Change page size

Learn how to change the page size of all the pages in a document, or just individual pages.

Published August 10, 2023

This sample file is an Adobe Stock asset you can use to practice what you learn in this tutorial. If you want to use the sample file beyond this tutorial, you can purchase a license on Adobe Stock. Check out the ReadMe file in the folder for the terms that apply to your use of this sample file.

00:01

Introduction

When you create a new document, you specify what page size to use.

But sometimes you might need to change the page size after you've begun to work on a file.

In this video, you'll learn how to change the page size of all of the pages in an existing document, or individual pages.

If you want to follow along, open this file from the practice files for this tutorial.

Initially, InDesign CC displays Page 1 in the Document window.

To see all of the pages in this file, you can use the Pages panel.

If the Pages panel isn't visible on your screen, choose Window, Pages.

And in the Pages panel, you'll see a thumbnail for each page in the document.

This is a two-page design for a postcard: front and back.

In order to see what size the pages are,

00:45

Changing page size for an entire document

you can open the Documents Setup dialog box.

To do this, choose File, Document Setup...

You can see that this is a 6 in by 4 in document.

After designing this postcard, we realized that we really need it to be 8 x 6 inches.

We can easily change the page size of all of the pages in a document in this Document Setup dialog box.

Change the Width to 8 in and the Height to 6 in.

And then check the Preview option.

Note that the page size in the Document window has increased, but the size and position of the objects on the page didn't change.

InDesign CC's default behavior is that all of the objects on the page are pinned or stuck to the center of the page.

And the page size increases or decreases relative to the center of the page.

So, it's up to you to resize and reposition the text and images on each page as you see fit.

01:46

Using adjust layout to scale content automatically

However, if you click Adjust Layout..., a dialog box appears that will prompt you for a new page size and then InDesign CC will attempt to adjust the content to fit the new page size in a suitable way.

Again, change the Width to 8 in and the Height to 6 in.

So that InDesign CC can scale the type up as needed, select the Adjust Font Size option.

And then deselect the Set Font Size Limits option.

And then click OK.

Double click on each page thumbnail in the Pages panel.

And you'll see that InDesign CC did a pretty good job of resizing and repositioning the objects on each page to accommodate the new page size.

But, what if you need to create two sizes of this postcard both the original 6 x 4 inch size as well as the new 8 x 6 inch size.

It would be convenient to have both sizes in the same file, so that you can easily reuse colors, images, and other assets between them.

To learn how to do this, let's return to the original version of this file and start over.

02:50

Duplicating pages for multiple size versions

To do this, choose File, Revert.

And then click the Revert button when prompted.

The first thing we want to do is duplicate the two pages of the postcard.

To do this, click the Page 1 thumbnail in the Pages panel.

And then hold down the Shift key and click the Page 2 thumbnail to select both pages.

Now grab either one of the page thumbnails and drag it to the New Page icon at the bottom of the Pages panel.

And release the mouse.

This will create a duplicate of both pages.

But, of course, the duplicates are the same dimensions as the originals.

We want them to be different, so we'll change their size next.

To display the new Page 3 in the Document window, double click the Page 3 thumbnail in the Pages panel.

Then hold down the Shift key and click the Page 4 thumbnail.

This will select Page 3 and Page 4.

03:42

Changing page size for selected pages

Then to change the size of these pages, click the Edit page size button at the bottom of the Pages panel, and choose Custom.

Change the Width to 8 in and the Height to 6 in.

And then click OK.

If you're watching the thumbnails in the Pages panel, you might be surprised as it doesn't appear that Pages 3 and 4 are any larger than Pages 1 and 2.

This is because the Page thumbnails in the Pages panel are always displayed as similar size.

To see the actual difference in page sizes,

04:12

Viewing and comparing different page sizes

choose View, Entire Pasteboard.

And then choose View, Zoom Out as many times as necessary, so that you can see all four pages.

Now you can see that Pages 3 and 4 are larger than Pages 1 and 2.

And like our earlier example, it's up to you to resize and reposition the text and images on Pages 3 and 4 to work with the new page size.

Now you know how to change the size of all of the pages of a document or just selected pages.

And you can do this at any point in your design process.

What you learned: How to change page sizes in a document

When you create a new document, you specify what page size to use. But sometimes you might need to change the page size after you start work on a file.

Change the size of all the pages without modifying the content

Choose File > Document Setup.
Change the values for Width and Height. This changes the dimensions of all the pages in the document, but the text frames and images don’t change to fit the new page dimensions.

Change the page size and adapt the content to fit

Choose File > Document Setup.
Click the Adjust Layout button.
Change the values for Width and Height. This changes the dimensions of all the pages in the document, and the text frames and images will scale and move to attempt to fit the new page dimensions.

Mix different page sizes in the same file

Select one or more page thumbnails in the Pages panel.
Click the Edit Page Size button at the bottom of the panel.
Choose Custom.
Enter a new Width and Height and click OK.

Adobe Stock contributors: colors0613; MIND AND I; alfa27; mavoimages

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