Illustrator placing images at a quarter of the size

[emilynhart]

Hi everyone! My Illustrator artboard is sized at 1200 pixels wide x 300 pixels high. I'm trying to place a PSD file that's sized at 1200x300px at 300 ppi, but when I do it doesn't fill the artboard as expected. Instead, it places it at about a quarter of the expected size. If I try to size it up, the resolution goes down to 72 ppi and the image is blurry. This seems to only happen when my document is using pixels as the unit--if I'm using inches, the image places correctly. I've tried both using the "place" option and dragging and dropping. I'm using Ai 2025 v. 29.0.1 on a 2023 Macbook Pro running on Sonoma 14.6. Appreciate any help I can get!

[AS Thai]

MR.APISIT SAIHONG

[Anubhav M]

Hello @emilynhart,

Thanks for reaching out. I tried replicating this behavior on my end but could not. Would you mind sharing more details, like if Illustrator behaves this way with just PSD files or with JPG/PNG files as well? Also, try updating Illustrator to the latest version and share your observations.

If the problem persists, kindly share a screen recording of your exact workflow and the problem, so I can better assist you.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[emilynhart]

The issue occurs regardless of what file type I'm placing. I tried to update to the latest Ai version but was unable to as the update list shows "waiting" next to Illustrator (screenshot attached). I'm including a screen recording as well. 

[Monika Gause]

Illustrator respects image resolution.

So when you create an artboard at exactly the desired pixel dimensions, then the image must be in 72 ppi in order to fit to that.

Illustrator files themselves do not have a resolution.