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Change the zero point

The zero point is the position at which the zeros on the horizontal and vertical rulers intersect. By default, the zero point is at the top left corner of the first page of each spread. This means that the default position of the zero point is always the same relative to a spread, but may seem to vary relative to the pasteboard.

The X and Y position coordinates in the Control panel, Info panel, and Transform panel are displayed relative to the zero point. You can move the zero point to measure distances, to create a new reference point for measurement, or to tile oversized pages. By default, each spread has one zero point at the upper left corner of the first page, but you can also locate it at the binding spine, or specify that each page in a spread has its own zero point.

Adjust the zero point

When you move the zero point, it moves to the same relative location in all spreads. For example, if you move the zero point to the top left corner of the second page of a page spread, it will appear in that position on the second page of all other spreads in the document.

 Do one of the following:

  • To move the zero point, drag from the intersection of the horizontal and vertical rulers to the position on the layout where you want to set the zero point.

    Establishing a new zero point

  • To reset the zero point, double-click the intersection of the horizontal and vertical rulers .

  • To lock or unlock the zero point, right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the zero point of the rulers, and choose Lock Zero Point or Unlock Zero Point in the context menu.

Change the default zero point

Using the Origin setting in the Preferences dialog box, you can set the default zero point for rulers as well as the scope of the horizontal ruler. The scope determines whether the ruler measures across the page, across the entire spread, or, for multipage spreads, from the leftmost page to the spine and from the spine outward.

If you set the ruler origin at each spread’s binding spine, the origin becomes locked at the spine. You won’t be able to reposition the ruler origin by dragging it from the intersection of the rulers unless you choose another origin option.

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Increments (Windows) or InDesign > Preferences > Units & Increments (Mac OS).
  2. In the Ruler Units section, in the Origin menu, do one of the following:

    • To set the ruler origin at the top-left corner of each spread, choose Spread. The horizontal ruler measures across the entire spread.

    • To set the ruler origin at the top-left corner of each page, choose Page. The horizontal ruler starts at zero for each page in a spread.

    • To set the ruler origin for multipage spreads on the top-left corner of the leftmost page, as well as at the top the binding spine, choose Spine. The horizontal ruler measures from the leftmost page to the binding edge, and from the binding spine to the rightmost page.

You can also change horizontal ruler origin settings using the context menu that appears when you right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) the horizontal ruler.