Adobe InDesign is a program used by creative professionals to design printed or electronic publications. Much like its predecessors, Quark Express and PageMaker, InDesign offers an interface that allows you to easily template and develop an application from the ground up. Traditionally, InDesign is not used for graphic or text creation, but is utilized to format entire publications by linking the content from its source. This is most helpful when not wanting to adjust the design of a document but change the content within. As such, InDesign is primarily used for the design of printed materials (ie. newsletters, magazines, posters, billboards, books, manuals, etc.) but can export electronic files for almost any design platform.
Throughout these lessons, we will be working on a fictitious newsletter using the tools of InDesign. To get the most out of these lessons, you'll should have an installed copy of InDesign to work along with this guide. You can download a free demo version from the Adobe Product Page. Once you have InDesign installed on your computer, launch the program.