

check.png Combine multiple files into a single PDF and include headers and footers as well as watermarks.

check.png Create secure documents with encryption.

check.png Take advantage of an intuitive user interface. You can now complete tasks faster with a streamlined user interface, new customizable toolbars, and a Getting Started page to visually direct you to commonly used features. In other words, you get an interface more in line with what you may see in the rest of the Creative Suite products.

check.png Combine multiple files into a searchable, sortable PDF package that maintains the individual security settings and digital signatures of each included PDF document.

check.png 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.

check.png Manage shared reviews — without IT assistance — to allow review participants to see one another’s comments and track the status of the review. Shared reviews are possible through Acrobat Connect, formerly Breeze.

check.png 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.

check.png Permanently remove metadata, hidden layers, and other concealed information and use redaction tools to permanently delete sensitive text, illustrations, or other content.

check.png Save your PDF to Microsoft Word. This feature is a treasure! You can take advantage of improved functionality for saving Adobe PDF files as Microsoft Word documents, retaining the layout, fonts, formatting, and tables.

check.png 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 V to find out all about Acrobat and PDF creation.

Introducing Dreamweaver CS6

Dreamweaver CS6 is used to create professional websites quickly and efficiently, without the need to know or understand HTML (HyperText Markup Language). You can work with a visual authoring workspace (commonly known as Design view), or you can work in an environment where you work with the code. Dreamweaver enables you to set up entire websites of multiple pages on your hard drive, test them, and then upload them to a web server. With the Dreamweaver integration capabilities, you can create pages easily that contain imagery from Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Flash.

Dreamweaver also has built-in support for CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), a language that allows you to format your web pages and control text attributes, such as color, size, and style of text. CSS gives you control over the layout of the elements on your web pages.

Go to Book VI to find out how to use Dreamweaver CS6 to create exciting websites that include text, images, and multimedia. Read Book VI, Chapter 1 to discover all the new features in Dreamweaver, including an improved interface, faster CSS integration, and improved features that will help you develop for mobile and html5.

Welcoming You to Fireworks CS6

In the Design Premium suite, you have a tool for creating web graphics. Fireworks is a much needed tool in the Creative Suite package because it offers features that were available in ImageReady in the CS2 suite.

You may wonder why Fireworks is included in the Design Premium suite when it already includes two other image editing programs, Photoshop and Illustrator. Among other things, Fireworks is useful for mocking up web page designs, making it quick and easy to design a web page layout and web applications. Fireworks also enables you to edit both bitmap and vector images.

Use Fireworks to

check.png Compare file formats before exporting web graphics.

check.png Create animations, rollovers, and pop-up windows.

check.png Create sliced images that use HTML tables or CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).

check.png Make wireframes or mock up a website using the template and pages features.

Find out more in Book VIII about the helpful web creation tools in Fireworks.

Crossing the Adobe Bridge

Adobe Bridge is truly an incredible application, especially with the CS6 release, because the processing speed is greatly improved and new features are available, including the ability to take advantage of the new Mini Bridge in several of the CS6 applications, such as Photoshop and InDesign.

Mini Bridge works much like the full launch of Adobe Bridge, but it stays present like a panel, allowing you to quickly and easily access your files at any time.

You can find out more about Adobe Bridge and Mini Bridge in Chapter 5 of this minibook.

Integrating Software

With so many great pieces of software in a single package, it’s only natural that you’ll want to start using the programs together to build exciting projects. You may want to design a book using InDesign (with photos edited in Photoshop and drawings created in Illustrator) and then create a website for that content in Dreamweaver. Similarly, you may want to take a complex PDF file and make it into something that everyone can view online. Or you might create a symbol or Flash text in Illustrator and complete the animation in Flash. All tools in the Adobe Creative Suite are built to work together, and achieving these tasks suddenly becomes much easier to do because the products are integrated.

Integrating software is typically advantageous to anyone. Integration allows you to streamline the workflow among programs and sometimes team members. Tools exist that let you drop native images into Dreamweaver, InDesign, Illustrator, and Flash. With Adobe Bridge, you can view files and investigate specific information about them, such as color mode and file size, before selecting them for placement.

Acquiring Assets for this Book

Many of the files that are referenced in this book are available right in the application sample folders that come with Creative Suite 6. The path locations are defined when they are referenced, making it easy to find and use them in the provided step-by-step examples. In addition to these sample files, you can find tips and tricks and more files for you to experiment with and investigate at www.agitraining.com/dummies.