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patpix17
Known Participant
October 21, 2019
Question

Indesign PDF and Photoshop Tiff export - File size

  • October 21, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 374 views

Hello,

I'm working on a 800x3000mm poster made with Indesign. It's a 200x750mm HD image imported in a 800x3000mm object (1/4 of final result).

Here is the question:
- The size of the HD PDF exported file with optimal parameters is 862 Ko.
- If the same work is done with Photoshop the Tiff result size is 1961781 Ko and the jpg size 35000 Ko, which looks seems correct for HD Print.
Any idea to explain this differences? Is it better to work with Photoshop to create big file like this one?
Thx and sorry for bad English.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    Jongware
    Community Expert
    JongwareCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 21, 2019

    1. Was your original TIFF file saved without compression? There are people who dislike using any compression at all (no doubt because of a Bad Experience with low resolution JPEGs), and so they even distrust "LZW", the completely 100% Guaranteed Lossless Compression™ (which is the same as the *very* common ZIP compression, and that is generally trusted to not lose the odd bit or byte under any circumstances -- if it did, you could not safely compress-then-decompress any file at all).

     

    2. Did you use the standard "High Quality Print" or "Press Quality" export presets? These two presets are set to use "Automatic" image compression, which defaults to lossless ZIP for 'simple' images -- say, screenshots or line graphs -- but to JPEG on photographic images. That means that yes, some detail may be lost -- but it's for print, and the default downsample resolution is twice as high as necessary. Those details lost in JPEG translation would still not be visible, because at print time each halftone dot is about double the size of each individual pixel.

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    patpix17Author
    Known Participant
    October 21, 2019

    Yes the Tiff File had no compression.
    I think you're right: exporting a pdf in Indesign without compression gives a file with the same size than the original.
    And I've seen that the jpeg compression was not set to "maximum" but "Medium"

    Now the pdf file size is about 2 Mo. And I've discovered that the compression was so effective because there is a lot of white in the image. (Algorithm is powerful)

    If I take another part of the image, the file size goes to 5 or 6 Mo.

     

    Geоrge
    Geоrge
    Legend
    October 21, 2019

    It looks like you do PDF with small or standard settings. Did you try it High-Quality print preset? 

     

     

    Remember, never say you can't do something in InDesign, it's always just a question of finding the right workaround to get the job done. © David Blatner
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    patpix17Author
    Known Participant
    October 21, 2019

    Thx for reply,
    Yes with default parameters. 


    Here is the PDF export

    The imported file

    The image resized to 800x3000mm in Photoshop

    What is strange is that the PDF resolution looks good when zooming in..

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