Scale input tricks for printing patterns

How to
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Manually creating pattern fills in is easier than you might think, says Tony Harmer. Here is how it's done.

InDesign doesn't have an equivalent to Illustrator's pattern swatches, or Photoshop's defined patterns, and there's no automatic way of creating a pattern fill in the application.

In this tutorial, however, I'll show you how to import, position, repeat and then prepare a repeating pattern before getting it ready for print. You'll learn that there's a difference between resizing and scaling in InDesign, and discover how to use the Scale input fields in the Transform panel or the Control strip with physical measurements and simple maths to achieve a precise result.

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