Participant

Question

How does dpi work in Indesign ?

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
December 29, 2025
3 replies
287 views

Hello,

I want to make a photobook and the supplier offers an Indesign template which customers can use for creating the cover and the innerwork.
https://www.fotofabriek.nl/pdf-upload/view-specification/243f5ab3-f5c1-48cf-aee5-7ef1d2f1365e/

I have downloaded the template for the innerwork and it's going to be an A4 book (landscape), so the size is 210x297 for a page, making it 216x303 for a single page, and 216x600 for a spread of 2 pages (not 606 because you only have 2 bleeds in stead of 4, if I'm correct).

So in Photoshop I have created my first test-spread (2 pages) and I have set the image-size to 216x600 (300 dpi) and filled it for test purposes with pink.

But when I place that image into the template it shows the image way too large for the template (see image). Why is that?

indesign.jpg

Print

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Hi A-D,

When I followed your steps, my file placed perfectly.

The 213x600 should be carefully defined in Photoshop as mm; not pixels; at 300ppi when making the Photoshop file.

Mike Witherell

A

Alluring_Dolphin15C3Author

Participant

Thank you all for your answers.

@Mike Witherell I think I did that, see the screenshotSchermafbeelding 2025-12-29 161040.png

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

DPI does nothing in InDesign or Photoshop. It is the unit for printers. I suppose you mean PPI, pixel per inch. Look into your export settings, how they are recalculated. It is never higher than the original. Maximum the resolution you put in.

A

Alluring_Dolphin15C3Author

Participant

Hello Willi, yes sorry I was meaning PPI. The test image I created was like this:

Schermafbeelding 2025-12-29 161330.png

rob day

Community Expert

Sorry I read too fast and thought you were working in pixels.

The I in PPI is Inches, so set your ruler units in both Photoshop and InDesign to Inches:

Screen Shot 10.png

The placed file at 100%:

Screen Shot 11.png

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @Alluring_Dolphin15C3 , If you check the Image Size of a 600x216 pixel document set to 300PPI in Photoshop with the units set to Inches, its output dimensions will read as 2" x .72" inches (600/300 = 2 and 216/300 = .72):

Screen Shot 3.png

When you place the document in InDesign at 100% its Actual and Effective (the scaled output resolution) will both be 300 PPI (see your Links panel):

Screen Shot 6.png

If you increase the scale of the image (748% below) the Effective PPI is adjusted to reflect the scale amount (40 PPI below)

Screen Shot 7.png

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