Rufus Deuchler

Introduction to Adobe Muse (Public Beta)

This video will show you how to create a website using Adobe Muse (Code Name), from the initial idea to the published site. The whole workflow.

The four steps I am covering here are:

1. Planning the site using the Plan workspace
2. Designing with freedom using Muse's InDesign layout metaphor
3. Adding rich interactivity with widgets and arbitrary HTML or iFrames
4. Publishing your website to HTML or using Adobe Business Catalyst

If you want to follow along and do what I am doing, here are the assets I used: IntroMuse.zip [3.2Mb]

To check out what I have created in this video, see this website on Adobe Business Catalyst: http://ourplanet.businesscatalyst.com

 

Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Single Edition, the solution for the rest of us

Originally posted on the Adobe blogs.

As a worldwide Design Evangelist at Adobe Systems, I travel the World to showcase and explain Adobe solutions to Creative Suite users and I get to meet hundreds of designers in person. InDesign is their weapon choice when it comes to creating beautiful layouts independently of how they will be published, and the Digital Publishing Suite always generates great interest among audiences.

The Folio Producer tools in InDesign CS5 and CS5.5 enable designers to create interactive content on top of their layouts (overlays) and publish these to tablet devices. It’s so easy that it’s almost too good to be true. However, in the past, when the discussion moved over to the costs of the service, it became difficult for designers to experiment any further. That was because DPS Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition have rather high upfront and subscription fees, costs which make perfect sense if you are in the business of creating many folios for your customers, or if you are a publishing house and want more control, or if you need enterprise grade features to distribute, control, and publish your content.

The question I then heard most frequently, was “I am a freelance designer and I just want to publish a few folios for my customers, is there a solution for that?” or “I work for a school and we just need to create one catalogue each year”.

Digital Publishing Suite Single Edition answers these very questions: you can now create your folio and pay a one time fee (through the Adobe Store) and have your Folio transformed into an App that can then be distributed over at the Apple App Store.

360° panoramas with a mobile device? Right on.

A few weeks back I was investigating ways to rapidly create full 360° panoramas. Specifically I was interested in creating cubic panoramas to be included in a digital publication with InDesign and the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, and I had no intention to invest in expensive equipent for that. After all I just wanted to test it.

Searching the interwebs I came across this cool company: Pixeet. Their offer includes a specifically designed fisheye lens for the iPhone or iPad (or any other device with a camera) and a really easy to use application to take the four pictures necessary to create the panorama. So I ordered it.

Here's the result of my first test:

That is pretty neat no? It only took four pictures with the fisheye attached to my iPhone 4.

There is one thing that annoys me and that Pixeet promises to fix. Currently you have to upload your images to the cloud for stitching, an internet connection is therefore required to complete the process. However, Pixeet wrote that they are working on a new version of the app that will stich the images on the device.

After you have uploaded your panorama, you can download an equirectangular or stripped cubic image, or even a QuickTime VR of it. You could then separate the cubic images with Photoshop or use an application like Pano2VR to create the 6 images needed for InDesign, which I did for my test. So, as far as my test on using such a panorama in an InDesign Document to be published with the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, it works just fine!

I shall continue in these investigations. Stay tuned.

Taking Muse (Code Name) for a spin over at Adobe BrowserLab

Out of sheer curiosity, and because quite a few users have asked me about cross-browser compatibility, I took one of the websites showcased on the Adobe Muse site (which, by the way, was entirely created using Muse) for a spin over at Adobe BrowserLab, and here are the results.

With BrowserLab you can preview how your web pages will display across browsers and operating systems.

One of the promises of Muse is that "Muse creates cross-browser compatible code for you, so you can focus on your design and we’ll make sure your site looks great". Well except for IE 6.0 on Windows (which does not display transparency in PNGs) and a couple of browsers not honoring the left padding of the page, I'd say that all looks pretty good.

This is a very superficial test, I'll try to create a more thorough one in the near future.

Give Muse a try.

Creating a single one-off publication for the iPad with the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite

In this short clip I will be showing how easy it is to get your InDesign content to your iPad using the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. Specifically I will be showing how you can create a single one-off issue in three easy steps.

• Step 1 - The Folio Builder Panel in Adobe InDesign
• Step 2 - The Adobe Digital Publishing Suite Folio Producer
• Step 3 - The Viewer Builder desktop application

Enjoy!

Adobe Muse (code name) is here!

Adobe Muse is in beta and available for all to try. Here are a few videos I created for my Adobe TV show CSInsider|Design.

After this introduction check out:

• Muse: Pinning objects in a fixed position on a web page
• Muse: Trigger and Target

And finally a little experiment I did creating HTML content with Muse and then using it with the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite in InDesign:

• Muse: Creating content for DPS

You can check out and start using Muse right here.
Let me know what you think!

My schedule at Adobe MAX 2011 is looking good!

