How to resize an image in InDesign

In this article, we cover the process of resizing images in Adobe InDesign. If you’re going to work in InDesign, this is one of the first things you’ll need to master (and it’s very easy to do in a few different ways).

Resizing images is a common task in any design project, and InDesign offers several ways to accomplish this.

Follow the steps below to learn how to resize images effectively and efficiently.

Place an image in InDesign

Before we resize, let’s briefly go over how to insert an image into your InDesign document:

1. Go to the File menu and select “Place…” or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D (Cmd+D on Mac).
2. Navigate to the folder containing your image, select it and click “Open”.
3. Click on your InDesign document where you want to place the image. The image will be placed inside a frame.

Now that you have an image in your document, let’s explore different methods of resizing it.

Method 1: Resize using the frame handles

1. Select the picture frame with the Selection Tool (V).
2. Click and drag one of the frame handles (small boxes at the corners and sides of the frame) to resize the image.
3. Hold down the Shift key while dragging to maintain the aspect ratio and avoid distorting the image.
4. Release the mouse button when you have reached the desired size.

Method 2: Change the size using the control panel

1. Select the picture frame with the Selection Tool (V).
2. Look at the control panel at the top of the screen. You will see fields for width (W) and height (H).
3. Click...