Advice Needed: Best Way to Insert Adverts into an InDesign Magazine Layout

[littlemiss_sunshine_123]

Hi everyone,

I'm designing a magazine in InDesign and also creating the adverts that will appear in it. Since I'm handling both the ad creation and the magazine layout, I'm wondering what the best approach is for saving and placing the adverts into the main magazine InDesign document.

Normally, I’d export ads as print-ready PDFs to send to a publisher, but since I am the publisher in this case, I’m unsure whether that’s still the best approach.

Right now I’m considering three options:

1. Place the original InDesign ad files into the magazine file (File > Place)

2. Copy and paste the original ad content directly into the magazine file (keeping it editable)

3. Export each ad as a print-ready PDF and place those into the magazine file

The printer provided a custom PDF preset for the final magazine, which I would also use for any ad PDFs if I go that route.

Also:
Should I convert all text in the ads to outlines before placing them in the magazine? (I’d keep the original files too.)

Any recommendations or best practices from those who’ve done this before would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks!

[leo.r]

I think option 1 is the best (place the original InDesign files). No need to convert to outlines in any case.

[Willi Adelberger]

Place exported PDF/X-4 files into tje InDesign layout. With those you can exort the whole file to any other X-standard and X-4 as well and you do not run in missing fonts or linked assets. PDF/X-4 are complete print PDFs.

1.  Open INDD files can conflict with missinf fonts or fonts with the same name as those in the same file.
2. Copy and paste have the same problem as 1. and additional, they might conflict with different baseline grids and paragraph and character styles with the same name, but different fefinitions.
3. Place a printable PDF yes, but to the same standard No. PDF/X-1a or X-3 can cause problems. With a PDF/x-4 you will get the highest flexibility. Flattened PDFs like x-1a and x-3 (and eps) have stitching lines and under certain circumstances they might become visible in the finals PDF and in print. The standard for imported fils is different than for the final export as the printer requires.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Coming from a 45-year background in magazine production, I agree with @Willi Adelberger 

Placing a PDF/X-4 would be best. If you have edits, just export the new PDF and the layout will update. No outlining necessary. If you ad requires a versioning code from issue to issue, I would do that in the magazine layout so you don't update the previous issues globally. If you need to make _changes_ and not corrections, do a save as so you have a history archive for pickups--and keep both PDFs. Develop a good, clear naming system.

While option 1 would work, you can end up with font problems as Willi stated.

Another problem with option 2 is if you make edits in the magazine layout, you might pick up the old ad without the edits on the next issue.

[littlemiss_sunshine_123]

Thank you so much for this—I really appreciate your advice!

I’ve just done a test export using the PDF/X-4 preset, and I received the following warning:

"Acrobat compatibility was reset to Acrobat 7 (PDF 1.6) to ensure compliance with the PDF/X (2010) standards."

Interestingly, when I add crop marks, this warning disappears. Is this something I should be concerned about? Just wanted to double-check in case I’m missing something.

Thanks again for all your help—it's been incredibly useful!

[Willi Adelberger]

You have probably turned on layers. But this should not cause any problem as they are allowed in the latest PDF/x-4 standard. 

[littlemiss_sunshine_123]

Brilliant - thanks ever so much for coming back to me.

[Mike Witherell]

I like option 1 the best. 2 is risky. 3 is problematic, too.

[Willi Adelberger]

Never make outlines in InDesign. This is a no-go. You will change the resulting appearance as you will loose underlines, text frame strokes and colors, footnotes, automatic bullets and numbers and many mor content. Don#t do that, never.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@littlemiss_sunshine_123

Depends on how many ads you'll have...

If you place PDF - it will be treated like an image - preview generated once and then, depends on the PDF export profile - just included in the finall PDF. 

If you place INDD file - it will be re-analysed & re-generated every time you'll be exporting PDF - and you'll have to make sure, that you've only one version - not using the same INDD file in multiple editions / versions. 

And if you know what will hit the fan 😉 it will be hard to prove who made the boo-boo 😉 

[Eugene Tyson]

I wouldn't change your workflow - keep to what you do normally - supply the print ready PDFs to yourself and place them. 

