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A
Anonymous
September 18, 2012
Question

InDesign Export to PDF Pixellated

  • September 18, 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 16607 views

My InDesign Exports to PDF  are Pixellated.  When I then open those PDF's into Photoshop and resave as PDFs they are not and the file sizes are drastically different. I've compared export specs and while all the major ones appear to be the same, they are not all available in Photoshop vs InDesign.

I've created an InDesign PDF export file and a Photoshop Save PDF file to demonstrate the difference in view. Would someone take a look at these and help me out?  I'm pulling my hair out over this difference and would like to remove the step of having to open in Photoshop every PDF file I export from InDesign so I can get it to look right.

I am unable to upload the PDF's in the image section of this forum.

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

B
Bo_LeBeau
Participating Frequently
September 19, 2012

You must understand that opening your PDF in Photoshop will rasterize all the text.

How exactly are you creating the PDF in InDesign? Can you make several screenshots of the Export PDF dialog settings?

This may be easier to figure out than dealing with the PDF after the fact since the PDF won't have much info about how it was created.

How are you viewing the PDF after it was created? In Acrobat?

Are you placing it in InDesign again to view it? If the PDF text appears "pixelated" when viewing it in InDesign, you need to select the PDF in InDesign, go to View menu, Display Performance. High Quality Display.

If you used Typical Display it will appear pixelated,

This is just a view setting and the PDF will print out your text as vector, nice and crisp and clear.

This is why you should never open a PDF in Photoshop. It rasterizes the text. The ONLY exception is a file with live text layers that is created in PS and saved as a Photoshop PDF. A Photoshop PDF can be opened again in PS and still have live editable text. PDFs from anything else are rasterized.

That is the only way I can think of that can explain your problems

B
Bill12
Inspiring
September 19, 2012

Another possibility is that you are viewing vector drawings in the PDF without setting smoothing for an LCD display. To see if it is the PDF or the display settings, try zooming the display. If it is pixelated, then you should see big boxes rather than smooth items.

T
Test Screen Name
Legend
September 18, 2012

Pixellation usually follows from a resolution that is too low. But that can't be the case here, since Photoshop can't put back missing resolution. Please share the files somewhere, and please let us know the exact versions of Acrobat you are using.

(We'll probably need to see the files, but the forum would let you post screen shots of the two PDFs).

W
WickedWhacker
Participant
September 24, 2012

Thanks for the reply.  Below are links to each of the PDFs, and the export/save data from each of the sources.  Any feed back would be helpful.

http://www.chambermail.us/files/FreshCleanHomePCInDesign.pdf

http://www.chambermail.us/files/FreshCleanHomePCPhotoshop.pdf

http://www.chambermail.us/files/InDesignExporttoPDFSummary.txt

http://www.chambermail.us/files/PSsavetoPDFsettings.joboptions

B
Bill12
Inspiring
September 25, 2012

Well, I looked at the first file and saw no pixel aspects at all. It was very clean. Check that you have display smoothing turned on in your preferences.

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