With the popularity of the Illustrator toolbox, we decided there might be a need in the community for an InDesign Toolbox as well.
We were putting together another toolbox for our design community friends when we noticed that the Stumblers had gotten hold of the T-Shirt Designer’s Toolbox and had run wild with it. So we looked at the Adobe InDesign Toolbox we were compiling, and then at the 20,000 views on the t-shirt toolbox, then back to the new post, back to the 30,000 views on the t-shirt toolbox, and then…well this went on back and forth for a bit. After we saw that the t-shirt tools garnered 50,000 plus views, we knew we needed to step up the next post a bit.
So we returned to the proverbial toolshed and opened up the InDesign Toolbox, and what do you know, we found room for more! So we crammed every corner of the box full until we felt this follow-up was not only a worthy enough next chapter, but we also felt that we could call it The Ultimate Adobe InDesign Toolbox. And here it is, friends. We hope this resource full toolbox is useful for the InDesigners out there.
Tutorials
Lets start out by getting your learn on! Here are a handful of great tutorials for the InDesign crowd. Some you may know, some you may not. Some may teach you things you do not know. Some may not. I thought I had a point to this. Turns out, I do not. So…moving on.
30 Tutorials That Will Teach You InDesign
Layers Magazine InDesign Tutorials
A Complete List of InDesign CS4 Video Tutorials
Answers to Reader Questions on InDesign – A great overview of InDesign with links to some of the sites quality InDesign articles.
Step-by-Step Guide to Designing InDesign Templates
Design Business Cards in Adobe InDesign
Simple Steps to Create a Newsletter from Scratch in Adobe InDesign
How to Create a Music Magazine Cover in InDesign
Scroll magazine design – Not specifically an InDesign tutorial but still a damn fine tutorial when used along with InDesign.
Scripts and Plug-Ins
The Army wants you to be all that you can be. We hold less lofty goals here at Dead Wings. We just want your design projects to be the best they can be. Such as those you create in InDesign. So here are some handy scripts and plugins to give you all the edge you need.
InDesign Secrets Plug-Ins and Scripts
PlugIns World – PlugIns for InDesign
Third-party plug-ins for InDesign from the official Adobe site
Templates
Who doesn’t love a good template? We do, and we think that we are not alone in this. Here are several for InDesign that we thought you might want to add to your collection. Or, consequently, if you do not have a collection, these could get you started.
The Grid System Templates for InDesign
Free Templates from Stock Layouts
InDesign Templates from Poster Garden
InDesign Templates from WeBrand
Free Templates from the Paper Millstore
InDesign Templates for Chinese and Japanese Text
Free Fonts
Here are some good free fonts that we have found that we think are ideal for both body copy and headlines. Never hurts to have a few more fonts to choose from, and these we figure will fit good in the mix.
Exljbris Font Foundry – These 9 fonts are the best free fonts we’ve found.
Websites, Blogs and Podcasts… Oh My!
We knew the toolbox wouldn’t be complete without a couple of podcasts, a few blogs, and some websites tossed in to the mix. So we found some of the finest Adobe InDesign related stops on the web for you, and packed them in. And that will just about do ya!
The Adobe InDesign Exchange – Pages of free templates, tutorials, scripts and plugins for InDesign.
Tim Cole’s InDesign BackChannel
Cheat Sheets
Now we here at Dead Wings do not condone cheating in any way, but since we forgot to mention that there may be a pop quiz, we thought one or two cheat sheets wouldn’t be out of order. Though if you get caught using them, we will deny ever having given them out!
Noble Desktop Keyboard Shortcut Guides
The Pop Quiz
What tools would you add to the mix?
Related posts:
7 Comments
great useful selections thanks..
joyoge designers’ bookmark’s last blog post..45+ Free Design Template And PSD Files | 1stwebdesigner
Woweee, I like what’s coming out of Dead Wings. First, the tee designer’s toolbox, and now this . . . phew, good stuff.
Sean Neill’s last blog post..Alex Trochut Typography
Another great toolbox – here’s hoping for another 50,000 views for you!!
Great list. There’s a few here I’ve never seen before. My self-promo plug:
The Graphic Mac offers lots of InDesign tips:
http://www.thegraphicmac.com/category/blog-entries/indesign
Jim’s last blog post..Free photo-fix Photoshop action
The InDesigner and InDesign Secrets are definitely my top picks for InDesign info. And the authors of ID Secrets are high quality; they’ve written books and done work with Adobe for InDesign!
You missed a really huge tool, though, guys! Adobe LiveDocs. Seriously. The Adobe people employ good folks to write the LiveDocs and keep them up to date (Thanks Bob!!). The only problem I’ve had here is not knowing specifically what they’ve called a certain tool/function (like “inline graphics” are called “anchored objects” and the poor Quark users will never find the Link tool in ID). Otherwise, I’ve always been able to figure out how to do what I need just from the write up in LiveDocs.
Thanks for including Creative Curio on your list, too!
LaurenMarie – Creative Curio’s last blog post..Enhance Your Designs with the Principle of Rhythm
@ joyoge – glad you like it. Thanks for the comment.
@ Sean –
The Dead oblige. Thanks, Sean.
@ Craig – Thanks, man. I don’t know if the Stumblers will react the same to this one, but at least folks seem to like it!
@ Jim – Thanks for the comment, and the link.
@ LaurenMarie – Thanks for the link and the thoughts on it. Much appreciated. Don’t know how we missed that…
No worries, Rob. This is a stellar list! Saved and Tweeted
LaurenMarie – Creative Curio’s last blog post..Enhance Your Designs with the Principle of Rhythm
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An ultimate collection of resources for Adobe InDesign including tutorials, templates, scripts, plugins, fonts, websites, blogs and more…
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