Skip to main content
E
Eric Reuss
Participating Frequently
July 8, 2020
Answered

Viewing page with placed image causes document to be marked as dirty (needs saving)?

  • July 8, 2020
  • 9 replies
  • 1026 views

When I open an InDesign file, after I first view any portion of a page that has a placed image on it, roughly 2-10 seconds later the document gets marked as dirty (asterisk by the filename). It's odd, and kind of annoying, both because of the needless prompt for saving when I close it, and because when I'm deep in the weeds opening and looking through multiple documents it can make me second-guess whether I actually *do* need to save something.

 

I assumed this was a bug and made a report... but then I thought to try it in earlier versions, and it's happening all the way back to 14.0.3. (I jumped straight from CS3 to CC recently.)

 

So now I'm second-guessing myself: is this actually expected behavior? Is something really being changed / updated when a page containing a link is rendered? (If it's just that I have some preference set that's, I don't know, dynamically adjusting some layout setting based on linked images, I'm going to feel both kind of silly and rather relieved.)

 

[EDIT: I don't seem to be able to make >1 correct answer show; the TL;DR is:

 • No, it's not expected behavior;

 • It only happens for PNGs, and only when the PNG is at higher than 72dpi resolution.]

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Barb Binder

Well, I just replicated it.

 

In my tests, I started with a transparent .psd (which is what I would normally use), then this morning used Photoshop's File > Export > Quick Export as PNG (72 ppi/225 ppi) and finally used File > Export > Export as and exported 2x the original size (72 ppi/450 ppi)—that's what did it. 

 

Eric, I would add a link to this thread on your bug report.

 

~Barb 

9 replies

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Barb BinderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
July 8, 2020

Well, I just replicated it.

 

In my tests, I started with a transparent .psd (which is what I would normally use), then this morning used Photoshop's File > Export > Quick Export as PNG (72 ppi/225 ppi) and finally used File > Export > Export as and exported 2x the original size (72 ppi/450 ppi)—that's what did it. 

 

Eric, I would add a link to this thread on your bug report.

 

~Barb 

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    E
    Eric ReussAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    July 8, 2020

    Thank you!

     

    (And Uwe Laubender has already kindly linked my bug report back here. Thank you, Uwe!)

      Barb Binder
      Community Expert
      Barb BinderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 8, 2020

      The behavior does not happen if the PNG is set to 72 pixels/inch or lower. (Tested 20, 50, 70 - 75, 80, 150, 300)

      Effective PPI or Actual PPI?

       

      ~Barb

      ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
      E
      Eric ReussAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      July 8, 2020

      Actual is what I observed - if I use Photoshop to create two identical 1x1px grey-background PNGs, choosing 72 pixels/inch in the New Document dialog for the first and 73 pixels/inch for the second, the first PNG does not cause the behavior while the second does.

       

      I haven't messed around with scaling inside of InDesign to see if that affects it.

      L
      Community Expert
      LaubenderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      July 8, 2020

      Thanks, Barb.

      Hm. Then perhaps another component is responsible for this?!

      Maybe its my view settings? I always work with High Quality as default.

      Or the settings for transparency reduction?

       

      Regards,
      Uwe Laubender

      ( ACP )

       

       

       

      E
      Eric ReussAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      July 8, 2020

      I just did some more testing, and found:

       • The behavior does not happen with TIF, JPG, or Photoshop formats - only PNG.

       • The behavior does not happen if the PNG is set to 72 pixels/inch or lower. (Tested 20, 50, 70 - 75, 80, 150, 300)

       • The behavior doesn't seem to care about any of the following: contents of the PNG (tried flat white, black, grey, red); whether the file is RBG/CMYK/Greyscale; or PNG file-size option ("Largest" / "Medium" / "Smallest").

       

      It didn't seem to make a difference whether I did 1x1 pixel PNGs or 1.5"x1.5" PNGs, but I didn't do much size testing.

        Barb Binder
        Community Expert
        Barb BinderCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        July 8, 2020

        OK,  tried it again with a PNG with transparency. Followed these steps:

        1. Create a new empty document.
        2. Add a second page to the document.
        3. Place image, onto the page you're viewing (I did a PNG)
        4. Save and close the document.
        5. Open the document.
        6. Wait 2-20 seconds several minutes, doing nothing to change the document.

         

        The asterisk never appeared. 

        Mac 10.15.5

        InDesign 15.1.1

         

        ~Barb 

         

        ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
          L
          Community Expert
          LaubenderCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          July 8, 2020

          Hi Eric,

          tested on with a different kind of image:

          A tif file with no transparency: 1-Bit

           

          Here I cannot see the issue.

          Either the cause of the issue is the PNG file format and/or the transparency in the file, I think.

           

          Regards,
          Uwe Laubender

          ( ACP )

            L
            Community Expert
            LaubenderCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            July 8, 2020

            Hi Barb,

            did you place a PNG file with transparency?

             

            Regards,
            Uwe Laubender

            ( ACP )

              L
              Community Expert
              LaubenderCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              July 8, 2020

              Hi Eric,

              thank you very much for posting this!

              I can see this issue as well with my German InDesign 2020 version 15.1.1.103 on Windows 10.

              Also placed a PNG file ( with transparency ).

               

              Now I tested with CC 2019 and yes, the issue is there as well.

               

              Regards,
              Uwe Laubender

              ( ACP )

                Barb Binder
                Community Expert
                Barb BinderCommunity Expert
                Community Expert
                July 8, 2020

                No. Nor can I replicate the behavior. Was the file you are opening created in an earlier version than you are using now? Are you opening the file from a local drive, or a network drive or a file-sharing service?

                 

                ~Barb 

                ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
                  E
                  Eric ReussAuthor
                  Participating Frequently
                  July 8, 2020

                  While I did first notice it with a file created in an earlier version, that's not the only place I'm seeing it - I can reproduce with a completely new, blank file to which I add a single small linked image. (See linked bug-report for exact steps.)

                   

                  The image file is on a local drive, in the same directory as the .indd file.

                   

                  I do have two services that monitor local files and sync them to the cloud, but if I pause them the behavior continues. (And even if they were doing something weird and touching any file I open, I'd expect to see it after any file-open, rather than only happening when I go to a page with a linked image.)

                  Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
                  Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices