Placed Image Scaling is wrong?

[Roger Breton]

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?

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse · Accepted solution]

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]

Thanks Brad! 

[Ton Frederiks]

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

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

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

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]

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

[Kurt Gold]

I think that Brad and Roger are referring to linked images, Ton.

Do you get the same consistency with linked images? Or rather what Brad outlined with his table?

[Ton Frederiks]

I'll check again with linked images. These were all embedded.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Yes, i was refrerring to Linked files.

Interestingly, if I make a CC2020 document and place all the sizes in my test (reported as 100% in LInks panel), and then open that file in CC2024, all the reported percentages change.

[Ton Frederiks]

Another interesting behaviour;

When a 144 ppi Tif image is placed linked it shows 144 ppi at 100%

When a 72 ppi Tif image is placed linked and scaled 50% it shows 144 ppi at 50%

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

"When a 72 ppi Tif image is placed linked and scaled 50% it shows 144 ppi at 50%"

Yah, I saw that (and other weirdness) too.

It comes down to: why did Adobe's coders think this is preferable behaviour than a few versions ago. I can't see any practical reason for it.

[Ton Frederiks]

And don't start rotating images and try to make sense of the resolution.

I think the correct way would be to report the image resolution and set the scale to 100% when no scaling is done during or after placing the image.

I have searched for a UserVoice report, but could not find it.

[Ton Frederiks]

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]

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

[Ton Frederiks]

He is long gone and has nothing to worry anymore.

[Jacob Bugge]

Surely that is Nozem, Ton?

[Ton Frederiks]

Yes it is, Jacob!

[Ton Frederiks]

See this UserVoice report:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/48855905-scale-...