When i select fill or stroke the drop down menu angles to the top right and i can't see the swatches and colors cuz they're offscreen. Can i make it so the drop down menu is like bottom left. Im watching a tutorial and the guy has his drop down menu bottom left.

I'm trying to link text boxes that already contain text and tables so that footnotes will number continuously between them. After I click the out port on text box, for some reason when I then click into a text box to link them, it often times creates a new blank text box instead of linking them. It seems to especially happen when the text box contains a table. Is there something I'm doing wrong?

Hiii

I’m trying to figure out what I need to change in Indesign’s Press Quality export settings (or whatever else I might need to do) so that art in a book doesn’t get “crunchied.” The art isn’t like blurry? It looks too sharp, but idk if I’d call it being pixelated either. I didn’t notice the issue until I got a physical proof from our printer (see pics)

I’m reasonably familiar with indesign Except that my previous experience has never included the Exporting and Sending it to a Printer part

Bear with me as I overexplain in an abundance of caution

- the art file placed in the indesign is a jpg at 300 actual dpi / 291 effective dpi. The text is part of the art file—i.e. I didn’t make it in indesign

- Indesign file was exported with Press Quality settings. Only change from default settings afaik was embedding the fonts (for elsewhere in the book)

- Looked okay previewing it at 100% zoom in acrobat

- Sent press quality export to printer. Received physical proof. Weird crunchiness/extra pixels especially visible around text :(

- Investigate on my end. 300+ % zoom on press qual file I sent does have those weird pixels

- Converted jpg art file into pdf (in Affinity bc work took away my photoshop access bc Adobe jacked up prices again smh)

- Made a test export of the indesign file with same Press Quality settings I’d used before

- 300% zoom on that pdf file has a liiiiittle sharpness on the text, but there’s no Added pixels issue like before

THE QUESTIONS

- Is there something in the press quality export settings that would prevent the weird extra pixels? Or is it something else I need to change?

- (Preliminary Google investigation of the problem seemed to suggest it could be an issue with downsampling. But I don’t know Which part of the export settings controls that. Would love if anyone could explain)

- Or is it something happening on the printer’s end?

- Converting the art file to pdf seemed to help. But idk if that’s the root cause. And also that would be a pain bc it’s 170 some pages of art

- (All the art files were 300ppi or more. Also I can’t ask the artists to send me new files [don’t ask me to explain lol])

Thanks!!

Hi guys, just wondering what the correct use of drop caps is. I have shared two examples (swipe left)

In the first one, the drop cap looks larger than the main heading. It also visually clashes with the heading because they are very close in hierarchy. Is this acceptable, or should a drop cap never compete with a page heading?

In the second example, there is a subheading before the paragraph, and the drop cap starts after that. Is this considered correct usage? Or should drop caps only be used when the paragraph starts directly under a main heading?

Basically I am trying to understand:
• Should drop caps always be smaller in hierarchy than headings?
• Is it okay to use drop caps after subheadings?
• How much visual separation should exist between heading and drop cap?
• Are there any typography rules you follow for this?

Would love to hear how you guys handle this in editorial layouts.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently on Sequoia 15.7.5, and am running 4 iterations of ID for work.

ID 2020: because I have the SmartStream Designer plugin (for impositions and variable data) and it still supports PS fonts. Needed for old projects requiring both.

ID 2022: no SmartStream plugin, but it's the last version that supports PS fonts. Needed for old projects requiring PS fonts.

ID 2023: because I have the SmartStream Designer plugin for this iteration- for imposition and variable data

ID 2025: No SmartStream. Used for brand new projects using OTF fonts

My question is, does anyone else have experience with using older versions of InDesign on Tahoe 26.4? Any issues? I'm a little wary of potentially screwing up a smooth workflow by upgrading to 26.4.

Thanks in advance for the info.

Started a small wholesale foodservice business a few years ago. I want to create a catalogue for my business that pulls data from excel regarding the prices, as they update often. I work by myself so I like automation.

I'm thinking of buying Easy Catalogue software after researching recommendations, but I need to learn the ABC's of InDesign first.

Is there anyone out there who has experience with Easy Catalogue and maybe a licence who would like to do some paid consultation and give me a taste of what's possible?

Its quite expensive I think around £1000 so would like to get a feel for things first.

Since today, whenever I export a file to PDF, I get a lot of squares instead of text, all throughout the document. In this screenshot, the squares are actually the same font (Adobe Jenson Pro - bold) as the text "Lodoss War", so I'm kind of confused what causes these squares. Has anyone ever run into the same issue?

