Imported TIFFs have different dimensions than the source at the same resolution

[Lin23827968yzve]

I'm working on a book with a lot of graphic images that are being either created or edited in PhotoShop/Illustrator. Some of the TIFFs are causing problems printing, and I'm not sure where to start looking for answers, but this particular issue is bothering me....

Graphic artist says he is creating the images at the dimensions I specify so they'll fit in the page layout the way our publisher wants. He says they all are at the specified dimensions, 300 dpi. When I import them into FrameMaker, FM wants to default to 72 dpi but no worries, I know I can just choose 300 and all should be well. Except it's not, because the dimensions of the image are not correct. 

Graphic artist is giving me, say, an image that is 3.5" x 2" at 300 dpi.

I import the image by reference into FM, specify 300 dpi, and the image comes in "scaled" to 24% with dimensions 2.1" x 1.2"

Why is this happening? And what do we do about it?

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

I just tested this, and my 300 dpi are correctly 3.5" x 2".

The scaling is only the size compared to 72 dpi.

In the preferences in Graphics there is the option Auto-Scale Image Along Width. Is this option activated? This might change the scaling/dpi, when you import e.g. into a narrow table cell.

What's the scaling/dpi in the object properties?

Is there any difference between TIFF files which are scaled correctly and those which have a different dpi/scaling?

Best regards, Winfried

[Bob_Niland]

Winfried: Is there any difference between TIFF files which are scaled correctly and those which have a different dpi/scaling?
Indeed, and I might add: if these are newly created images, why is TIFF being used (vs. PNG)?
There can be valid reasons to use TIFF, such as needing CMYK or other non-RGB color model. Other reasons represent obscure options in the format, that may not be well supported by the FM import filter. As the Wiki page for TIFF notes, the name could be seen to stand for Thousands of Incompatible File Formats.

[Lin23827968yzve]

Hi Winfried and Bob,

I'll try to answer all the follow-ups:

I'm on Windows 11, FM 17.0.5.725. I didn't update because we are so close to publishing and I didn't want to change my system.

The TIFFs are legacy images that the graphic artist is attempting to tweak/fix. All printing will be CMYK, spot colors will be converted to CMYK.

The Autoscale Image along Width checkbox was not checked; I changed the default dpi to 300 and restarted FrameMaker, same result. The only difference was that I didn't need to select 300 dpi when I imported the file; it was selected by default but the dimensions are the same (incorrect) as before and the scaling in the Object Properties dialog box says scaled to 24%, as before.

I don't believe any of the TIFFs are actually imported properly, but some are fine and some are being dropped when the PDF is produced using the PDF/X-1a job options (required by the printer) for being too low resolution. So this sizing issue may not be the cause of the printing problems I'm trying to solve, but I would still like to understand the issue because it doesn't make sense to create a graphic in one application at a particular size and have it automatically resize to a seemingly random proportion in FrameMaker.

If it would help to try PNG files, I can ask the artist to convert them. Is there anything he needs to do other than SaveAs that would help avoid this issue?

Thank you both for responding!

Lin

[Bob_Niland]

PNG won't work. It's an RGB only format. If your workflow is to color hardcopy, you may need to stay with formats that encode as CMYK.

Just opening and re-saving older TIFFs in Photoshop might clear up the problem.

I haven't looked into what the optimal modern graphic file format is for CMYK, but it might be PDF (which also has the advantage of being easily previewed on pretty much any platform, which TIFF is not). EPS would also work, but is being phased out. PSD would work too, but is far less portable.

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

And what version of FM are you doing this with? Always good to start off with that...

[Lin23827968yzve]

Sorry, FM 17.0.5.725 on Windows 11

[Matt-Tech Comm Tools]

A bitmap image has pixels, and thus the pixel count is usually the best indicator of quality.

And yes, if you're printing in CMYK, TIFF is an excellent choice for format, as CMYK usually converts well for RGB output.

If you use Photoshop to open up the image in question, what is the pixel count? That number divided by 300 gives you a reasonable approximation of the max size at which you can use that image, assuming that the image is acceptable at 100% in Photoshop.

The Object Properties panel in FrameMaker is a bit odd; my understanding is that you can specify either scale or resolution, but it's not a calculator.

Thus, if you set DPI for 300, you basically get the max size at which you can safely print at a 150 linescreen or lower printer.

In the example shown below, setting the DPI to 300 shows the image has only 25% of the pixels needed to print at a commercial printer. And, true to form, opening that image in Photoshop shows it's only 600 pixels tall, and I'd only be able to print it at 2" tall if I'm following my printer's specs. For those that are curious, check the C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe FrameMaker 2022\Samples\UserGuide(Arabic,English,Hebrew) folder for the General-Description.fm file shown in my example