Glyphs and the Glyphs Panel: Unlocking Creative Possibilities in InDesign

In this presentation, Chris Cicchino provided attendees with a thorough understanding of Glyphs and the Glyphs panel. This enabled many to enhance their workflow and leverage the full potential that Glyphs offer.

Participants learned how to utilize the Glyphs panel to:

Access an extensive library of Glyphs: Attendees were guided on how to navigate the Glyphs panel, effortlessly browsing through a vast range of typographic symbols. From standard characters to specialized symbols and decorative elements, a plethora of options to enhance designs was showcased.

Insert Glyphs into design projects: Chris demonstrated precise techniques for seamlessly adding Glyphs to InDesign documents. Whether it was about incorporating accents, diacritical marks, or foreign language characters, the Glyphs panel was highlighted as a streamlined tool for enhancing visual interest and communicating with precision.

Explore OpenType features: The integration of OpenType features within the Glyphs panel was discussed. Attendees discovered how to access advanced typographic options, such as ligatures, stylistic alternates, swashes, and more.

Customize Glyphs panel settings: Tips on personalizing the Glyphs panel were provided, emphasizing options for organizing Glyphs, creating font sets, and filtering Glyph libraries. This part focused on efficient access to frequently used symbols and simplifying the design workflow.

Handle multilingual and international symbols: Chris offered practical insights into utilizing the Glyphs panel for incorporating characters from various writing systems and languages. Whether it was Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, or other scripts, the Glyphs panel was presented as the ideal tool for accurate representation across diverse linguistic contexts.

Throughout the presentation, Chris provided step-by-step demonstrations and shared invaluable tips to optimize workflow when working with the Glyphs panel. Attendees walked away with a comprehensive understanding of its functions, fully equipped to harness its full potential and improve their design efficiency.

Key takeaways:

• Glyphs Panel
• Characters vs Glyphs
• Unicode
• Font File Types
• Using Glyphs
• Glyph Groupings
• OpenType Features
• Glyph Panel Settings
• Different Languages
• International Symbols

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About the Presenter

Chris Cicchino

Chris Cicchino is a graphic designer with over 20 years of industry experience. He prides himself on the connections and the relationships he makes with his suppliers, vendors and other industry professionals to bring life to design projects ranging from pamphlets, brochures, billboards, digital ads, corporate websites, and motion graphics in the hospitality industry.

He dedicates his time to researching new technology in the design industry and strives to simplify all aspects of design—because of these qualities Chris decided to take on teaching at Niagara College in Welland, Ontario. He teaches students how to use professional Design Software such as Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop and After Effects to students enrolled in the Graphic Design program.

Chris has been teaching part-time for eight years and recently became full-time professor at the College. Chris also has a roster of freelance clients that he works with to get up-and-coming businesses in the Niagara Region websites, logos, stationery and signage to help establish themselves as professionals in their industries.