Everything becomes bolded when placing AI/PDF file

[nathan_snorelander]

For some reason whenever I try to place this illustrator file into my indesign file all the text on the page and in the placed documant gets bolded. I have tried importing the file as a PDF and a PNG too it still does the same thing. I included two photos, one with the placed documant and own without so you can see the difference in the text. It is only this file that is giving me this problem, I have even tried resaving the AI file and nothing has worked.

[Barb Binder · Accepted solution]

I see that it looks bold but is this just a screen refresh issue? Try zooming in and then back out. Click on the text: is bold actually activated? Does it print/export to PDF as bold? I'm guessing it is a visual anomaly.

~Barb

[nathan_snorelander]

Looks like the issue does go away when exporting to PDF. Do you know why it might be displaying like this in InDesign though?

[Barb Binder]

Hi @nathan_snorelander:

Sometimes InDesign just doesn't display content accurately—usually I can zoom in/out or change pages and it corrects itself. But if I'm concerned, I check the type specifications. I rely exclusively on styles for formatting, so working with the Style Override Highlighter enabled also helps me quickly differentiate between an actual issue and a display issue.

~Barb

[Steve Werner]

If it only happens with that one file and not others, there's a possibility that there's some subtle corruption in the file. Sometimes, saving a file as IDML (File > Save As > InDesign CS4 or Later [IDML]) will clear corruption. Open the IDML file into InDesign again and see if the problem disappears.

[Randy Hagan]

Did you render the fonts as outlines? Sometimes, when you turn text characters into drawings of the original letters, it may appear that the letterforms "thicken up" after creating outlines, but it will print fine on output.

To see if this is a big deal for you or not, I'd suggest:

• Zooming the display zoom percentage to different views (e.g. 100%-200%-50%-Fit in Window views) to see if it appears the same at different screen views.
• As Barb Binder suggested, try outputting a PDF/printing it and seeing if it appears bolded in the final product. It usually doesn't.

Hope this helps,

Randy

[Bill Silbert]

Try switching to High Quality Display (View>Display Performance>High QualityDisplay) and see if it looks any closer to the original file.