StretchLearn Course

Design a magazine feature that looks like it came off a newsstand

Grids, long-form type, pull quotes, and image-text integration in InDesign, then export both press-ready and digital PDFs, no prior layout experience needed.

Preview Curriculum Back to Catalog

Beginner9 hr 55 minSelf PacedRegistered

Course Overview

What this course is designed to develop

This beginner course teaches editorial and magazine layout in Adobe InDesign from a blank document to a finished, exportable feature. You will set up document margins, columns, and a baseline grid, then flow long-form copy through threaded text frames, fix rivers and orphans, and hang pull quotes, drop caps, and captions that read as a system. You will build parent pages with running heads, folios, and a master grid, integrate photography with text wrap and bleed, and export both a PDF/X-4 file for a commercial printer and a tagged PDF for digital reading. By the end you can lay out a six-to-eight-page feature that holds together across a spread.

Learning Outcomes

What the learner should be able to understand, build, or execute.

Set up an InDesign magazine document with margins, columns, gutters, bleed, and a baseline grid

Flow and thread long-form copy and resolve widows, orphans, rivers, and bad rags

Set body, heads, captions, and pull quotes as a coherent type system using paragraph and character styles

Integrate images with text using text wrap, picture-text alignment, bleed, and the rule of thirds

Build parent (master) pages with running heads, automatic page numbers, and a reusable grid

Export a press-ready PDF/X-4 and a tagged digital PDF that match magazine production standards

Curriculum Preview

Inside the curriculum: a structured path from fundamentals to execution.

Preview the course structure, see how the modules build on one another, and understand the path this program is designed to take you through.

Module 1

Module 1: Setting Up a Magazine Document and Its Grid

Build the InDesign document correctly from the first dialog: trim size, margins, columns, gutters, bleed, and a baseline grid that everything else will hang from.

3 lessons

Trim Size, Margins, Bleed, and the New Document DialogContent · 45 min

Preview Enabled

Columns, Gutters, and the Multi-Column GridContent · 50 min

LMS Access

The Baseline Grid: Locking Text to Invisible LinesContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Module 2

Module 2: Long-Form Typography for Reading

Flow long copy through threaded frames, choose and pair typefaces, and tune the micro-details (rags, hyphenation, justification, drop caps) that decide whether a feature is comfortable to read.

3 lessons

Flowing and Threading Long-Form CopyContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Typeface Choice, Pairing, and Body SettingsContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Rags, Rivers, Hyphenation, and Drop CapsContent · 55 min

LMS Access

Module 3

Module 3: Pull Quotes, Captions, and Image-Text Integration

Place the editorial furniture that makes a spread feel like a magazine: pull quotes, captions, decks, and photography integrated with text wrap, bleed, and a deliberate sense of scale.

3 lessons

Pull Quotes and Editorial FurnitureContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Placing Images, Text Wrap, and ScaleContent · 55 min

LMS Access

Captions, Colour, and Holding a Spread TogetherContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Module 4

Module 4: Parent Pages and Magazine-Quality Output

Build reusable parent (master) pages with running heads and folios, run preflight and packaging, and export both a press-ready PDF/X-4 and a tagged digital PDF.

3 lessons

Parent (Master) Pages, Running Heads, and FoliosContent · 50 min

LMS Access

Preflight, Packaging, and Press-Ready PDF/XContent · 55 min

LMS Access

Digital Export: Tagged PDF and Screen ReadingContent · 45 min

LMS Access

Built for Application

A complete learning path, not a one-off inspiration hit.

This program is designed around progression: focused lessons, structured modules, applied resources, assessments, and a course rhythm that turns information into usable capability.

magazine layouteditorial designAdobe InDesignbaseline gridlong-form typographypull quotesmaster pagesPDF/X-4