4

I've got a photobook layout in InDesign that's 12" x 8.5" — very little text, almost entirely photos. The photos are laid out in a lot of different ways in the book; some are full page, some quite small, etc.

The new size would be 9" x 7". What would be the best/fastest way to get the document down to this new size and keeping as much as possible the proportional look of the images? Obviously, since the ratio is a little different, the amount of border around some images would change.

Would it be best to just change the Document Setup and deal with each image? Or is there a better/faster way?

Thanks in advance

Improve this question

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
6

Fastest method

The fastest method by far must be to let InDesign automatically scale down the whole document. This is easily achieved:

  • Select the Page Tool.

  • Set Liquid Page Rule to Scale.

  • Press Ctrl / Cmd + A to select all pages.

  • Enter the wanted Width and Height.

Strange things may happen and you need to review the whole document carefully and fix whatever goes wrong. The target aspect ratio is different, so margins might look bad and images with bleed probably needs to be scaled differently to extend properly into the bleed.

Best method

The best method would of course be to manually redesign the book page by page for the new format.

Improve this answer
5
  • Thank you for the reminder of Liquid Page — I think in with more complex documents I had in the past that this just sort of worked, but was still not great. In this case, the layout is pretty simple so maybe doing the "fastest" method and then correcting with the "best" would be the ticket.
    – edward
    Jan 27, 2021 at 1:44
  • Actually, I was just trying this and I couldn't get it to work well with Liquid Page and the Page Tool. It seemed that the pages changed size, but when I would go to Document Setup, the page size was still the original size. Then I changed that and everything got messy. Did a little more research and it worked with changing the Doc Setup and clicking Adjust Layout.
    – edward
    Jan 27, 2021 at 7:31
  • Yeah, there is that. But does it really matter what Document Setup says? That just defines the size of new pages. I also checked out using Document Setup with Adjust Layout for this answer, but didn't post it since it didn't seem to scale pages that doesn't need scaling. For example my page 4 (with the word "Text") didn't scale down as much as other pages. And objects that snap to the margins and the bleed will keep snapping to those which alters the aspect ratio of images.
    – Wolff
    Jan 27, 2021 at 7:48
  • I was curious what Document Setup would mean; I didn't know it only indicated new pages. In fact, when I changed it after doing Liquid Page, it made the entire document screwy. I always feel it's possible to really change page size, but not particularly easy. So I did the Adjust Layout and then page to page. Thank you for the suggestions!
    – edward
    Jan 27, 2021 at 16:29
  • You're welcome. No, it's not easy! Just to be precise: Document Setup does change the page size of the current document unless you have manually changed the size of individual pages. Even if you manually change the size of all pages to the same dimensions, it doesn't update the size in Document Setup and new pages will get that size. Annoying perhaps, but it has no influence on the exported PDF where each page will get the dimensions you can read using the Page Tool.
    – Wolff
    Jan 27, 2021 at 17:13
1

Do you want "fast" or "well designed"?

  • Fast : Open a new INDD document at the new size and File > Place each page of the old document onto a new document page and resize. This may mean some items get too small when scaled.

  • Well Designed : Change the document Set up for the current INDD file and then go through and adjust each page as necessary.

Improve this answer
0

Just thought I would add in what worked best for me in this case. I couldn't get Liquid Page and the Page Tool to work well. It seemed that the pages changed size, but when I would go to Document Setup, the page size was still the original size, and then when I went in and changed Document Setup to be the new size, it changed the document again. I did a little more research and it worked with changing the Doc Setup and clicking Adjust Layout as explained here: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/how-to/change-page-size.html

Then I went through and fixed each page (which was necessary).

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.