
If you've completed our 2 day InDesign course or if you've been using the application for a while then you'll this one-day workshop will help clarify areas of difficulty such as pre-press challenges, colour management, exporting, interactive elements, mail merge facilities, scripting and more.
The course is designed to assist both new-comers and those with more experience who have been confounded by inconsistent colour, poor print quality and unpredictable results. It is also for those seeking a greater understanding of typography, colour, PDF and the graphic arts workflow in a commercial environment.
InDesign is complex program and there is much to learn. Our two-day course is a great introduction to the application but stops short of a detailed understanding of InDesign's powerful production tools and interactive features. This course picks up where the other finishes, providing more in-depth knowledge of key production areas such as pre-flighting and and separations, as well as a practical overview of the program's interactive features such as data merge, hyperlinked tables of contents, bookmarks, embedded movie files and document security.
The course will begin with a revision of document export and printing features (including the relative merits of each) before moving on to specific areas which often cause problems such as using the Output Preview features, creating consistent colour, understanding colour management techniques, transparency flattening, the ink manager and the PDF workflow.
We'll also look at advanced use of swatches (such as mixed ink groups), creating tables of contents, importing and editing tables and tabular data, placing movies and creating control buttons, clipping paths, the find/replace dialogue and much more.
Like all of our masterclasses, the course has a structure and outline but additional topics may be covered and others omitted at the discretion of the tutor and the class. Time will also be made to address any specific problems you may be having but please understand that not all problems can be solved in the classroom environment where time is limited and the needs of others are to be considered.
Please note:
The course may be attended as an additional day to our 2-day InDesign course or may be attended on it's own. If the latter, you should have been using InDesign for a while as we will assume a reasonable level of familiarity with the program.
Not sure what's best for you? Use our general enquiry form or call our office during business hours to discuss your needs. Tel. 1300 738 797.
Photoshop is a deep program, rich in features and containing a vast range of filters and menu items. This course will concentrate on those features of the application which are used to correct and enhance photographs and digital images.
We'll begin with a review of essential imaging adjustments such as Levels, Curves and Shadow/Highlight filters, examining some advanced approaches to those filters that are often overlooked. We'll then move onto a thorough examination of adjustment layers, looking at non-destructive approaches to editing using layers and Smart Filters.
The course will then examine masking techniques and alpha channels before a detailed discussion of blend modes and how these can be used to create greater depth and colour control in digital photographs.
Time will also be spent on understanding 16 bit colour mode, the RAW camera filter, and the use of Adobe Bridge to edit and examine EXIF and IPTC data and how these features can be used in a commercial workflow.
Where possible, time will be made available to discuss any specific problems you may be having with your own work.
This course will assume a reasonable knowledge of Photoshop or the prior attendance of our Photoshop Essentials course. You need not be an expert but you should be comfortable with concepts such as layers, selections and basic adjustments. You should also be familiar with digital photography concepts or be looking to advance your knowledge in this area. If in doubt, contact our office to discuss your requirements.
If you're working in fashion, textiles or fabric design, you'll find this course a brilliant introduction to the power of Illustrator to realise fabric design concepts. It is designed for those with some exposure to the program but may be adapted for beginners if delivered on-demand.
This course will concentrate on those features of Illustrator which lend themselves to fabric and textile design such as symbols, brushes, patterns, spot colours and more. While the course is normally delivered to those with at least some experience with the program, we will include a revision of essentials such as bezier curves, object creation and layer construction as well as a discussion of new features such as the powerful Live Trace which permits tracing and objectification of hand drawings, scans and bitmap designs.
The course will also examine Illustrator's important relationship with Photoshop and Acrobat, insofar as those applications play a role in the textile design and production process.
Where possible, time will be made available to discuss any specific problems you may be having with your own work.
Please note:
The course may be attended as an additional day to our 2-day Illustrator course or may be attended on it's own. If the latter, you would typically have some prior exposure to Illustrator but the course can be adapted to those newer to the program if desired..
Not sure what's best for you? Use our general enquiry form or call our office during business hours to discuss your needs. Tel. 1300 738 797.
Adobe Acrobat allows PDF files to be created from any source document from simple Word or Excel files to complex InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator or other files. While this is not in itself a complex process, all PDF files are not created equal and there is much to learn about building the right PDF file for the job at hand.
This course uses Acrobat Professional to explore this powerful and flexible application taking source files from InDesign, Word, Illustrator and other applications.
The course begins with an introduction to the concept of PostScript and PDF before taking students through the process of making PDF files from a variety of source documents and optimising them for the task at hand: for print or web or distribution to others by email etc.
We'll then look at the Acrobat workspace in some detail, examining the many navigation, searching and sorting features the application has to offer before creating PDFs from within Acrobat itself from image files, text files, web pages and even emails. This will include an exercise in Optical Character Recognition (OCR), converting a scanned document to editable PDF text.
While Creating PDFs directly from MS Office applications will be looked at, we'll also go further using InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop to generate multi-layered PDFs for output to commercial printshop or digital printer.
