Importing PDF from Indesign to Photoshop Magazine Mockup. Text is pixelated.

Hi David,

Did your instructor say why you were to take a magazine layout created properly in InDesign and then make an image of it and open it in Photoshop?

A “mockup” is a prototype or a sketch of what you plan to do. You might use Photoshop or Illustrator or a pencil and paper to draw a sketch of what you want your magazine layout to look like before you begin work in InDesign. It saves a lot of time if you design first, then begin to do the layout.

But after the magazine is finished? There must be a reason. Can you find out what it is?

Or maybe what the instructor wants is not a picture of the finished magazine, but a rough sketch of the frames for placement, sort of reverse engineering. As a classroom exercise, that might make sense. Please ask and report back.

~ Jane

The text becomes pixels when you place it into Photoshop. The amount of pixelation depends on resolution, or the number of pixels in the document. What is the Image size of the template (w,h,res)? How are you going from InDesign to Photoshop? Are you exporting a PDF from InDesign, and placing that into Photoshop? What is the intent of the mockup, or how and where will it be viewed? Maybe it doesn’t matter that the text is pixelated.

My immediate answer is, yes it would. Why would you do this? There may be a good reason, or it might be a mistake in your workflow. What is the end result you need? You'd never do this for a magazine to print, for example. And it isn't a way you'd make a magazine for a web site.