How to interpret two values for ppi for an image in Illustrator?

[Zoeli479]

I've creted a document in Illustrator (CMYK - 300dpi) which will be printed.

I have placed an image and its ppi shows a ppi made by 2 numbers: n1 x n2

How do I interpret this?

If one of the numbers has less that 300 dpi is a problem for printing purposes?

Thanks!!

[Ton Frederiks]

It means that the image is scaled without keeping the proportions.

If that does not give a visible distortion, I would not worry about it.

A little less than 300 should not be a problem, it depends on the printing process.

What is your resolution?

[Zoeli479]

Thanks for the help!

If I go in the link panel the dimensions are 147x670 and the ppi is 147x3158

My document is set at 300dpi.

So it seems it's not good for printing... it would be good only if both numbers were aorund 300....

[Jeff Witchel, ACI]

Sounds like your image is out-of-proportion. If you are resizing images using the bounding box while hold down your shift key and let go of the shift key too soon, the image will be out of proportion. It's amazing how often this happens.

If you don't want an out-of-proportion image, select your image with the Selection tool,  then double-click on the Scale tool (S). Select the Uniform Scale Percentage and press your up or down arrow keys on your keyboard to change the size. The image will never be out of proportion and you can Scale quite quickly by either typing in a number or holding down the arrow key continuously.

[Zoeli479]

Thanks for your help!

It shows two numbers even before scaling it... so I think it was originally squeezed.

[Ton Frederiks]

If you open your original image, does it show squeezed?

If you place it again in a new document is it squeezed?

Does it have a non standard pixel aspect ratio?

[Zoeli479]

Thanks again!

Yes, if I open a new document and I place it there, it's exactly the same... I mean the ppi has the 2 values.

You cannot say looking at it if it squeezed ot not as it's a small rectangle of a marble so it doesn't seem squeezed.

I've placed the image on a Photoshop document to check the pixel aspet ratio and it shows square....

What I really need to know is that if one of the two numbers is less than 300 I cannot print it, right?

[Ton Frederiks]

If you open the image in Photoshop and go to the View menu, check if Pixel Aspect Ratio Correction checked?

That could explaint the difference in resolution in Illustrator, it would not show distorted,

[Zoeli479]

Ok, I'm going to check... thanks!!

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Did you rotate it?

If it is printiable with less than 300 ppi, depends on the details. How much less and what is in the image?

[Zoeli479]

No I haven't rotated it and I haven't sqeezed it. 

The image is a small section of a marble... so it's quite "abstract". One of the number of the ppi is 147 (the other is more than 300)

Thanks!

[Ton Frederiks]

Can you share the image?

Attach it or, maybe better, using a file transfer app like DropBox, WeTransfer or use Creative Cloud filesharing.