Import Excel worksheets into InDesign

Question

I'm working on a book in InDesign that uses a ton of Excel spreadsheets as images. These books are printed commercially (also as non-reflowable ebooks, but I'm more concerned with printed quality). I've been exporting each worksheet to PDF (see attached Acrobat Conversion Settings and Worksheet 2.3.pdf as an example), which is quick and easy, but I'm worried about print quality.

Is there another graphic format you'd recommend? The author has created BMPs of the worksheets, but they're only 96 ppi. I've attached Excel Export options and Save As options for your convenience. I can export the PDF to JPEG, TIFF, or PNG, but would that downgrade the quality?

Thanks in advance for any wisdom 🙂

Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Accepted Answer

I agree with @Sumo148 : PDF is possible and is the best option. It can be tricky as you have to very specific about your page layout otherwise a big worksheet may be chopped into several pages. Also, be aware that Excel doesn't keep everything as vector. e.g. some certain chart designs will be saved as raster, even in a PDF.

Sumo148 · Answer

PDFs will keep it as live type that can be selected. This is the best quality you'll get since it's vector. Saving as a JPEG, TIFF, PNG, etc. will rasterize the type which is not what you want. You won't have any resolution issues with a live type PDF.

The other option would be to link the spreadsheet in InDesign and format the live type data using table styles.

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