Just a quick note to let you all know that I will be presenting at MAX 2011 in Los Angeles, and these are my sessions and labs:

Adobecadabra! with Rufus Deuchler
Jump-start your designs! In this lively session, Rufus Deuchler, Adobe's worldwide evangelist for design, will deliver killer tips and cool techniques for your favorite Adobe design tools: Photoshop CS5, Illustrator CS5, and InDesign CS5.5. Productivity, accuracy, and creativity are what this session is all about.
Monday, October 3, 5:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday, October 5, 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Publishing to Digital Devices with InDesign CS5.5
Learn the different ways you can create engaging publications or documents for tablet and mobile devices with Adobe InDesign CS 5.5. Rufus Deuchler, senior worldwide Adobe evangelist, will demonstrate how you can publish your InDesign content that integrates interactivity, video, and sound to tablet devices, either as an EPUB eBook or as a .folio file via Adobe Digital Publishing Suite. This session will show you the alternatives available if you are interested in creating electronic publications with InDesign and the benefits and limitations of each.
Tuesday, October 4, 2:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Using Folio Producer Tools in InDesign CS5.5 [Hands-on Lab]
Test-drive the new Folio Producer tools in Adobe InDesign CS5.5. In this hands-on lab, you'll learn how to author engaging interactive content for publication to tablet devices. Using the new Overlay Creator panel, add audio, video, and other interactivity including 360-degree rotation of objects and HTML content to your InDesign layouts. Create and manage a .folio file using the Folio Builder panel and preview it using Content Viewer for Desktop. You'll leave this session with a deep knowledge of the new Folio Producer tools and how InDesign CS5.5 integrates with Adobe Digital Publishing Suite.
Monday, October 3, 2:45 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
Tuesday, October 4, 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

I have just looked at the registration numbers and all of these are filling up fast! Also, I just found out that the deadline for early bird Adobe MAX passes has been extended to 8/31! Grab your tickets now.

Updated for CS5.5: So you think Adobe InDesign...

Here is an updated document to my "So you think Adobe InDesign has become all about interactive Schnickschnack? Think again" post from February 2011. This update includes the new features introduced by InDesign CS5.5. They make a really cool addition to an already incredible toolset.

Basically, InDesign CS4 introduced about 52 new features, and InDesign CS5 (and CS5.5) about 78. This list will help understand what you are missing in case you haven't upgraded yet. And if you are still with InDesign CS3, well then, there's over a 100 new features that could benefit your workflow.

View and download the image of the list [.png, 1Mb]

View and download the PDF of the list [.pdf, 102Kb]

Enjoy!

So you think Adobe InDesign has become all about interactive Schnickschnack? Think again.

Many times have I heard users asking me “so what are the new features in InDesign?” or telling me “there is nothing in the new versions that would benefit my workflow". Really!? I needed to see... To compile this list, I simply went to Adobe.com and copied the “what’s new” section for each of the above mentioned versions of Adobe InDesign, and then laid it out in such a way to actually be able to see the amount of new stuff in each release. I then reordered the new features by areas of interest (which do not necessarily reflect those chosen by Adobe), and here are the surprising results.

Basically, InDesign CS4 introduced about 52 new features, and InDesign CS5 about 68. This list will help understand what you are missing in case you haven't upgraded yet. And if you are still with InDesign CS3, well then, there's over a 100 new features that could benefit your workflow.

View and download the image of the list [.png, 1.3Mb]

View and download the PDF of the list [.pdf, 111Kb]

Enjoy!

How to Create an eBook with Adobe InDesign CS5

It seems that the words eBook and ePub are on everyone's lips these days, and that there is a genuine interest for publishing books and magazines electronically. So one night I was laying in my bed with my eyes wide open (happens a lot...) and thought to myself that I should really learn the ins and outs of that new, so much talked about, format. Is there a better way to learn about creating ePub from InDesign than writing an eBook about how to do it myself? Well my friends, here it is: How to Create an eBook with Adobe InDesign CS5 - A step by step guide to creating ePub with InDesign. In this eBook you will learn about all the things I have come across while creating the eBook using InDesign.

I have made the eBook available on the Amazon Digital Text Platform, making a conscious decision not to apply any kind of Digital Rights Management (DRM) to it. The publishing to the Amazon platform was something I decided very early on in the writing process, because that would have meant that I was able to close the circle: writing > layout > ePub export > publishing. Basically I became the publisher of myself. And all that using Adobe InDesign.

Grab your copy of How to Create an eBook with Adobe® InDesign® CS5 [Kindle Edition]

Amazon has all kinds of readers, for iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows, Mac, and even Blackberry, not only for their own Kindle device. You can download them here: Free Kindle Reading Apps.

I thank Pariah Burke for having a look at the text when my eyes couldn't any more, and Marijan Tompa for creating the Illustration on the cover.

Let me know what you think about the eBook!

Also make sure to check out this free ePub about CSS and XHTML Tags for ePub, it can serve as a good reference guide as you tweak the CSS in ePub generated with InDesign.

This eBook also has a companion page on Facebook.

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From the Introduction of the eBook.

The acronym ePUB, which stands for electronic publication, has been capitalized in almost every possible way: ePub, ePUB, EPub. epub, or even EPUB. Pick your favorite... Throughout this eBook I have chosen to use the ePub variant, which is much easier on my designer eyes. The official ePub logo of the International Digital Publishing Forum uses the ePUB version, although they themselves, use EPUB in their literature. Go figure.