- What Is a Workflow?
- Understanding Print, the Web, and Beyond
- Designing for Print
- Designing for the Web
- Designing for Both Print and the Web
- Moving to a PDF Workflow
- Summary
Designing for Both Print and the Web
Most people say that print and the Web don't mix. They might be right, but it doesn't mean that print and the Web can't coexist together peacefully. By carefully planning a workflow, you can save significant time developing content that will be published both in print form and electronically on the Web.
Obviously, the goal is to create content once and then share that content between the Web and print elements you are producing. In this way, you avoid having to create and manage two sets of identical content (one for print, one for the Web). More important, if changes need to be made (show me one job in which they don't), you have to change only one set of assets instead of two. Save time, make more money, go home early. Nice, eh? Following are two workflows that are common in the area of cross-media (or mixed-media) design.
Print/Online Newsletter
Companies often create newsletters to distribute news to all the employees of the organization. With the advent of the "I need it now" mentality in today's fast-paced world, companies offer online versions of these publications as well. Cross-media (web and print) workflows are quickly becoming the norm in today's business environment. Common applications used in a cross-media workflow are Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, and Dreamweaver (see Figure 3.6, shown on page 62).
Figure 3.6 An example of a cross-media newsletter workflow.
Interactive PDF
In a relatively short period, PDF has become a standard in the industry for distributing published information. Lately, capabilities have been built into the PDF format to support interactive content. Businesses and organizations can now deliver rich media content—including hyperlinks, interactivity, and movies—in a single file that nearly everyone can view. Common applications used to create interactive PDF files are Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, InDesign, and Acrobat (see Figure 3.7, shown on page 64).
Figure 3.7 An example of an interactive PDF workflow.