Advice on placing many cards from Photoshop, with layers

[carolinadUK]

Hi,

Ok, this is a difficult one which I need advice on before I proceed as not sure which way would be best to complete the job.

I have offered to help out an elderly friend who has created her own game cards, like angel cards, in PhotoShop using A4 landscape, 2up with split line down the middle to separate front from back.  So each card is A5, front and back.  She didn't understand layers well, and had lots of hidden and duplicate layers.  I tried to set up a batch process to delete hidden layers, but some are not hidden but either duplicates or somehow placed off the artboard.  But she has done wonderfully well considering.  Cards contain jpgs and text on front and text only on back.

I was going through the lot (64 cards) deleting layers, centering text, to then flatten each and saving as PDFs for the printer (as asked).

Then I noticed lots of text needed justifying, hanging indentation etc which would be easier in InDesign.  So I thought about placing all the cards into ID with the layers and editing them there.

So my dilemma is, do I create 64 A5 facing pages in ID and then sort out the layers and editing (somehow cutting the PS A4 pages into x2 A5); or can I somehow import the whole lot in A4 landscape (as the PS document) and then is it possible to split them into A5 pages within ID?

I also noticed on the test placement that the text looks terrible in ID - pixelated; I read that it could be because it's not on top layer, but I checked for layers and this was only one, a back page with text only, just a text box border around it.

Should I carry on in PS only and maybe just edit the few that need hanging indents in ID and then put them back in PS?  Or is it possible to do in ID what I asked above?  Could I cut the A4 pages into x2 A5 within PS first?

I would welcome any advice please from ID and PS experts, and apologies for the long explanation.  I think it's going to be a long job either way but any help to save time would be gratefully received  🙂

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

So your reason for incorporating InDesign into this workflow is:

I noticed lots of text needed justifying, hanging indentation etc which would be easier in InDesign.  So I thought about placing all the cards into ID with the layers and editing them there.

You can correct the alignment and indents in the Paragraph panel in Photoshop. If you decide you want to use InDesign, you will have to retype the text first. You won't be able to to edit the text in a Photoshop document in InDesign.

[carolinadUK]

Wow, thanks that is great.  Certainly don't want to have to retype it all!  If I don't really need to import into ID, I am happy!

Could I ask if there is a way in PS to cut each A4 page in half to make the A5 cards individual?  Otherwise the printer will have to cut each one.  Many thanks BarbBinder

[Barb Binder]

At a minimum, you can write an action (record keystrokes) to crop the left side, and export, undo the crop, crop the right side, export and then close without saving (to keep the original file intact). You can run an action on a single file, all open files or all files in a given folder.  But that's a better question for the Photoshop forum: Photoshop General Discussion