Create contact sheets

A contact sheet is a grid of thumbnail images, often used for pre-press analysis. You can use a number of different Adobe applications to create a contact sheet. In Photoshop, you can use either the Contact Sheet or Picture Package command.

In previous versions of Adobe Bridge (CS2 and CS3), you can create a contact sheet for InDesign pages using the Create InDesign Contact Sheet feature. This feature does not appear in Adobe Bridge CS4. Instead, you can use the Adobe Output Module in Adobe Bridge to create a PDF contact sheet.

You can also create a simple contact sheet in InDesign by placing multiple images in a grid.

  1. Choose File > Place, select multiple images, and choose Open.

  2. Hold down Ctrl+Shift (Windows) or Command+Shift (Mac OS) and click or drag.

  3. While still dragging, release the other modifier keys and press the arrow keys to determine the number of rows and columns. Use the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys to change the number of rows and the Left and Right arrow keys to change the number of columns. To change the spacing between frames, use the Page Up and Page Down keys or hold down Shift while pressing the arrow keys.

  4. Release the mouse button to place the grid of images.