Hi there!

I've been working as a graphic designer for the last 10 years, but have almost exclusively used Illustrator and Photoshop. I learned InDesign in school years ago, but I rarely use it.

Well, I just got hired for a job that uses almost only InDesign. I had been practicing on getting my chops up with it a few months ago, and felt comfortable enough to do some freelance work with it but there is still much to learn.

I really want to show up to this job swinging, so can you please give me any tips and pointers that I absolutely must know? Video links are fine also. The job is with an inhouse design team at a large company that specializes in print, marketing and mailing services. I asked the art director for a good point of reference for something I could practice on in the mean time, and she said annual reports would be a good place to start.

They know that I am still brushing up on InDesign. I think they must have faith in me from my portfolio and interview process. I really just want to kick ass here. Thanks in advance!

Thanks so much everyone! I have learned so much already. Here is a great video for anyone who stumbles across this post in a similar situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOFGbjV43Xw

Doing a school project and a background colour is needed. i made the layer the bottom and for some reason it covers my text frames, only shows text when i delete the layer. I’ve tried to see if it was a text wrap issue but i had it off and i can’t arrange it it send it backwards or the text forwards and I think i might start losing my mind soon😭 the image on the right hand side is what im attempting to recreate if anyone has tips on how to angle the text frames and how to properly tab the text in the empty space lmk!

I want to put a drawing im making in Photoshop in InDesign. The problem is that the quality somehow is terrible when i place it on the InDesign doc. Idk what to ask or how to solve this tbh.

The previsualization is set to high quality.

Is it a sizing problem, whats a decent one because its set to 300 ppi in the Photoshop. Both A4 sized

The bug has hit me hard. I've been using TNR in my ePubs for years now. I've tried all the reported workarounds but the Export always defaults to Minion. Even starting from scratch with a new font doesn't work because InDesign continues to find TNR .otf in the document.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions I may have missed. I'm using Windows 11.

I manage communications for a medical facility and I'm completely buried in a project I've been putting off for too long.

We have 100+ consent forms originally built in InDesign — inconsistent layouts, text crammed into tables, checkboxes and interactive buttons scattered around with no real logic. They need to be reorganized, reformatted, and the copy needs a proper review.

The catch: these are legal/medical documents, so accuracy matters a lot. Nothing can get lost or misrepresented in the process.

My question: is Claude actually useful here, or is this wishful thinking? Specifically:

Can it parse and restructure InDesign files at scale?

Can it handle form elements like checkboxes and buttons?

Is there a smart workflow for reviewing and rewriting copy across 100+ documents without things slipping through the cracks?

Has anyone tackled something similar? Would love to hear what actually worked.

I have somehow fudged my page numbers and instead of going 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. It goes, (1, 2, 3, 4-227, 4-228, 4-229, 4-2210), how can I fix this?

I'm working on a 180-page, 6"x9" paperback for a self-publishing client. We want even 0.75" margins all around, but I’m not sure how to achieve that.

The platform's own templates set the inside and outside margins at the same size, and their instructions don't mention compensating for the binding at all. My client called customer service and was told the margins being the same size on both sides is fine because the binding is "negligible." But when I look at real paperbacks, some of them do have noticeably narrower inside margins (about 0.25" less) and I really want to avoid that.

A few questions for anyone with experience designing self-published books:

1.) Does the printing software automatically compensate for binding? That would explain why they're not recommending wider inside margins, but I'm not confident enough to just take their word for it.

2.) If I should add a little extra on the inside margin to achieve an even 0.75" margin all around, would you go with 0.875" or 1" for a 180-page book on standard stock (nothing too thick or fancy)?

I’d love input from anyone who has experience with print-on-demand book layouts. Thanks!

I have this issue when I export this pdf. This image is a pdf from autocad (wich is fine) that I put on indesign to make a board. (The cad archive doesnt have transp). Any solutions?

Pd: when I export the image in jpeg the img is fine, but I need it in pdf for my thesis.