No point in overcomplicating it - follow your usual workflow, create the ad in InDesign, make a PDF - insert in the layout. 

You know you have to update the InDesign file - and you know you have to update the advert if it changes. 

Keep your workflow clean - would you accept InDesign files from clients and place them? 

[Randy Hagan]

This is a very good question. And it’s very smart that you ask this early in your publishing process. Because doing this on an ad hoc basis down the line generally results in fixing messes and lots of unnecessary effort. The issues behind creating, saving and archiving publication ads are far more complex than they may initially appear. Because advertising money, in return for the faithful quality reproduction of said display ad(s), is often the lifeblood of the publication and its successful execution affects many aspects of a given publication's operations.

While you are somewhat at the mercy of your advertiser for client-supplied materials, you have lots more control over how house-built advertising is created and processed through your publication workflow. And you're ahead of the game in recognizing that the overall process is at least as important as the file format.

So this may be a bit lengthy, but I'm hopeful this will be helpful to you. There are lots of opinions on this, and mine is just one more of them. But I can say that it's informed by nearly a half-century in the business and a little more than 40 of them using digital page design programs on personal computers. I'm hopeful this will also be helpful for anyone else doing this.

1. Designate a separate folder where all your ad materials will be stored. If it all goes to one place, a discrete location in your computer setup, everybody will be able to locate it. Back it up regularly, to perhaps a couple different locations. If you’re doing anything more than a dozen or so advertisements per issue, realize that this can be one of the most valuable assets of your publication. Let’s just call it Ads.

Inside the Ads folder should be rigid and consistent file organization. I supported daily/non-daily newspapers and weekly/monthly consumer and trade magazines, so the first set of folders I’d set up inside of Ads was alphabetical, which would contain corresponding sub-folders named for individual clients. You may have to keep clicking to get where ads are stored, but it makes sense and everybody will know exactly where to click to get an appropriate ad.

2. Collect and store materials needed to create the ads. Company logos, product images/vector graphics, any copy you receive, even the cocktail napkin or page of legal pad the ad rep sketches the layout on. Whether it’s generated by you or provided by the client, it goes into a sub-folder inside the [Client Name] folder. For our purposes, we’ll call it Elements.

2a. If you have multiple ad sizes, create template files to your exact ad specifications. Even if you are only creating a small number of ads, building them off templates created to your correct ad specifications ensures speed and consistency when it comes to building ads and placing them in your publication page layouts and insures that every client gets exactly the space they’re entitled to.

3. Create the ads. Making the likely assumption that you have access to the entire Adobe Creative Cloud applications, you have your choice of how you create your publication ads. InDesign is an excellent one.

Open the appropriate ad template, and immediately save and name the ad file. I would suggest it is vital to name the ad with the client name, a creation version number and the issue date for the first time the ad will run in the publication. The version number is important because it lets everyone know which version of the ad you’re working with internally through the creation/change/correction/client approval process. The issue date number lets everyone see at a glance what publication date the ad was first created for, not only for production but also for sales and billing purposes. It also lets you maintain an ironclad rule that the latest version number, with the latest issue date, is the ad that runs in your publication.

Note: The source file for creating and updating your ads should never go out of house. It should always be the publication’s asset. If a client wants to reverse-engineer your ad design to use for its own purposes, there’s likely nothing you can do to stop them. But the moment you provide anyone outside the publication your source file, you lose control of anything that can be done with it.

4. Saving the ad for publication. I would not ever place an InDesign ad file inside my InDesign publication page files. Especially if my publication has a lot of ads. It’s fraught with unnecessary complication and peril when it comes time to outputting your publication pages on deadline and turning it into a printed publication. So after saving my source file, I would always create a PDF file that conforms to my ad specifications and use that PDF any subsequent purposes including:

• Generating a printed contract proof for client signature that the ad is correct.
• Placing the ad on my publication pages so everything that’s needed to reproduce that client ad is pulled from the intrinsic properties within that client-approved PDF file, and have emergency options for running that ad if the PDF ad file has issues.
• Providing a printed copy of the PDF ad with a tearsheet of it running within the publication and an invoice for billing purposes after it runs.

