VIGC Output Essentials is a new free helper tool intended to allow InDesign users without particular print skills to output pre-ready documents. It also covers output for web and tablets. There’s a similar tablet available for Photoshop. All can be downloaded for free from the VIGC website.
VIGC in Belgium is the Flemish Innovation Center for Graphic Communication. ‘The life of a designer is not easy: delivering perfect press-ready material can be complex,’ said Eddy Hagen, general manager of VIGC. ‘Especially when some key functions are hidden deeply in the menus. Additional functions can also look too complex for a designer to change the default value. A perfect example to illustrate this is the Transparency Blend Space in Adobe InDesign, which defines how colours of transparent objects are mixed. You can set this to RGB or to CMYK, but choosing the one or the other can alter the colours of transparent objects. The VIGC wants to help designers to make the right choices, by preventing them from forgetting vital steps such as adding a bleed to a print document. That’s why we collected all the essential elements in the VIGC Output Essentials panel for Adobe InDesign.’
The Output Essentials panel offers two workflows: one for EPUBs, web and tablet publishing; and one for print and ‘hybrid’ documents. It is divided into five steps:
Loading preflight profiles and export presets Basic settings for documents, e.g. color settings, overprint preview, bleed Document preview Document checking, e.g. the preflight function in Adobe InDesign, but also a check on local formatting (which is essential for EPUB) and finding images with too high an ink coverage Export/package, with e.g. export to EPUB, to print ready PDF or creating a ‘package’ with the package function.
Some functions are specific for one of either workflows, others are identical for both.
A tutorial file covers installation of the panel and the importance of certain essential functions, like the Transparency Blend Space.
VIGC has also designed a smaller panel for Adobe Photoshop, providing access to several functions related to colour and colour management.
‘Designers who tested the VIGC Output Essentials panels were highly positive about them and described them as a must-have for people who work with Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop on a daily basis,’ said Mr Hagen. ‘They structure the workflow, ensure immediate access to important functions and save the designer a whole lot of mouse clicks… In short, they are an indispensable and clever tool for every InDesign and Photoshop user.’
The panels will also be available via Adobe Exchange later this year.
Contact: www.vigc.org/vigc-output-essentials
