Actual ppi in indesign different from ppi in photoshop

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

Hello,

I'm struggling to understand what is happening here. I have an image that I got from the client. When I open it on photoshop, it tells me it's a 300 ppi resolution picture. When I place the same image for layout in InDesign, it says actual ppi 180 in the links panel. Why is this happening?

Any explanation would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

Photoshop shows you the resolution at 100% of the image. Lets say your image is 10 x 10 cm and has a resolution of 300 ppi. When you place that file in InDesign and you scale it to 200%, so 20 x 20 cm, the actual resolution is 300/2= 150 ppi

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

The problem is that I'm not scaling in indesign. I'm placing at the actual size in indesign as well. My best guess is that the original image supplied by the client is actually 180 only. My photoshop setting is such that any document opens at 300 ppi. So maybe that is why the same image shows 300 ppi when i open it in photoshop, but it shows the actual resolution which is 180 in indesign as well as bridge. 

So i'm currently opening every image in photoshop, resizing it to 300 and saving it again. 😞

But thank you so much for you reply. I really appreciate it.

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

P.S. I maybe wrong, but this is what I've found through trying different experiments for the last hour. Please let me know if you think this is probable.

[rob day]

So i'm currently opening every image in photoshop, resizing it to 300 and saving it again. 😞

Hi @Parvathi24881399xiqs , Rather  than going to the extra work of resizing and saving in Photoshop, you could scale the image to 60% in InDesign, which will give you an Effective Resolution of 300ppi—the output resolution is the Effective, not Actual PPI.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

ID works with two PPI values — the native (and frankly arbitrary) value set in an image file, and the "effective" PPI as it's placed in InDesign. Frans touched on this, but if you have a file that is 1200x1200 pixels, and its (completely arbitrary) PPI is set to 300, then most apps will work with it at a nominal 100% size of 4 inches by 4 inches.

When placed in ID, if it's 4 inches square, both the file and "effective" PPI should be 300. However, if you place it at any other size within the layout, the effective PPI will change. At 5 inches by 5 inches, the file PPI (did I say that was an irrelevant value?) will still be 300, but ID wil be managing the image as if it is 300 * 4 / 5, or 275ppi. That's how ID will see the image for all output, rescaling, etc.

This 72ppi image is sized way down, resulting in a much higher effective PPI. See?

Now, if you're really "not scaling the image in InDesign," then its width and height in that panel should be exactly the "actual" image size, of pixels * file PPI. I suspect you will find a size difference there.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

>Franz touched on this

What is it with Americans that they always use an ancient German spelling for my name 😆😂

I'm Dutch, it is simply Frans 😉

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Well, this American of significant Dutch heritage running through Nieuw Amsterdam and the 'Strangers' in Elizabethan England gives himself one face-smack and a note to pay more attention. 🙂

[Frans v.d. Geest]

😁

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

  See the dimensions are exactly the same. I've not donw anything, just opened the same image in photoshop and indesign. I understand the difference between actual and effective ppi. But please see my screenshots. Even with the dimensions being the same and placing the file at 100%in indesign, the photoshop resolution is 300 while the indesign one is 180.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Okay. My only question here is: with the image open in Photoshop, what does the Info panel there show. Not the resizing menu, the static Info panel.

And what method are you using to place the image in ID? The Place menu, or cut and paste?

I've just experimented with both apps and a wide variety of images, and have found no discrepancies. I am betting that something in PS is misrepresenting the value, perhaps a standard conversion value rather than the actual. Look at the PS Info panel, and (maybe even more baseline-level) in the actual file folder, right-click and check the file values directly.

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

The static info panel from the Windows menu in PS doesn't show any info regarding the image res, it's only showing colors wherever i move my cursor on. Also, I use the place method for Indesign. P.S, bridge also shows it as 180 ppi, which is why I'm thinking that must be the actual size. Like i mentioned above, my ps preference is set to open any  new doc at 300 ppi. That's my best guess as to why the image automatically becomes 300 when i open it in PS. ( the reason i think i may be wrong is technically that shouldn't happen right. Because we neeed to check image resolutions of original photos on PS. So automating it to become 300 ppi is not what is correct right?)

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

I've also set my images to open on Camera raw first in PS, see it shows as 300 in camera raw also. But 180 in bridge and indesign 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I am mystified. Have you tried this in a completely fresh, new document? Just to see if it's some stuck setting in the ones you're working with?

And it may be yet another case for resetting your preferences.

But other than some bug at that level... I'm flummoxed.

