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Roger Breton
Legend
September 16, 2024
Answered

Placed Image Scaling is wrong?

  • September 16, 2024
  • 4 replies
  • 2736 views

I hate to resort to a "sensationalist" title for this post but it looks like I'm hitting a small "wall", here.
In a new document, I placed the following "Barbie logo" in PNG format :

When I imported the file, I simply clicked and immediately released the mouse, so, to my knowledge, the image is placed at 100% scale yet Illustrator has the nerve to tell me that the image is at 75% scale, in the Links palette (sorry for the French UI):

What am I doing wrong?

 

Correct answer Brad @ Roaring Mouse

I'm seeing that too. Also with JPG but not TIF. It was not always the case; I just tested an older version (CC2020) and it's fine so something has changed in recent versions. A bug?

That being said, the file IS placing at 100%, it's just reporting 75% incorrectly for some reason. Since your resolution in the file is 96ppi and your file is 5000 pixels wide, it should place at 52" wide, which it does.

 

4 replies

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 17, 2024

It is indeed a mess, but less a mess than Brad's mess for me.

The behaviour is indeed different when images are linked.

When images are linked:

In 2023 the .tif files are displaying 100% scale at all resolutions

In 2023  the .jpg files are displaying 100% scale at all resolutions

In 2023  the .png files are displaying a different % scale at different resolutions

In 2024 the .tif files are displaying 100% scale at all resolutions

In 2024  the .jpeg and .png files are displaying a different % scale at different resolutions

 

When images are embedded:

both 2023 and 2024 show consistent scale percentages for resolutions for all file types.

Kurt Gold
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 17, 2024

Thankfully, at least the cat seems to be able to take all that different pressures without mental suffering.

Jacob Bugge
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 17, 2024

He is long gone and has nothing to worry anymore.


Surely that is Nozem, Ton?

 

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 16, 2024

I believe that only 72 ppi images are seen as 100%

My Mac screendumps are 144 ppi and seen as 50%.

Brad @ Roaring Mouse
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 17, 2024

Depends. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. We went down this rabbit hole before. Unfortunately I can't find the thread, but I remember we found that certain pixel dimension thresholds would trigger a scaling, like Illustrator is trying to "help us" keep the image at a workable size on the current artboard.

In any case, the behaviour is all over the place.

This is what I have found: CC2020 and CC2021 left everything at 100%. Starting with CC2022, it started reporting a scale factor in the Links. CC2024 went even further.

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 17, 2024

On my Mac it is consistent, no differences between filetypes and between 2023 and 2024.

Edit: only when files are Embedded.

Link to the .ai file:

https://shared-assets.adobe.com/link/421e3f48-c45c-4aa7-7bfd-ebce6bfe0d43

Brad @ Roaring Mouse
Community Expert
Brad @ Roaring MouseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
September 16, 2024

I'm seeing that too. Also with JPG but not TIF. It was not always the case; I just tested an older version (CC2020) and it's fine so something has changed in recent versions. A bug?

That being said, the file IS placing at 100%, it's just reporting 75% incorrectly for some reason. Since your resolution in the file is 96ppi and your file is 5000 pixels wide, it should place at 52" wide, which it does.

 

Roger Breton
Legend
September 16, 2024

Thanks Brad!