It's been noted elsewhere, but I wanted to post here in the topic where people are most discussing album design software....

InDesign is the ultimate album design software, bar none. I completed 3 albums with InDesign after coming from PhotoJunction (which is a child's toy in comparison and is much less efficient). InDesign is WAY faster, and it works just like Photoshop so it just "makes sense" all the way around. I pretty well figured it out and got things done but I was still curious about Kevin Swan's video training about it, so I purchased a copy.

And it was STILL well worth the very reasonable price.

I'd managed to figure most of it it out, but if I'd watched his video on day one, I would have saved myself a day or two of trial and error, digging on Google and in the help files. I still learned a few time saving tricks during the tutorial I'll apply to my next album.

So if you're doing your own albums opposed to out-sourcing - just do yourself a huge favor and pick up InDesign (or just upgrade to "Create Suite Design Standard CS3" if you only own the stand-alone version of photoshop). It's a cheap upgrade and will pay for itself in time savings on your first book. And you absolutely MUST pickup Swan's training video. It's worth 4 times the price. It will litterally show you everything you need to know to make the design happen with zero effort and the video is only 40 minutes long. Pour a coffee and prepare to get ejumicated.

I'll also note I'm using CS3, his video is for CS2 but it's all the same. The only minor change is to ignore the part where he's talking about not being able to export hi res layouts - that's fixed now in CS3. You follow the same exact export proceedure as shown in the video, but you'll be prompted with a second screen asking for output resolution. Set it to 300 for lab prints, or 271 if you're making an Asuka. Easy cheezey.

Thanks Swan! YOU ROCK!!


Get it here:
http://www.newschoolphoto.com/blogme/softw...eries-indesign/


And another quick tip if you don't mind......

That awful keyboard shortcut to re-size an image inside a frame - the default is like " Alt + Right Shift + Control + Left Bracket + E + Option + Tab + Space + Tildie " or something. I don't think Eddie Van Halen could hit that keystroke.

Go into your keyboard shortcuts and re-program that mess to simply "Cmd - E" which by default is set to "Export Layouts". I only export layouts once per session and I can just click it in the menu. I hit that other keystroke after every frame adjustment and image placement, so simpler is better in that case. It's faster and it's saved me from early arthritus.

Another vote for Swan's tutorial. It rocked my world.

Vini, Vidi, Vidici

I saw the video
I bought indesign
I design 30 page layouts in less than an hour

Kevin,

THANKS for the kid words and support. YOU rock, not me! Secondly, awesome tip on the shortcut. I'm so old-school, having dealt with layout programs since 1987, that I have always just adapted to whatever they tell me instead of remembering that I can re-program the keys.

Another issue for me, since I help alpha and beta test these programs, I'm constantly deleting the application (and my preferences!) to replace it with a new build... That means, more often than not, I just get used to the defaults.

Thanks again.