I would still like to see what the raw file setting is, outside of any interpretation by an Adobe or other app.

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

Yes, i tried it with all the photos the client has sent me. they gave it to me saying these are all high resolution images for print. 😞 But in their defense, the sizes of these photos are very large, so technically, the 180 ppi will become 300 in effective ppi for many of the pics. but not for every one of them. So there's a little bit of manual work involved.

I really appreciate you ttaking  the time out to solve this mystery with me. Maybe once I'm done with this project, I'll re-install PS and see if that helps! Thanks so much once again!

Have a great day!

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

The reason this worries me is because I usually just blindly trust PS for when it comes to resolution etc of images. Today I just happened to see that they were of different resolutions in Indesign and photoshop. I'm a publciation designer by profession, so it's really important to understand what is happening and where I'm making a msitake.

[Frans v.d. Geest]

The screenshot from Photoshop looks like it shows the rescale dialog, so what you want it to become not what it is. What does it say in Bridge under info? There it should list the resolution as it is (for 100% image size).

Also:

"Like i mentioned above, my ps preference is set to open any  new doc at 300 ppi.'
I'm not sure what you mean: images open 'as is', at their original resolution (unless you use a script to upsample to 300 ppi...?). Or do you mean a blank new empty document/ if so: what do you do with that, paste into that? I'm confused here at what you mean by this...

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

no the photoshop screenshot is just the normal image size window. And the PS preference I'm talking about is this.

 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

There is definitely something wrong here; it's not just you and you should not have to distrust any of these apps. Once again, I suggest it's one of two things: either the file encoding itself, from your client, is wrong and is actually 180, or InDesign is glitched and using some factor or import value it shouldn't.

Use the OS level file detail viewer to see what the file itself thinks its PPI is. Not Bridge, or PS, or ID.

Try placing it in a completely raw, new file, not one with work and styles you've already created and worked in.

And try resetting your ID preferences.

Beyond that, it's kick it up to Adobe Support, I think.

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

I did that. Checked it on my MAc preview. It says 180 ppi. So I'm guessing it's a PS problem.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Always best to check "ground truth" before relying on interpreted data. 🙂

Photoshop takes a very complicated approach to images and I can think of a number of reasons why it would choose to interpret an image at some standard PPI rather than the one encoded in the file. Easy enough to fix with a batch process, though; if you can't straighten this out with your client, getting them to adjust their export and QC processes, easy enough to just run their stuff through a cleanup cycle.

Glad there was an absolute answer, even if it's a puzzling one.

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

Unfortunately, I've not yet found the absolute answer. PS stull shows my image as being 300 dpi whereas every where else it is 180. So i'm still stumped.

[rob day]

I've also set my images to open on Camera raw first in PS, see it shows as 300 in camera raw also. But 180 in bridge and indesign 

What’s the file format? You can’t place RAW format files in InDesign, so they must be a regular image format—.PSD, .TIFF, .JPEG, etc.

Open the file via Photoshop’s File>Open... then check Image>Image Size..., which will give you the actual output dimensions and resolution:

You can also right Click the lower left corner of the Window and show Document Dimensions:

[rob day]

I've also set my images to open on Camera raw first in PS, see it shows as 300 in camera raw also. But 180 in bridge and indesign 

[rob day]

What’s the file format? You can’t place RAW format files in InDesign, so they must be a regular image format—.PSD, .TIFF, .JPEG, etc.

[rob day]

Open the file via Photoshop’s File>Open... then check Image>Image Size..., which will give you the actual output dimensions and resolution:

[rob day]

[rob day]

You can also right Click the lower left corner of the Window and show Document Dimensions:

[rob day]

[Parvathi24881399xiqs]

I have tried all of the above. The files i place in indesign are jpegs or tiffs only. Not raw files. Please see this scrrenshot of my bottom left screen and the image>image size screen

  

. I've opened the image on photoshop via, PS>open>image name. It still shows as 300ppi. But the original image on my Mac preview, bridge , indesign everywhere is only 180. 

Do i conclude now that this is a glitch?

[Parvathi24881399xiqs · Accepted solution]

Oh My God. I just figured. So my Camera raw setting file handling was set to open all supported jpegs. So any photo i opened on PS, first opened with Camera raw. I just turned that off to Disable Jpeg and HEIC support. Now the image opens directly in PS first and it shows the correct resolution. So basically all i had to do was disable jpeg support in camera raw. 

I feel so silly and apologies for causing this concern. Thank you to one and all who've helped me work on this today. I really am grateful for all the support the community provides!