EPS overlay placing as pixelated every time

[tturiano]

hi...I'm working on a book project with 500+ photographs with overlays. I am literally done with all of the photo overlays, building them in Illustrator, and they have all come into Indesign perfectly, except the very last one! Why me?!

While the other 499+ did not have this issue whatsoever, this one keeps coming into Indesign pixelated, no matter what I have tried. My workflow has been just to open one of the previously completed Illustrator overlays and then save it with a new name, so all the settings just carry over to the new overlay file.

For some reason, on this last overlay, it looks fine in Illustrator, but then comes into Indesign pixelated. See the screenshots included. What could I be doing wrong?

Thanks!

[tturiano]

Wait...it's not just the one. I just looked back in the Indesign document and 15 other Indesign documents, and ALL 500+ overlays have gone pixelated. I did not change anything in Indesign settings.

[Ton Frederiks]

Did you check the Display Settings in your InDesign document (Object > Display Performance) or InDesign Preferences > Display Performance?

And why use an old format like .eps?

[tturiano]

Thanks Ton...display settings are all high resolution. The images behind the overlays are also pixelated in Indesign. It was several years ago when I started working on these overlays. At the time, I tried using other overlay formats, like PDF obviously and others I can't remember. I can't remember what the problems were, but EPS was the only one that did not present problems. Is there a reason not to use EPS? My prepress guys says it will convert to PDF just fine when I export the Indesign docs.

[Ton Frederiks]

If .eps works for you, that's ok. It has long been surpassed by .pdf which has color management and transparency. InDesign supports also the direct placement of .ai files.

Are the files still linked correctly?

[tturiano]

I think there might be something wrong with my computer. Now, suddenly, after letting it sit for a while, I came back to it, and all the overlays are displaying properly. My computer has been randomly shutting down lately and other weird behaviors. Google Earth, especially, has been strange, saying that it needs repairs. A weird screen comes up with repair options...something wrong with the graphics maybe.

[Ton Frederiks]

Thats sounds scary, time to make a backup...