We'll also look at more advanced features by editing PDFs within Acrobat including linking, using bookmarks, using pages (thumbnails), cropping, extracting, editing images and much more.
Finally, we'll look at annotations such as notes, review markup, free text, freehand drawing and stamp creation, as well as the powerful send-for-review features introduced in more recent versions of the program.
You should have a solid working knowledge of either the Windows or Mac interface as well as exposure to either Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint. While no prior knowledge of InDesign or Illustrator will be assumed, you should at least be familiar with basic graphic design principals as these programs will be used as source documents.
This course will assume a reasonable knowledge of Dreamweaver or the prior attendance of our regular two-day Dreamweaver Essentials course. You need not be an expert but you should be relatively proficient in the creation of HTML.
If in doubt, contact our office to discuss your requirements.
This course will assume a reasonable knowledge of Dreamweaver or the prior attendance of our regular two-day Dreamweaver Essentials course. You need not be an expert but you should be relatively proficient in the creation of HTML. If in doubt, contact our office to discuss your requirements.
This course is designed to take you from simple animation, movement and effects to dynamic application development and true interactivity. ActionScript is an Object Oriented programming language which can be used to develop a wide range of sophisticated web applications and online solutions in any number of environments. It can be used with other web technologies such as XML and PHP for rich data presentation; or it may be used in more creative contexts for interactive multimedia delivery.
This course is designed for those who have taken our two-day Flash course or for those who have been working with Flash in the past and are ready to move into ActionScript. Please get in touch if you are unsure of your suitability.
You should be familiar with graphic arts production to a reasonable level. It's no problem if your knowledge is a little patchy or out of date but it's not suitable for complete beginners.
If you've completed our 3 day Creative Suite Complete course or if you've been using the Adobe applications for a while but have been having trouble when it comes to the print stage then this course is for you.
The course is designed to clarify common areas of confusion in the graphic production process and assist you in communicating with commercial printers. You'll understand the differences between digital and offset printing and increase your level of confidence in preparing artwork for print. File formats, pre-flighting, PDF and colour management will all be discussed and there will also be time made for any specific issues you may be having or to address areas of confusion that may have been causing you problems.
Taking your artwork from screen image to printed or published document is often a challenging and frustrating process, and mistakes can be expensive. This course is designed to avoid those problems and to assist you in creating a reliable workflow with a minimum of headaches.
The course will begin with an overview of the print production process before moving on to specific areas which often cause problems such as creating consistent colour, understanding colour management techniques, colour separations, spot v. process colours, colour spaces (RGB/CMYK/LAB), resolution and compression, and the PDF workflow.
Like all of our masterclasses, the course has a structure and outline but additional topics may be covered and others omitted at the discretion of the tutor and the class. Time will also be made to address any specific problems you may be having but please understand that not all problems can be solved in the classroom environment where time is limited and the needs of others are to be considered.
Please note:
The course may be attended as an additional day to our 3-day Creative Suite Complete course or may be attended on it's own. If the latter, you should have been using the Creative Suite for a while as we will assume a reasonable level of familiarity with the applications.
Not sure what's best for you? Use our general enquiry form or call our office during business hours to discuss your needs. Tel. 1300 738 797.
If you've completed a combination of our print courses (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop or Acrobat), or if you've been using the Adobe applications but have been having trouble when it comes to the print stage, then this course is for you.
The course is designed to clarify common areas of confusion in the graphic production process and assist you in communicating with commercial printers. You'll understand the differences between digital and offset printing and increase your level of confidence in preparing artwork for print. File formats, pre-flighting, PDF and colour management will all be discussed and there will also be time made for any specific issues you may be having or to address areas of confusion that may have been causing you problems.
Taking your artwork from screen image to printed or published document is often a challenging and frustrating process, and mistakes can be expensive. This course is designed to avoid those problems and to assist you in creating a reliable workflow with a minimum of headaches.
The course will begin with an overview of the print production process before moving on to specific areas which often cause problems such as creating consistent colour, understanding colour management techniques, colour separations, spot v. process colours, colour spaces (RGB/CMYK/LAB), resolution and compression, and the PDF workflow.
Like all of our masterclasses, the course has a structure and outline but additional topics may be covered and others omitted at the discretion of the tutor and the class. Time will also be made to address any specific problems you may be having but please understand that not all problems can be solved in the classroom environment where time is limited and the needs of others are to be considered.
Please note:
The course may be attended as an additional day to our 3-day Creative Suite Complete course or may be attended on its own. If the latter, you should have been using the Creative Suite for a while as we will assume a reasonable level of familiarity with the applications.
Not sure what's best for you? Use our general enquiry form or call our office during business hours to discuss your needs. Tel. 1300 738 797.
By the end of this course you should have a solid understanding of media formats suitable for web delivery. You will understand current practices and techniques in video production for the small screen and will have gained insight into common publishing environments such as YouTube, Metacafe and Blip.tv.
We will also cover video casting (vodcasting) techniques and possibilities and explore some of the emerging possibilities for web video such as web TV and mobile device streaming.




