Free Download PatternMaker InDesign Plug In

"I can't find how to make a pattern fill in indesign. I was told to just paste in a filled shape from illustrator and it would automatically become a swatch, but that hasn't worked." Says a friend.

In inDesain no direct tool to create patterns. You can use plug ins PatternMaker additional plug in. The plug-in (both Mac OS and Windows) lets you create an infinite number of fully-customizable patterns based on three core pattern templates: Crosses, Lines, and Scallops.

Here’s how it works: After you download and install the PatternMaker plug-in into your InDesign > Plug-ins Folder, you can select any InDesign frame (even text converted to outlines), select Window > PatternMaker, choose a pattern, and click the Apply Pattern button. The palette lets you customize the pattern in all kinds of ways (each pattern has its own set of variables you can tweak).
Note that the PatternMaker plug-in can assign colors to the patterns, but it only works with process colors in this version.


You do not need the plug-in in order to print (that is, you can give your InDesign documents to anyone and they can view and print them even without the plug-in). This works because the plug-in simply creates a very small EPS file and embeds it into the InDesign document. Embedding images such as this is no big deal because it only adds about 2 or 3 K to the file size and prints or exports to PDF with no trouble.

For example, here are three variations on a single pattern (Crosses) created with the plug-in. Note that as the pattern angle and size changes you get radically different effects.

Free Download PatternMaker.