Creating multiple maps the same size and scale

[davidk34373164]

Hi, 

I'm new to InDesign and would be extremely grateful for any assistance you can give me. I need to insert a bunch of town planning maps (zoning, flooding, bush fire, maximum building height, etc) in my reports in JPG format. I am currently resizing the snipped JPGs of the maps and using the grid in Light Room to centre them, and then exporting the JPGs back to my folder resized and cropped/centred - and doing my best to make them all have the same scale and position. I understand that I can do this in InDesign. I have subscribed to InDesign to see if it is possible and more efficient. Can you please offer any advice as to whether this is possible, and how to do this or what tools I need to learn about? Thanks very much.

[brianp311 · Accepted solution]

You have a few options in InDesign. You can scale and crop photos within their containing frame within InDesign. You can also configure the frames to Auto Fit so that the image is scaled down or up upon import. There are grid and align tools as well, and you can batch import the images. 

[davidk34373164]

Thanks very much for your assistance!

[Luke Jennings3]

If the original maps are in vector format, you can keep them vector, if you prefer (for better quality). You mentioned you wanted the maps to have the same scale*, if this is the case, one way to do this is to draw a rectangle in InDesign representing the desired map scale (i.e one inch = 1 mile), place a map, send it behind the rectangle (Object> Arrange> Send backward) move the map so the existing map scale legend appears next to the rectangle, scale the map (Object> Transform> Scale) until the legend size matches the rectangle, reposition and crop the map using the selection tools (the white and black arrows), repeat for the other maps, export to a PDF.

*If the original maps are the same scale, you would only need to determine the scale factor for one map in InDesign and apply the scale to the other maps (the Direct selection tool will show you the scale factor).