How can I create a photo mosaic in Adobe® InDesign®?

You may have seen ads that use a trendy single-image mosaic. We'll show you how to create one with a twist. Using InDesign’s Step and Repeat and Compound Paths features along with the Rotate tool makes a big impression with just a little effort.

Draw a rectangle frame

• Select the Rectangle Frame tool
• Click and drag to draw a single rectangle
  • In the example, the rectangle is 4 x 5 picas
• To make a rectangle a certain size:
  • Click on the rectangle frame with the Selection tool
  • Type the Width and Height in the Control panel
  • Press Enter/Return

Add a stroke

• Open the Stroke palette
  • Choose 1 pt. from the Stroke Weight drop-down menu
• If the stroke is not Black
  • Open the Swatches palette
  • Click on the Stroke icon to bring it to the front
  • Select the Black swatch

Step and Repeat

• Instead of manually copying, pasting and positioning a couple dozen identical frames, use Step and Repeat
• Click on the the rectangle frame with the Selection tool
• Go to Edit > Step and Repeat
• For this example, enter:
  • Repeat Count: 8
  • Horizontal Offset: 4p3
    • (the width of the rectangle plus 3 points for internal spacing)
  • Vertical Offset: 0
  • Check Preview to see the changes before applying
• Click OK
• There will be nine identical rectangular frames with 3 points between each

• Click on one of the rectangles with the Selection tool
• Hold down the Shift key
• Click on the other eight rectangles frames to select them.
• Go to Edit > Step and Repeat.
• Enter into the Step and Repeat dialog box:
  • Repeat Count: 5
  • Horizontal Offset: 0
  • Vertical Offset: 5p3
    • (the height of the rectangle plus 3 points for internal spacing)
• Click OK
• There will be a total of 54 identical rectangular frames with 3 points between each.

Rotate the frames

• Now comes the fun part.
• Make sure the middle of the Proxy on the Control panel is selected
• Click on one of the rectangles with the Selection tool
• Hold the Shift key and randomly select several  rectangles
• Go to Tool panel and double-click on the Rotate tool
• The Rotate tool options opens.
• Enter -1 for the Angle.
• Click OK
• Click in white space to deselect

• Select additional rectangles and rotate them -1 degrees.
• Rotate additional frames 2, -2 and 3 degrees.
• Use the Selection tool to move overlapped frames away from each other

Create a Compound Path

• Use the Selection tool to select all of the frames.
  • Drag a marquee around all of the frames or
  • Click on one frame, hold down Shift and click on the other frames
• InDesign CS4 & CS3: Go to Object > Paths > Make Compound Path
• InDesign CS2 & CS: Go to Object > Compound Path > Make
• The individual frames will now act as a single frame

• To place the photo inside the frames:
  • Go to File > Place
  • Navigate to the folder containing the photo
  • Double-click on the photo name or
  • Use Herff Jones Image In to place the image
• To reposition the image within the compound path
  • Click on the Direct Selection tool
  • Click on the image and drag to reposition