Photoshop Image Processor Squishes PDF Proportions

Report · Feb 17, 2023

My goal is to use the Bridge Image Processor to help create a logo package more quickly and efficiently. I am able to batch export most file types, including PDFs, from Illustrator, but I can't get transparent, print-ready TIFFs without going through Photoshop.

When I use Bridge's Image Processor on the PDFs, it changes all the images to 675x1080, regardless of their original dimensions. That is the correct dimensions for one of the images in the set, so I could do the photos in chunks based on proportions, but then it's not a big time saver compared to manually opening and resaving each file. It does not do this when I'm working with other file formats that are not PDFs, but I don't have any other CMYK color space logo files to use to start with.

If this bug is unfixable, I'd be open to other ideas for workflows to automate logo packages and/or file conversion in general!

Report · Feb 17, 2023

Hi, @Catharine5E6E,

Interesting issue.

I'm trying to match up what you've written with what I see in your screenshots. You state that the final images to 675 x 1080. But, in Bridge Bug 2.png" image I'm seeing a distorted image at 6000 x 2762.

However, I was playing around with this and I think I did come up with a solution, but it is a two-step solution.

First, save the AI files as PNG files — they also have transparency.

Then, using Image Processor, save them into TIF images. One thing I noticed when playing with this is that Bridge shows the transparency with a PNG but not a TIF. I had to do a "proof" of this by placing an object behind my test piece to display the transparency but there was still no checkerboard displayed. This might be another bug of Bridge, I'm not sure.

Not sure if this will help you or not, but it does seem to work.

Report · Feb 18, 2023

Oh interesting, I didn't notice that in the screenshot-- when I pulled the exported file in to Illustrator afterwards, I thought it showed the dimensions as 675w x 1080h, but I might be mistaken.

I appreciate the idea for a workaround. It feels a bit silly to create separate 300dpi pngs just to convert to tiffs, then delete the pngs afterwards, but it might be my best bet for now. Thanks!

Report · Feb 18, 2023

Actually, following up again-- I don't seem to be able to create 300dpi files by going through a PNG first, even if I started with a print-ready Illustrator file. So that does not seem to be a viable workaround for this context.

Report · Feb 20, 2023

PNG files don't work properly fir print, as PPI (not DPI) info is not properly recorded. PPI info is simply data, the file does not change regardless of what the PPI info actually is. However, a program like InDesign uses PPI data when you place an image to determine how large it is on the page.

You can always open files in Photoshop and convert the saved PPI data.

I would do some more testing to see why pdf files don't work, or try Image Processor Pro instead.