Auto Fit icons from the InDesign CS5.5 Control bar

One of the nice things about InDesign upgrades is that usually there’s a few subtle features that don’t immediately shout out at you – but over time – you wonder how you ever put up with anything less. One of these is InDesign CS5′s Auto Fit feature.

In previous versions of InDesign resizing image frames only resized the frame, leaving you to either manually resize the image or use the Fitting Options from the Object menu.

Now, from InDesign CS5 up, you can choose to have the contents of an image frame resize with the frame. Select an image in an InDesign layout and take a look at the far right of the control bar where you’ll see a new Auto Fit checkbox. Put a tick in the box and then resize the image frame with the Selection tool. The image scales with the frame!

The other icons near the Auto Fit checkbox determine how the image is scaled to the frame and how it’s placed within the frame.

To change the crop of the image, either select it with the Direct Selection tool or turn off the Auto Fit checkbox and then resize the frame as in previous versions of InDesign.

Setting Auto Fit to Auto

If you want Auto Fit to apply to every image that you place in an InDesign layout, make sure you’ve nothing selected, then go to Object > Fitting Options… and choose the Auto Fit option. Now every subsequent frame you create will automatically be Auto Fitted!

Watch the Resolution

Of course, if you’re not watching out it’s easy to size images so they drop below your target image resolution. You can avoid this by setting up your Preflight panel to warn when images go below your target resolution, or keep an eye on the PPI in the Links panel.