Ilumax Design guide

Add and format text

With the Type Tool (T), drag on an empty part of the page to draw a text frame and start typing, or click in a frame to type there. ⇧ShiftReturn (Mac) or ShiftEnter (Windows) breaks a line without starting a new paragraph.

To format text, select it first: drag across it, or click two, three or four times for a word, a sentence or a paragraph. Then use the Properties panel (Character and Paragraph) or the Type menu: Bold, Italic, Underline, All Caps, Align Left, Align Center, Align Right and Justify Left all have shortcuts.

Type ▸ Fill with Placeholder Text fills a selected text frame with dummy text, so you can design before the copy arrives. Type ▸ Show/Hide Hidden Characters shows spaces, tabs and returns.

Press Esc when you have finished typing: Design goes back to the Selection Tool with the frame selected. Single-key shortcuts such as W and the tool keys work only when you are not typing.

Place pictures

Draw a frame with the Rectangle Frame Tool (F) or the Ellipse Frame Tool, keep it selected, and choose File ▸ Place… (⌘CommandD on a Mac, CtrlControlD on Windows). Design places PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, TIFF, BMP, PSD, SVG, PDF, AI and EPS files; a PDF with several pages asks which page to place.

Object ▸ Fitting sizes the picture and the frame to each other: Fill Frame Proportionally, Fit Content Proportionally, Fit Frame to Content, Fit Content to Frame and Center Content.

You can also drag picture files onto the window. The Links panel lists every placed file, and Relink… points a missing one to its new place.

Flow long text from page to page

For a report or a book, tick Primary Text Frame in New Document. Every page gets a text frame inside its margins, and the frames are linked into one story, so text runs on from page to page. Click into the first frame with the Type Tool and place a Word, RTF or text file, or start typing.

With Smart Text Reflow on, as it is to begin with, Design adds pages as the story grows and removes empty ones at the end as it shrinks. It is in Edit ▸ Preferences… ▸ Type.

A red + at the bottom-right of a selected text frame means more text than fits: make the frame bigger or the text smaller. Edit ▸ Edit in Story Editor (⌘CommandY on a Mac, CtrlControlY on Windows) shows a story as plain text, including the part that doesn’t fit.

Linking frames by clicking their in and out ports isn’t available yet: use Primary Text Frame to run one story through many pages.

Add pages and use parent pages

In the Pages panel, Insert Page (the + at the bottom) adds a page after the one you are on, and Delete Page removes it. Drag a page to move it. The panel shows how many pages and spreads there are, such as 4 Pages in 3 Spreads.

A parent page holds what every page shares: a logo, a running head, page numbers. Each new document has one, A-Parent, listed at the top of the Pages panel. Double-click it to edit it, and click a page underneath to go back to your document.

To use a different parent on a page, drag the parent onto that page’s thumbnail. [None] takes the parent off.

Number the pages

1. In the Pages panel, double-click A-Parent.
2. With the Type Tool, draw a small text frame at the bottom of the page.
3. Choose Type ▸ Insert Special Character ▸ Markers ▸ Current Page Number.
4. Click a page in the Pages panel to go back: every page that uses A-Parent now shows its own number.

Use paragraph and character styles

Format one paragraph the way you want, keep the cursor in it, and click Create New Style from Selection (the +) at the bottom of the Paragraph Styles panel. The new style, Paragraph Style 1, takes that paragraph’s formatting. Character Styles works the same way for selected words.

To apply a style, select the text and click the style in its panel. Hold ⌥Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) as you click to clear any formatting you added by hand.

Edit ▸ Quick Apply… (⌘CommandReturn on a Mac, CtrlControlEnter on Windows) finds a style, or any command, by typing part of its name.

Colour frames, shapes and text

Select an object, or some text, and click a swatch in the Swatches panel to colour its fill. New Swatch (the +) adds a colour to the list.

The Color panel mixes a colour in CMYK or RGB; Add to Swatches keeps it. Load Swatches… and Save Swatches for Exchange…, in the Swatches panel’s menu, read and write .ase swatch files.

At the bottom of the tools, D sets the default fill and stroke, X switches between fill and stroke, ShiftX swaps them and /Slash sets the one in front to none.

Wrap text around a picture

Select the picture’s frame, open the Text Wrap panel (Window ▸ Panels ▸ Text Wrap) and click Wrap Around Bounding Box or Wrap Around Object Shape. Offset sets the gap between picture and text; No Text Wrap turns it off.

