Placed high res bitmap in Illustrator not smooth, but jagged

SOLVED!

1) Make sure "Display Bitmaps as Anti-Aliased images in Pixel Preview" is checked in Illustrator Preferences/File Handling and Clipboard.

2) Then make sure Pixel Preview is checked in drop down menu under View

Go to Preference / General / File Handling and Clipboard

Tick "Display Bitmaps as Anti-Aliased Images in Pixel Preview"

Then goto View and select "Pixel Preview"

The image resolution should now be rendered appropriately.

Hello! I am having a related issue. I have read through and tried some of the solutions in this post and am still having problems. I am trying to create a composite graphic with vector and raster elements. The vector elements are drawn in Illustrator and rasters are placed .png (with alpha masks). I need to export to pdf (I know probably not the best solution) and I have been printing using Adobe PDF as the printer, because I need to use artboards to generate the export extents. Things look great in Illustrator, but the (linked) rasters lose resolution. Any suggestions? I'm hoping there is an easy solution that I either missed in the above discussion or related.

Thank you in advance.

When I go to Object > Rasterize it corrects the problem for me. Can't believe this is still an issue. (I'm using CS6)

Hi, thanks all.

If I am saving something for web (like an infographic) to JPG or PNG the images look jagged, so it isn't a preview thing.

AntoineM, where is the "lock aspect ratio"? I know of the constrain proportions option.

tridentDV: That seems to do the trick, when I have text however, that makes the text looks jagged, although it doesn't seem as bad as it looks on images if I don't use art optimised.

In the end it seems to be that if I want a mix of raster and vector InDesign is the better choice.

Hello,

I have/had the same problem, wondering what is going wrong.

I double checked to see that the images had the right pixel dimensions in Illustrator as they have in Photoshop

and noticed that many times (if not always) illustrator scales the placed bitmaps very slighty (e.g. 800.003 x 600.001 instead of a clean 800x600). So I unchecked the lock aspect ratio and dialed in the correct pixel values and it seems to work, the bitmap images look crisp on the exported PDF at 100%.

I 'll have to test this on more images and I hope it fixes the problem.

I have been struggling with this problem. I am working with several publications that use the same photo, some large and some small. I have created one Photoshop document for all of them and then scale the photos as I needed it. Before CS5 this was never a problem. Now however, the smaller scaled photos look very pixelated and low res in Illustrator (something I could live with) and when exported as a jpeg for a proof (something I cannot live with).

The photos are put into Illustrator with the place command.

Has there been any resolution to this problem since a year ago when this thread started?

There is nothing particularly save about your overly complex process. First, I encourage you to save as .tif or .psd instead of .jpg. Every time you save an image as a .jpg you destroy some of the image quality. Open and save again and you destroy a bit more. Use a lossless format for better output.

Second, y are doing nothing by copying and pasting in a new file. Illustrator does not actually open raster files (e.g. .jpg, .tif, .png), Instead it imports and embeds the raster data in a new file. Doubt me? use Illustrator to “open” a .jpg then immediately press Command-S. If you have the file open you would immediately save over the old file without having to specify a filename or a location.

Third, you should not embed raster data in an Illustrator file unless you need to (e.g., to run an effect on it or use it as a symbol or pattern swatch). Place the file and make sure Link is checked in the Place dialogue. If you ever need to alter the original image you will soon find that extracting raster files from within Illustrator (which should be simple) is harder than getting pee out of a pool. Link and you get (1) smaller Illustrator files, (2) faster saves and opens, and (3) easier editing of the source image.

As for the resolution question: Is Pixel Preview on in the View menu? Is there an effect applied to the image and, if so, what is the Document Raster Effect setting? Can you provide a screen shot showing the image in Photoshop and the same image at the same size in Illustrator so we can see for ourselves the difference in resolution? use the camera icon in a reply to attach the screen grab(s).