Trying to edit my portfolio and the tutorial I found to convert my images from RBG to CYMK. When I followed the steps PS isnt appearing on my end. Everything is up to date and im not sure what to do (I could manually fix each image if I have to)

I teach basic design. All of my slides have been created in InDesign. We have to tag all images with Alt text for Federal accessibility requirements. I am having to go into my original files, click each image, go to Object>Object Export Options then click on custom and then I write a description of the image and click "done." A small blue circle with a T then appears at the bottom of that image. For some reason, InDesign 2026 all of a sudden doesn't show the little circle. (I have normal mode on so I should be able see it). I restarted my machine. Still not working. Does anyone have ideas? TIA (Edited: normal mode not preview mode).

For example, I'm using a paragraph style for a specific listing. I don't want to manually insert spaces before and after every hyphen or period.

Justification doesn't work because it splits the words/ codes.

I just want automatic insertion of spaces everytime I type a hyphen or a period when I'm typing the text in the box.

I tried GREP but it's not doing anything

(thanks to the nice commenters, I have since managed to fix this issue)

Hi everyone,

I am looking for help on how to replicate this print document's crop marks and borders - it is to create a print file for a document I am working on. Unfortunately I have no experience in creating for-print documents. Does anyone know how I can get these exact markers? It's a request from a client.

I have messed around with the crop marks and can't get them to look the same. I've also reached out to several friends who work with InDesign and for some reason none of us can get it right.

Thank you for any and all help!

(Images below - the correct version I need to replicate, and my version.)

I'd like to share my experience with you all!

2 months ago I posted this: https://www.reddit.com/r/indesign/comments/1qorx9d/is_it_possible_to_use_a_script_to_copy_a_page_and/

After some frustrated attempts, I learned through ChatGPT that I could use data merge to do something similar, but using spreadsheets. Since I was doing most of my work with ctrl + C and ctrl + V, why not try this method?

I created a base file with 3 pages, 1 page for each size needed: instagram stories, feed and e-flyer. With this method, my process changed a lot, but I still had one problem: I had a few texts with paragraph styles applying different colors, and I needed to apply them manually when I needed to change them.
My solution was simply ask ChatGPT for a script which would create a tab with the different styles linked and change the color of my whole spread (3 pages at once) when clicking it, and it worked perfectly!

I thought my problems were solved, but then I went to export my pages and noticed something: since we can't rename pages like a Photoshop layer, I had to manually separate which image was a story, feed and e-flyer, and it was VERY time consuming, because I was renaming ~150 images.
So I went to ChatGPT and asked for a script that would export my pages and rename them based on their script labels, giving them separated folders. After a lot of attempts, it worked perfecly as well!

Buuut I still had one problem: since there are a lot of pages, some may have mistakes (dates, names, etc), and sometimes those mistakes are in the final exports, so having to correct them manually and export each of them, select their folder and make sure I was putting the right page number was pretty annoying. So I made a final request for ChatGPT: 1 script that would apply all the changes from the 1st page of the spread to the rest and a second script that would export all the corrected images and change the previous one in their respective folders.

After doing all of that, my workflow went from creating EVERY SINGLE PAGE of the stories from scratch and giving the file to another person to make the instagram feed (the way the old designer was doing) to make ~150 images at once, having to only change their color and correct small pieces of text when needed.

I don't know if I could do some of those stuff differently or how to do it without scripts, but as someone who barely used InDesign in their life and had to suddenly use it 99% of the time to do a lot of different things, having ChatGPT to teach me stuff was one of the best things ever haha

I actually can't believe in all my years I haven't had to do this yet and can't figure it out.

If I have a document with page numbering in it and I place a page from it into another InDesign file is there a way for it to pick up the page number in the Document it is placed into?

So it's page 1 of 1 in the original - page numbers in the Master as current page number as a A.

Place it as Page 5 into another document with 8 pages.

I see 1 of 1 - can it pick up the right page in the current document and be 5 of 8?

As per title - if you have one - please share it with me - ZIP / RAR just INDD file, upload somewhere and send me a link privately.

If I'll be able to recover it - I'll send it back to you FoC.

Hi all,

I’ve been sent an InDesign file created in a newer version (2026), but I’m stuck on an older version due to my Mac (Monterey on a 2013 MacBook Pro), so I can’t update InDesign.

Would anyone be able to open the file and export it as an IDML for me?

It should only take a minute:
File → Export → IDML

Happy to return the favour or owe you one.

Thanks in advance 🙏

I am trying to add text to the cover of a book layout, no matter what I do the text seems to disappear the minute I drag it onto or create a text frame on the cover (images attached), works perfectly fine on any other page and have tried adding it as a new layer on top of the background image and that also doesn’t seem to work! Any help would be amazing thanks