Even for the smallest of publications, it’s important to have clients view a proof of any house-created ad before deadline. This protects everyone involved: the client gets to review and correct any issues with the ad before it runs in the publication and the advertising department gets a signed authorization that the ad is approved to run before printing. For both parties, resolving concerns over an ad before publication is far better than negotiating over getting paid for it  after the issue has run.

Note: I would suggest that the digital PDF version of any house-created ad doesn’t go out of house without specific authorization. Not only would others be able to run the ad you produced, but if wherever it’s printed next does a lousy job of running it, they’re immediately going to blame your publication. Whether that blame is deserved or not. Requiring an authorization for providing a digital PDF file gives you the chance to know where it’s going, adjust PDF specifications for best results if needed and maybe even offer it to the client in consideration for more business with your publication. I wouldn’t freely hand out digital versions of house-created ads as a matter of course.

Using PDFs for ads placed in your publications offers big advantages multiplied by the number of ads you run.

Perhaps the most prevalent example deals with the number of fonts downloaded to reproduce your publication pages. Most every client wants an ad that’s different from every other one in your publication. It helps that ad stand out on the page. If you place source files into your publication pages, it means that the font needs to be downloaded before the output device can print the ad. Which means that any output of that publication file will need to have each unique font downloaded to the output device before it can be output. With PDF ads that’s not only included in the placed PDF so downloading the font isn’t required, PDFs are designed to only contain a subset of the font simplified to only the characters used in a given ad.

“Outlining” fonts by converting type characters into drawings of letters used in the ad sidesteps that problem, but only at the expense of much larger filesize (and more importantly, output filesize) and reduced reproduction quality at smaller type sizes. Font subsetting is only one of several ways that outputting PDF copies of ads is greatly simplified from printing those same elements directly from InDesign. And in the rare worst-case scenario where you can print a PDF ad but for whatever reason you can’t get it to print out on your publication page, you can always go back to Acrobat and export it as a high-resolution TIFF to place on the publication page and crank out that ad at acceptable quality. For these reasons as well as others, it’s best to use placed PDFs of your house-produced ads. For all the same reasons why ad agencies provide you with PDF files for their client ads. They work, and they generally work best. That’s why PDF files are the common currency for print advertising.

After the issue is run, providing a printed copy of the PDF ad confirms and reinforces to the client that this is the ad they signed off on before publication, in addition to providing a copy of the printed publication page that shows where and when it ran in your final publication. So there’s no question what the client is paying for to advertise in your publication.

5. Archiving your publication. Provided that you set up a productive system for saving the ads you run in your publication, there’s no need to set up a separate archive for ads you run in your publication. Your existing file organization and frequent backups will provide a living archive for your ads without additional effort. After each issue is printed, it’s easy and quick to then promptly package that printed issue in its entirety before starting on the next issue – not only for your internal records library but for independent documentary evidence of that issue’s contents if that needs to be produced for outside parties.

So to sum up this novella, and finally answer your question in compact terms, I would recommend you create your ads with InDesign if that’s the program you’re most comfortable using, save copies of the ads in PDF files that best conforms to your publication’s ad specifications, and place those resulting PDF files on your publication pages. I truly believe this workflow makes sense for even the smallest, simplest publications, and that the larger your publication the more sense it makes to not just use the PDF file format but the full workflow I outlined above will make your life much easier both immediately and in the long run.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[littlemiss_sunshine_123]

This is fantastic advice—thank you so much for taking the time to share it. It’s incredibly helpful, and I feel much more confident moving forward now.

I just have one quick follow-up question, if that’s okay: In the original advert files, I’ve been placing a 1pt border around each advert since none of them require bleed. When creating the print-ready PDF of the advert to place into the publication, do I still need to include bleed? I’m mainly wondering whether the 1pt border will import correctly without any clipping, or if I should be adding a small bleed just to be safe.

I always make sure everything is perfectly aligned, so it would really simplify things if I didn’t need to add bleed. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated—thanks again!

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@littlemiss_sunshine_123

What is the color of the border?

Bleed is required for elements touching trimmed edge of the page. 

