Useful Things when using Adobe Bridge
When using Adobe Indesign or any Adobe CS Program, you can create a Contact Sheet, Export to Flash and also make an Image/Web Gallery for emailing to a client. All this and much more can be done by clicking on the “Adobe Bridge” Button at the top right of the screen.
Example 1
When clicking this you are presented with the Adobe Bridge Screen.
For my first excercise I am going to make a Web/Image Gallery from a folder I previously saved on my desktop.
When you open your folder of images you can change your views to whatever you choose by clicking on the scrolling bar at the bottom of the screen or alternatively clicking on the different views also bottom right. I prefer to use the filmstrip view, because it shows your selected image large and also shows thumbnails underneath (Example 1).
Select all your images and go to the menu bar, tools/photoshop/web photo gallery (Example 2). When clicked you are transported to Photoshop where you get a preferences screen (Example 3). At the top you can choose what kind of Web Gallery Template you want. Below this, an email address to send this to. Thirdly you must select on the folder where you are getting the images from. Further down you can select a destination folder where it will be going. And last of all a name for your web gallery. Once all this is done it will open up all the images, resize them for web and finally open up a web page for you showing your pics either in thumbnails or large, depending on your earlier preferences.
Example 2
Example 3
For my next excercise I am going to create a print contact sheet also from the same folder I previously used.
Select all your images (only) and go to the menu bar, tools/Indesign/Create Indesign Contact Sheet (Example 4). When clicked your files are made into a pdf and are opened in Acrobat and also Indesign. You get a preferences box asking you how many columns and different layouts, etc (Example 5). When this is done you can print off instantly without placing each image into a document. This comes in very useful when a client wants a printed sheet, urgently, of all previous works or designs that you did.
Example 4
Example 5
For my last excercise I am going to export selected AI Files to Flash also from the same folder I previously used.
Select all your Illustrator files (AI) that you want to export into FLASH by going to the menu bar, tools/Illustrator/Export to Flash/Quick Export (Example 6). When clicked your AI file(s) are made into a Flash SWF file. This can be opened in Flash and broken up into animation/tweening.
Example 6
Thats it for now, more useful tips are coming soon.
Mark Jope is a Graphic Designer at London based printer PrintHouse Corporation. If there is a query in regarding design and print please contact me here.
