Occasionally I run across an error when I am using InDesign informing me that I have input a number outside the range of a given dialog box. Normally, this happens because I typed in the wrong number by accident, but today I thought that it would be an interesting experiment to find out the limits of all the dialog boxes inside InDesign. Here are my findings:
- Columns in a text frame : 40
- Columns in a page margin: 216
- Text frame gutter: 120″
- Size of a document: 216″x216″
- Number of pages in a document: 9,999
- Number of pages created with a section start (book): 999,999 (BDWGM if you choose Letters; CMXCIXMCMXCIX for Roman numerals)
Although after creating a section start, you can continue to add pages, pushing the count over 1 million. (which is MM for the Roman’s out there) - Bleed/slug: 6″
- Nested styles: 100
- Line styles: 100
- Grep styles: 100
- Stroke: 800pt
- Shear: 89.0
- Type size: 1296pt
- Leading: 5000pt
- Space before/after: 120″
- Frame size when clicking on a page to create a frame: 225.5556″
- Frame size in control panel: Infinity…
Yes infinity. I thought that a small black hole was going to form in my office and suck my laptop into oblivion when this occurred on screen.
There are two different ways to get to infinity. I first achieved infinity by selecting a frame and typing a large number into the width field. I started by doubling the size of the frame, but it was too slow. I started to add a bunch of 9999’s at the end the the number, and it kept growing. Eventually it starts to top out and displays 9e+41 in. I kept on adding 9’s to the +41 number and eventually I hit the mother-load. Infinity.
You can also reach infinity by just typing “Infinity in” into the width field of a frame.
Bonus tip: to type the infinity character the keyboard shortcut is opt+5 (alt+5 on pc)
This article was last modified on July 11, 2023
This article was first published on November 26, 2008
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