[littlemiss_sunshine_123]

Thank you for your reply - I choose a colour from the advert for the border - so each border is a different colour. None of the adverts will be at the trimmed edge - I was just concerned this border might clip if I don't add the bleed? The other option would be to add the border around the pdf when placing it into the publication, but keeping it in the original artwork file would be much easier for me. Thank you for your help!

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@littlemiss_sunshine_123

You can add border to the container after placing your ad - if you set center or inside - you'll "cover" your original border.

Or you can define ObjectStyle to clip contents. 

[littlemiss_sunshine_123]

Thank you for the tip

[Peter Spier]

It's far better, in my opinion, to put your boders in the original ad file rather than stroking the frame that holds them on the page. This allows for variation in borderweuights and colors without having to modify the frameon the page which becomes an uncessary redundant step each time the ad is used, and even more it allows for borderless or non-rectangular border shapes with no further intervention.

[Randy Hagan · Accepted solution]

I'm glad all that was helpful. And again, you just came across an important issue you need to address as you design your ads. Though you may not have realized it. But before we get into that, you should never worry anything about bleed settings unless you have specific needs to design your ad to print past the edge of your publication page.If you're not doing that, you can ignore any bleed settings.

You always want to put everything in your ad so the whole thing fits inside the space you've allotted for that given ad. And from personal experience training others, you're probably not doing that.

Borders and print advertising can be a deceptively tricky thing. Because when you put that 1-point border around your ad with InDesign, the border will fall outside your ad space, unless you change the rules for how InDesign draws those ad borders.

By default, that 1-point border you set around the edge of each ad is bigger than the space you allotted for your ad. It doesn't seem like much, but like the illustration below, your default setting for that border hangs outside the space you've assigned for your ad.

Now to illustrate this, I had to zoom up the InDesign page to 1600% to clearly illustrate that the line you draw hangs half-inside and half-outside the border. Your ad is now just one point wider, and one point taller, than the size you've specified. 

That seems like nothing. Until you put four or five ads side-by side and notice that the gaps between them are uneven and none of them line up with the columns of text above the ad line. And if you're, say, placing ads all the way up a broadsheet newspaper page, now the ad on top doesn't fit because as you stacked eight or ten ads up the page, there's not quite enough space for the ad that goes on top and you've now got to fudge with the ads up and down the page to get things to line up.

To make sure such miseries don't creep into your publication, You should:

1. Shut down any files you have open within InDesign. But don't shut down the program. Any time you change settings within InDesign without any files open, you're changing default settings for all future files you create with InDesign.
2. With InDesign open and no files open, get the Stroke panel. If it's not already available, open it with the Window>Stroke menu command.
3. Go to the Align Stroke: buttons and change the setting from the default left button, Align Stroke to Center, to the center button, Align Stroke to Inside as shown at right. This will make sure that every border you create from that point will sit completely inside the space you've allotted for your ad.

So from this point forward, the border will always fit inside the frame you create to contain your ad. Like the example shown below.

This will save you from rude surprises and ugly fixes while you're trying to get all your ads to fit in your publication at deadline like you think they should. That's the good news. The bad news is, now you need to go through all the ads you've already created, click on the borders and use the Align Stroke to Inside button in your Stroke panel to tuck all those borders back inside where they belong.

So for the whole TL;DR thing, the short story is don't worry about bleed settings unless you need them. And if you haven't changed your stroke settings to make sure your borders actually fit inside your ads, do it now before it comes back to bite you. I've probably had to fix this for the large majority of publications I've worked with, and they've been amazed at the little miseries this simple fix has eliminated.

Thanks for bringing up some interesting questions and issues to address before you got too deep into doing your magazine. Hopefully this will save you from heartache down the line. And if you have any problems, don't hesitate to come back here and sound the alarm. There are lots of smart people around here who may be able to lend a hand.

Good luck with your new publication,

Randy

[littlemiss_sunshine_123]

Thank you so much for this fantastic tip and all your great advice - I didn't realise that I could change default settings this way. And I'm glad I don't need to add any bleed to my adverts! This was all so very helpful and time saving, thank you for taking the time to write this, much appreciated. I will no doubt be messaging here again! All the best