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Inspiring
September 27, 2020
Answered

Illustrator CC enlarging imported PNGs

  • September 27, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 1934 views

Hi everyone,

I use Illustrator CS4 on my older iMac, but recently I also started using Illustrator CC on my newer iMac (Catalina). On the older Mac with CS4 I can open a new file in Illustrator and easily copy and paste a PNG onto the new canvas and it always retains the imported files dimensions. When I follow the same process with CC on the new iMac, the imported image that's displayed on the canvas appears to be the same size dimensionally as the the PNG, but when I look down at the view size, it's at 32%. If I view it at 100%, the image is huge beyond comprehension. Never has this happened in CS4. It's impossible to do comps for the web using screenshots of existing web pages when they're blown up to three times the size in Illustrator. Any help from community members in resolving this frustrating conundrum would be hugely appreciated.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer elisa16B8

Therefore, I assume, based on what you are saying, that if you import a PNG into your Illustrator file, it will also zoom up to 200%. Is this true for everyone? And this is not perceived as a problem that Illustrator should fix?

 

I do not know what you mean when you say my "2007 workflow just doesn't work anymore": I am working on v 23.0.4. CS4 certainly does seem to import every object at the same size it displays on desktop. But I am trying to understand why something that worked so well in CS4 would have been disabled or eliminated in CC, if that is indeed the case. Yes, of course the web and technology changes constantly. Been at it for a while. But I would hope... no, expect to see improvements rather than a change so drastic that it would eliminate the possibility for me to import PNGs and create comps as I have done for well over a decade.


After more experimentation, I think I have solved the issue by converting my PNGs to PDFs before importing them into the Illustrator file. By doing this conversion first, the selected image imports at its actual size and displays at 100% on the canvas.

2 replies

carlosgarro
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 28, 2020

Hi.

To display the image (PNG) at 100% this needs to be at 72 dpi.

Check the following screenshot.

Is a 500x500 px Illustrator file and 3 images with 72, 144 and 288 dpi >>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With this information, you can program your workflow.

Best Regards

elisa16B8Author
Inspiring
September 28, 2020

Thank you, Carlos. I don't see a dpi setting in any Illustrator panel, just PPI which is set to 72. I am using the custom setting in the options panel as shown in my earlier reply to Monika Gause. Set to 72 ppi, the image that displays on the screen appears to be the correct size, but appearances are deceiving since the image is actually being displayed only at 32.59%, rather than 100%. This is where my challenge is. If I save the file as a PNG, Illustrator saves it with the correct dimensions. It is just on the screen that the appearance it way large at 100%.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 28, 2020

You are doing screen design, yes?

Then in preferences > General disable the setting that displays the Printed size at 100% (whatever that is called in English - I have a German version)

 

The PPI setting you changed is the document raster effects resolution. Illustrator document don't have a resolution.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 27, 2020

Illustrator honors the resolution setting of images.

Your screenshots are which pixel dimension and which resolution?

elisa16B8Author
Inspiring
September 27, 2020

The  current image I'm importing is 1979 px by 2331 px, and I've set the canvas to the same size. The imported image has a resolution of 144. I tried to set up a new document with the resolution set at 150 to see if that might help, but it has not. I've also looked at every other setting possible to diagnose the cause and read related articles in Adobe Support. No luck so far. Every image I import zooms way up after importing which makes me wonder if this is a bug potentially caused by iMac Catalina. Hopefully it's just something I'm not seeing.

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 27, 2020

Illustrator documents don't have a resolution.