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Question

Batch downsample all images in a document

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
December 13, 2020
3 replies
1995 views

Hi,

could anyone point me in the right direction. Is there a way in InDesign to resave the document "for web" so that all images are downsampled to 72 ppi? That is apparently without changing the size of the image as it appears on a page in the document.

The goal is to have a small draft document for preview purposes. In my scenario there is an Idml document with a package (Links folder) where thousands of images (Png and AI format) are stored. Some of the images are 100Mb and larger, so complete package could be several Gigs.

I need to either re-package the document so that all links are downsampled or to batch downsample all images in the Links folder using any other Adobe application, like Photoshop. The challenge is that any image format which can be used (imported) by InDesign should be handled.

Any ideas please?

This topic has been closed for replies.

rob day

Community Expert

The goal is to have a small draft document for preview purposes.

How will the .INDD file be previewed without converting it into a readable web format like a PDF?

M

michaelm90164268Author

Known Participant

Hi Rob, this part of the problem has already been solved.

rob day

Community Expert

How? What’s the display format?

Z

zuzu_kuc1

Inspiring

https://corullon.com.br/scripts/product/create-lowres-images-plus/

M

michaelm90164268Author

Known Participant

Hi zuzu_kuc1, thank you for the link. Not quite what I need but close enough.

Z

zuzu_kuc1

Inspiring

So it looks like no one understands your question 🙂
If it is a reduction of bitmaps (because you do not reduce the vector so much) then you can use an action in photoshop, which will reduce all bitmaps in the Links folder

Scott Falkner

Community Expert

Do you need to provide native InDesign files and linked images or do you need to provide an exported file, like PDF or epub? If the latter just change you export settings. If the former you could run a Photoshop action on the Links folder to resample, but that has serious limitations. It can only resample to one scale (say 300 ppi to 75 ppi, or 25% or some other global change). This won’t help if your images are of varrying effective resolution. For that you need something smarter. Scripting might work, but I know nothing about scripting. I have used Output Factory. If can resample to a desired effective resolution regardless of native resolution or scaling. For example a 300 ppi image scaled to 50% and a 100 ppi image scaled to 20% will both be scaled to the same effective ppi. It can also crop images to further save space.

https://zevrix.com/outputfactory/

M

michaelm90164268Author

Known Participant

Hi Scott, thank you for the link. I have seen that before, but have not tried. Based on the description it looks like it will export the document into other format, which is not what I need. But I will install and see what it can do.

Meanwhile I have written a jscript for Photoshop which downsamples all AI files in the selected folder. InDesign will complain that layers have changed but the link itself remains valid, which is good enough.

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