Laying Out Your First Marketing Postcard

STEP 1: Working in Inches Instead of Picas

Since InDesign is an application for professional graphic designers, by default its unit of measurement is set to picas (which is how a lot of designers think). However, as photographers, we tend to think in inches (5×7″, 8×10″, etc.), so the first thing you’ll want to do is switch from picas to inches. To do this, press Command-K (PC: Control-K) to bring up the Preferences dialog, then in the list of preferences on the left side, click on Units & Increments. Under Ruler Units, change both the Horizontal and Vertical ruler units to Inches (as shown above), then click OK.

STEP 2: Setting Up a Postcard Size Image

Go under the File menu, under New, and choose Document. When the New Document dialog appears (shown above), for Number of Pages, enter 2. Turn off the checkbox for Facing Pages (that’s used in designing publications), and enter 4 for Width and 6 for Height (to create a tall 4×6″ postcard). You can leave the Margins set at 0.5 (1/2″), but don’t click OK yet. Because we’re going to add a photo later that we want to be borderless (like borderless printing on our inkjet printers), we have to set up the document to accept a photo that prints all the way to the edge (in the next step).

STEP 3: Setting Up for Borderless Printing

To print all the way to the edge, you have to set up what’s called a “bleed” area, which is the graphics term for photos that extend (or bleed) beyond the edges of the page. In the New Document dialog, click on the More Options button, and the Bleed and Slug fields will appear. First, click on the link icon on the far right side of the Bleed fields (as shown above) to link all four fields together. Then, in the Top field, type in 0.125 (for a 1/8″ bleed) and press the Tab key. The three other fields will automatically be set to 0.125″ (because you linked them first). Now you can click OK.

STEP 4: You New Document’s Layout

Double-click on the new paragraph style in the Paragraph Styles palette to open the Paragraph Style Options dialog. Choose the Basic Character Formats category on the left. For this example, we’re using the font Kabel LT Std Book at 12 pt, normal case, and left justifi ed (in the Indents and Spacing category, choose Left Justify from the Alignment pop-up menu). Name your style “first paragraph.” Don’t click OK just yet; we can create our nested style at the same time. Click the Drop Caps and Nested Styles category on the left of the Paragraph Style Options dialog.

STEP 5: Importing a Photo

To import the photo you’ll be using for the front of your postcard, go under the File menu and choose Place. Navigate to the photo you want to use, and click the Open button. Your cursor will change to a brush with half a square, letting you know your photo is ready to be placed. Just click once anywhere in your layout and it will appear on screen (you can then just click-and-drag it into position). To scale your photo down to size, hold Command-Option-Shift (PC: Control-Alt-Shift), grab a corner point, and drag inward (don’t forget to let the photo bleed off the edge).

STEP 6: Cropping to Add Room for Text

You’re going to add some text at the bottom of the postcard, so click on the bottom center point of the photo with the Selection tool (V), and drag upward about an inch or so. As you do this, it crops away the bottom of the photo. Get the Type tool (T). Click-and-drag out a text box that encompasses that open space around the margins and type in “Capturing Life’s Most Cherished Memories.” Then highlight the text with the Type tool, and press Command-T (PC: Control-T) to bring up a familiar-looking Character palette. Choose the font Trajan Pro Regular (it comes with the Creative Suite), choose 18 pt. as your size, and center your type, too (using the Paragraph palette).

STEP 7: Creating the Back of the Postcard

Because the back of the postcard will be wide (rather than tall), we’ll need to create a new document. Use all the same specs as in Step 2, but enter 6 for the Width, 4 for the Height, and 0.625 for the Bottom Margin. When your document appears onscreen, click-and-hold directly on the ruler on the left of your document and drag out a guide (these are non-printing guides you can use to help you align and visually separate items), and stop at 2 1/2″. (All your photos and text have to fit within this area, except your return address, to comply with postal mailing regulations. Check with your local branch for exact specs.)

STEP 8: Importing the 2nd Photo and Setting Your Text

Now lets add a photo. Press Command-D (PC: Control-D) to bring up the Place dialog. Choose your photo, click Open, then click once in the left corner of your document to import the photo (as shown above). Once positioned (and resized if necessary), switch to the Type tool (T), click-and-drag out a text box, and enter your advertising message. I used the font Minion Pro Italic at 10 pt., which also comes with the Creative Suite, so you should already have this font installed.

STEP 9: Place Your Cursor

You’ll want to size the photo down (using the shortcut I gave you earlier) and position and crop the photo so it appears both within the margins and inside the guide you dragged out in the previous step, so the Post Office doesn’t bounce your postcard back. Lastly, you can add your logo, return address, and postal bulk-mail indicia (or just leave a place for a stamp). I used the fonts Trajan Pro and Bickham Script Pro for the logo. The return address is in Minion Standard. By the way, to hide all the guides and get a preview of the finished product, press Command-; (PC: Control-;).

STEP 10: The Finished Postcard

Here’s a look at the finished postcard (of course, it’s really a two-sided piece, but I created this layout so you could see what both sides would look like, without all the guides and interface stuff getting in the way). Remember to contact your printer for their Photoshop CMYK conversion guidelines before you import your photos from Photoshop so you get the best possible color separations (or just let your print shop do the separations for you from your RGB files). That’s it—you’ve designed your first marketing piece and got a taste for how easy creating documents in InDesign really is.