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bradg76453401
Participant
January 24, 2018
Question

Images differ when exported to PDF

  • January 24, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 305 views

Hi, all- I wrote and photo-illustrated a 400+ page book, and have it formatted in InDesign. It is a "how-to" book, and I use a lot of comparison photos or series. If a page has 6 photos, I butted them all together, no white space, and it looks perfect in InDesign. When I export the files to PDF, though, that same example page of 6 photos might have white space bordering some or all of the photos, and that white space is typically slightly different-thickness. There's absolutely no visible white space in InDesign that I can see... what's going on?

Also, I tried to resize the images on a few pages to create even white space around them, and it was nearly impossible to get the same thickness border around them. I also tried line thickness/border, but again, with some image overlapping or something the border thicknesses vary slightly. What do I need to do?

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    2 replies

    rob day
    Community Expert
    rob dayCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    January 24, 2018

    You can't really rely on your screen preview to manually butt images together because the preview will change slightly depending on the zoom. So you want to do it by the numbers either with step and repeat or using the Align Panel's Use Spacing set to 0.

    But even then the preview is misleading depending on the zoom. So here I used distribute spacing set to 0, but certain zoom levels show a white line that isn't really there—at 50% it looks OK but not at 75%:

    Exported to PDF zoomed in:

    Here I've used Distribute Spacing set to 0, but you can also use a small negative number and get some overlap. You also have to make sure the image's frame is set to Fit Frame to Content before aligning.

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      bradg76453401Author
      Participant
      January 25, 2018

      Thanks, Rob. It's that "certain levels show a white line that isn't there" that's driving me batty. I couldn't see it on your zoomed PDF until I clicked on the image and enlarged it. "Distribute Spacing" is new for me, I think. I've been using the snap-to feature and adjusting frame size until they, well, snap-to. Seems weird that there would be a gap sometimes.

      Is there some spiffy option I'm unaware of that would insert a fixed amount of white space, or line, between two images? In other words, if I frame two images with a 2p white border, the shared border is sometimes slightly askew, or an ever-so-slightly different thickness. Is there a way to say "Hey, lay down a 2p line smack between these two images?" I mean, I know I could go through and try adding individual lines, but that is sure to end up messy and time-intensive.

      Derek Cross
      Community Expert
      Derek CrossCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 25, 2018

      Here's a couple of tutorials you may find helpful, on how to use the InDesign multi-place objects feature and using the Gap tool

      InDesign multiplace facility:

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wSWQXX_wnvA

      The InDesign Gap tool:

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a3EskmCjjPo

        Derek Cross
        Community Expert
        Derek CrossCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        January 24, 2018

        Which version of InDesign and OS?

        You can "load" your curser with images and use the arrow key to position them and the Gap tool to adjust. It's difficult to explain, maybe you should take an InDesign Lynda.com online video training course (you can get a 30-day free trial).

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        bradg76453401Author
        Participant
        January 25, 2018

        Windows 10, all updates, monthly CC/current version of Id.

        I've placed 150 images in this book, many more than once... trial and error, changing images or layout, etc. I hadn't encountered the "gap" you mention, though.

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