There are two ways to place a photo on a page. One involves taking the photo into Photoshop, cropping to actual dimensions and then doing a place. The preference of students in recent years is that the action of cropping the image typically creates issues when pages are being disassembled and then reassembled on the fly around deadline time.
It has become the staff preference to use Photoshop to remove color information, i.e. to convert to grayscale and to tone images. Cropping is now done in InDesign. That’s the method we’ll address here.
NOTE: You should always tone images and remove color information (if applicable) prior to moving a photo on the page.
The first step is to draw a box.
Use the black “Selection Tool” and click the box you drew. Once you’ve selected the box, navigate to File>Place. Navigate through your computer to the InDesign Tutorial folder. Select any one of the images in the folder.
The image will likely appear pixelated:
It will appear that way because the image is coming in large format at high quality. Right click on the image. A box will appear with a “Fitting” option. Click Fitting>Fit Content Proportionally.
You may notice that your image may no longer fill the box you drew originally. You can change that.
Use the white arrow “Direct Selection” tool to resize within the frame. Click the photo, it will highlight in orange. If you touch any of the corners, you’ll notice that you can make the photo larger or smaller. You can adjust however you want to, but the image may move out of proper proportions. How do you know if it’s not proportionate? A person or element in the image may appear smaller than normal or exaggerated. If you feel you’ve messed up the sizing, correct your mistake by using the black “Selection Tool” and right clicking on the box/image. You will again see the prompt for Fitting>Fit Content Proportionally.
To avoid taking the photo out of proportion, hold the “Shift” key while you use the mouse to adjust the size of the image within the frame. Remember that the white arrow “Direct Selection Tool” is what changes the size of the image. It will not change the size of the frame.
To change the size of the frame, use the black arrow “Selection Tool.”