Exporting to PDF gradients

[graphicsm51617998]

When exporting picture with gradient from Indesign for print, bandy posterization affect happening that does not occur when printing image in raw tiff form.

I have tried a number of export options and turning off compression helps a bit but still there.

Any advice? Thanks

[Jeffrey_Smith]

You could try selecting "Do Not Downsample" when exporting to PDF. But keep in mind, this may increase PDF file size greatly.

Also, you could try sizing the image in Photoshop to the 100% size needed in layout.

[graphicsm51617998]

Yeah Ive tried 'do not downsample' and it improved it but nowhere near as good as the raw image.

I want to implement this as a standard save setting as we print a lot of stuff and need to do our lay ups in Indesign.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

The image(s) in question are definitely TIFF?

[graphicsm51617998]

Yes definitely. It is a render saved as a photoshop tif.

But should it matter what the link is? The image problem is happening once exporting from Indesign.

[Jeffrey_Smith]

The format does matter. TIFF uses lossless compression, this will preserves image quality, while not compressing data as much. JPEG uses lossy compression, this will make a smaller file, but quality suffers.

An image with gradations, saved as JPEG format or exported with JPEG compression will have subtle or even extreme banding. The suggestion would be to use TIFF, and you are.

A TIFF image, placed in Indesign, exported with no compression and no downsampling should produce the same quality compared to the native file.

Can you share an image?

[Jeffrey_Smith]

Are the TIFF images layered?

Are there transparent elements on the page with TIFF images?

And what PDF export format are you using?

[Laubender · Accepted solution]

Hi graphicsm51617998 ,

test the following:

Save the PSD file as PDF with a PDF/X-4 setting where the pixels are not downsampled.

Place this PDF with your layout and export the page.

Regards,

Uwe