Insert a table

Click in a text frame with the Type Tool where the table should go, then choose Table ▸ Create Table…. Set the Body Rows, Columns, Header Rows and Footer Rows, and click OK.

With the cursor in the table, the Table menu inserts and deletes rows and columns (Insert ▸ Insert Row Below and the others), merges and splits cells, and Distribute Columns Evenly. Table ▸ Convert Text to Table turns selected text into a table.

Arrange, group and lock objects

Object ▸ Arrange puts the selection in front of or behind other objects: Bring to Front, Bring Forward, Send Backward and Send to Back.

Object ▸ Group (⌘CommandG on a Mac, CtrlControlG on Windows) keeps objects together and Ungroup separates them; Lock (⌘CommandL on a Mac, CtrlControlL on Windows) stops an object moving until Unlock All on Spread. To copy an object, select it and choose Edit ▸ Duplicate.

The Align panel lines selected objects up and spreads them out evenly.

Find and change text

Press ⌘CommandF (Mac) or CtrlControlF (Windows) for Find/Change. Type in Find what: and Change to:, choose where to look under Search:, and click Find Next, Change All or Count. Case sensitive and Whole word narrow the search, and GREP searches with patterns.

Spelling and hyphenation

Turn on Edit ▸ Spelling ▸ Dynamic Spelling to underline misspelled words as you work. Spelling is checked in English.

Design hyphenates English, Spanish and Portuguese text. Hyphenate, in the Paragraph panel and the Control bar, turns it on or off for the selected paragraphs, and Edit ▸ Spelling ▸ User Dictionary… holds your own hyphenation exceptions.

Zoom and preview

⌘Command=Equals (Mac) or CtrlControl=Equals (Windows) zooms in and ⌘Command−Minus (Mac) or CtrlControl−Minus (Windows) out; hold ⌘Command (Mac) or CtrlControl (Windows) and turn the mouse wheel, or pinch on a trackpad. ⌘Command0 (Mac) or CtrlControl0 (Windows) fits the page in the window and ⌘Command1 (Mac) or CtrlControl1 (Windows) shows it at actual size. The zoom menu in the status bar has set steps.

Hold Space and drag to move around the page, or use the Hand Tool (H).

W switches between Normal and Preview, which hides frame edges and guides. View ▸ Screen Mode also has Bleed, Slug and Presentation. View ▸ Show/Hide Rulers (⌘CommandR on a Mac, CtrlControlR on Windows) and View ▸ Grids & Guides control the rulers and guides; drag out of a ruler to make a guide.

Export a PDF

Choose File ▸ Export PDF…. Preset: sets everything at once: Desktop Printing, Commercial Printing (crop and bleed marks), Screen and Email (smaller files), PDF/X-4 for printers who ask for it, or PDF/A-2b for archiving. Page Range: exports some pages only, and Spreads keeps facing pages together.

Under Marks and Bleeds, Include document bleed, Crop Marks and Bleed Marks prepare a file for a print shop; Tagged PDF, under Advanced, makes it easier to read with assistive software. Click OK, then choose where to save. Design remembers your settings for next time.

Before you send a file, check the preflight result in the status bar. The Preflight panel lists each problem, such as overset text, a missing font or picture, or a low-resolution image; click one to go to it.

Package a document for a printer

File ▸ Package… (⌘Command⌥Option⇧ShiftP on a Mac, CtrlControlAltShiftP on Windows) asks for a folder name, then copies the document into it with its pictures in Links, the fonts it uses in Document Fonts (unless a font’s licence forbids it), an IDML copy and a report, Instructions.txt.

Print

Press ⌘CommandP (Mac) or CtrlControlP (Windows). In Print, choose the Printer:, the Copies: and the Pages:, tick Spreads, Printer’s Marks or Include Bleed if you need them, and click OK. File ▸ Print Booklet… makes a PDF of printer spreads for a folded, stapled booklet.

Unsaved work and recovery

When you close a document or quit with unsaved changes, Design asks: Save, Don't Save or Cancel.

While you work, Design keeps a recovery copy of each unsaved document, every 30 seconds to begin with (Edit ▸ Preferences… ▸ File Handling, Save recovery data every:). If it closes unexpectedly, the next start reopens that work, unsaved, so you can save it. It is a safety net, not a substitute: save often.