What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
From the start of constructing my magazine, I have learnt several new things and I have
developed my knowledge in different aspects of using desktop publishing software. I have
used several different programs to construct my magazine, including Adobe Photoshop and
Adobe InDesign. I also used basic desktop publishing programs such as Pages to create an
initial design for my magazine and I used this as base to start my magazine and improve it
from the beginning.
Adobe Photoshop was the main desktop publishing program I used to construct my
magazine because it allowed me to perform different tasks at the same time which allowed
me to improve my magazine quicker. One the major tasks I had to perform before
constructing my magazine was to create the masthead of the magazine which I decided to
create before editing any photos I was going to use in the magazine and I could use the
masthead as a base for my magazine. At this point of construction, I learnt how to use the
layers program within Photoshop after several attempts where the layers were merged
together and I didn’t know how to remove sections of the masthead without removing the
whole object. Using the layers program, I learnt that I could alter and edit different sections
of a Photoshop publication such as my masthead for my magazine without accidentally
altering other layers for example for my masthead where I have a black rectangular box as
one layer and a large R in white as the other layer and I was able to change the size of the
rectangular box without affecting the size of the R which I had placed inside the box. I also
learnt that with the layers program, you are not limited to the number of layers you can use
when producing a document or publication for example when constructing my front cover I
used 15 layers so arrange the different objects I used so they were relevant to my designs
and when constructing my contents page I used 10 layers, mostly for text so I could line up
all the sections of text so they didn’t look out of place.
Another aspect I learnt about Photoshop was the use of shortcuts instead of looking into the
options at the top of the page. For example to zoom in or out, the short cut was
command(cmd) + or command(cmd) – on apple macs which helped me zoom in quicker to
an area of my publication such as my front cover of my magazine which I needed to edit to
improve my front cover faster so I could get on with another task. Other shortcuts I learnt
were command (cmd) T where I could change the shape of an object including text by the
corners or the sides of the object and I could also use this shortcut to rotate an object. I also
learnt the copy and paste shortcut where cmd C was to copy an item and cmd V was used to
paste an object. During my research I also learnt the shortcut to screen shot images from
the internet and my own work to place onto my desktop which was cmd shift 4.
Another aspect I learnt about Photoshop was that I was able to multitask while constructing
my magazine front cover and contents page. For example, with the use of layers I was able
to edit the main image used on my front cover such as cropping and then straight after
editing the image I was able to insert the masthead of my magazine which I had saved as a
jpeg and this allowed me to create the initial layout of my front cover. From the photo
editing stage of construction using Photoshop, I learnt that you can remove sections of the
image without the need to remove the whole image just by using the polygonal lasso tool
which can also be used to remove the main part of the image e.g. the people in the image
and then you can create another layer to change the background from one colour to
another and then insert the image back on to the new background.
During the construction of my double page spread, I decided to use Adobe InDesign for
similar reasons why I used Photoshop to construct my front cover and contents page.
InDesign also has a layers program so I could move layers around freely and edit them
without editing any other layers at the same time. However, with InDesign I didn’t have to
select the layer I wanted to edit from the layers list at the side of the screen, all I had to do
was click the layer I wanted to edit on the spread. I also used InDesign because it has a
feature where you can use layout guides when constructing the spread and you can then
remove these layout guides to see what the spread will look like when it’s printed.
I also learnt how to use a couple of shortcuts when using InDesign for example cmd z was to
undo something I had just done wrong, pressing the space bar while dragging the mouse
allowed me to drag the spread across so I could concentrate on one area of the spread
without losing focus by looking at another area of the spread at the same time. I also learnt
that the second cursor tool available can be used to change the shape of a text box or object
by dragging one of the corners and this doesn’t change the whole size and shape of the
object unlike the first cursor tool available.
Throughout construction of my magazine I have learnt how to use Photoshop and InDesign
and I have used this knowledge to improve my magazine and I can use this knowledge if I
have to produce a publication similar to this task. I have learnt several shortcuts using these
programs on iMac including cmd + or – to zoom in or out and cmd c or v to copy and paste
objects. I have also learnt how to use these programs from the basics to the advanced tools
you can use for example starting off only using a single layer for all objects to using more
than 10 layers so no objects or needed pieces of text are deleted.