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Participant
June 14, 2012
Question

Is indesign file conversion/export to tiff file possible?

  • June 14, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 41868 views

Hello Everyone,

I have used indesign 5.5 to make my figures for a publication.  However, the publisher requires editable tiff or powerpoint files.  Therefore does anyone know how I can convert my indesign files to editable tiff (or powerpoint) files?

The files include scanned images, text, drawn lines and arrows, all of which needs to be editable.

I have used indesign 5.5, on a pc running windows 7.  Perhaps its possible in indesign 6, thus I could get the trial for that.............

Thanks for any and all help,

Charlie

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2 replies

Peter Spier
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 14, 2012

What sort of publication is this that would be built from PowerPoint slides?

TIFFs are a standard image format that might be used for images included in a layout, and PowerPoint is an onscreen presentation program. Neither is something I would consider as being a format for submission for publication of a anything with multiple pages or text.

Inspiring
June 14, 2012

You may need to ask your publisher what they mean by "editable" tiff. If they just want a tiff, you could export as PDF and open in Photoshop (but keep in mind that small text doesn't look all that great when rasterized). The result will be all of the elements you had arranged in InDesign will be on the same Photoshop layer, which won't make the kinds of edits you are talking about very easy. A more reasonable workflow might be to do the edits in InDesign before exporting as PDF.

ccs0015Author
Participant
June 14, 2012

Thanks Michael and Peter.

The editable factor is for my boss so that he can make changes if they are required at a later date.  The publisher just requires tiff or powerpoint files of the figures (main text is separate), so what I had done was to export as a jpeg and then open in photoshop and save as a tiff.  However, as my boss does not use indesign I need editable tiff files to send to him so he can edit in photoshop if necessary.

However, I have found that I can "copy" my indesign page straight into illustrator with no problems, and I believe that my boss has illustrator.  Therefore I can send him the illustrator files for future editing if required, as well as tiffs made using illustrator to be uploaded to the publisher.

Perhaps illustrator is better for me in the long run.

Peter Spier
Community Expert
Community Expert
June 14, 2012

You'll get better conversion to TIFF from ID if you export as press quality PDF and convert that in Photoshop than you will with export to jpeg.