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carloss62701757
Participating Frequently
October 7, 2018
Answered

Indesign CC rendering Bitmap preview in low quality compared to CS6

  • October 7, 2018
  • 5 replies
  • 3848 views

Hello,

We have being working with Indesign CS6 for a long time now. We work in the manga industry and recently we upgraded to CC. The thing is that manga images are all bitmap files. While working in CS6 the images look fine, but same files in CC look terrible.

Please find attached screen capture of same pages in both versions ID. Top one is CS6, bottom ones is CC 2018. Both Windows 10.

ID Prefereces are both set to High Quality Display and all quality settings for High Quality Display are set to the maximum.

For a long time, we have being resistant to change to CC because of this issue, but we work with lots of designer and we want to make use of the new features of recent versions of ID, but working with bitmap files is an every thing for us and it is really annoying to the eye.

This only happens with bitmap images, if we convert to grayscale, it looks good, but in professional manga industry, working with grayscale images is not an option for us.

Hope anyone can help us. Thanks a lot.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Laubender

Hi Carlos,

please do a bug report here:

Adobe InDesign Feedback

Come back when done and post the link to the report so that we can vote for fixing the issue.

Regards,
Uwe

5 replies

rob day
rob day
Community Expert
June 12, 2024

This only happens with bitmap images, if we convert to grayscale, it looks good, but in professional manga industry, working with grayscale images is not an option for us.

 

Hi All, @carloss62701757 in the original post mentioned that converting to Grayscale fixes the problem, which is what I am seeing on my Cinema display.

 

It‘s worth noting that a conversion from Bitmap to Grayscale Mode does not introduce gray values in the image—the pixels remain either black or white, so there would be no affect on print output as long as there is no compression or downsampling allowed on the PDF Export.

J
Jef.Mod
Participating Frequently
June 12, 2024

I really appreciate your help and I thank you for it, I know this is an option and have already used this method at the beginning, but I personnaly would prefer Adobe trying to fix something that used to work than having to wait for a script to run for 200 page 2 times (bmp to gray then reverse, we are asked to keep the weight of the package on the lighter side) on every title that I work on...

J
Jef.Mod
Participating Frequently
October 19, 2022

We are at the end of 2022 and it's still a problem with the newest version (18.0), what a shame.

    J
    JacqueLinkin
    New Participant
    June 9, 2024

    It's 2024 and unfortunately, the issue persists. I would really like to know why this is happening.

    I work with a very large quantity of BMP files, and I would like to use the latest programs in my subscription, not be stuck with the outdated CS6 because of this.

    rob day
    rob day
    Community Expert
    June 9, 2024

    Hi @JacqueLinkin , One thing to note (which I don’t think was brought up in the original posts from 2018), is InDesign uses a JPEG proxy for placed image previews—it doesn’t preview the original Bitmap, and the proxy doesn’t affect the Export or Print quality. The proxy quaility might be affected by the zoom magnification and scale, so even if there is a difference in the preview quality, it doesn’t seem like that would be a reason to avoid newer versions because the output is not affected.

     

    I’m not seeing any difference when comparing CS6 and CC2021 (on OSX), when the bitmap is saved as a PSD and scaled at 100%. If I Export the page to PDF with Compression turned off, the BM pixel structure in the PDF is identical to the original PSD.

     

    Here the original PSD has an Actual and Effective Resolution of 1000ppi, placed at 100%, and viewed at 600% and 100%:

     

    CC2021

     

     

     

    CS6

     

     

     

    C
    carloss62701757Author
    Participating Frequently
    October 30, 2018

    It is really annoying.

    The thing is that it seems to only happen in Windows version because Mac version supports GPU acceleration and antialiasing works better...

    I got in contact with Adobe support at the same time as I open this forum topic and they say they would try to fix it... But that's all.

    It is really annoying and I cancelled my subscription to CC because of it...

    L
    LaubenderCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    October 30, 2018

    Hi Carlos,

    please do a bug report here:

    Adobe InDesign Feedback

    Come back when done and post the link to the report so that we can vote for fixing the issue.

    Regards,
    Uwe

    Bill Silbert
    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    October 7, 2018

    Please note my last post was about testing a bitmap import in InDesign on a Mac. I initially typed Illustrator but fixed it as soon as I realized. Bitmaps in CC InDesign on a Mac do seem to display OK.

    C
    carloss62701757Author
    Participating Frequently
    October 8, 2018

    We are suspecting is the anti-aliasing setting which is not working for bitmaps in ID CC.

    Anybody, please? =?

    L
    Laubender
    Community Expert
    October 22, 2018

    Hi Carlos,

    I'm willing to test this on my Windows 10 machine.

    InDesign CS6, CC all versions are installed.

    Unfortunately your sample bitmap is not available anymore.

    Regards,
    Uwe

    Bill Silbert
    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    October 7, 2018

    I tried to reproduce your results using images of my own converted to bitmaps but did not have the same problems that you had? Is this happening on just one PC or on more than one? When you make the bitmaps what settings are you using?

    C
    carloss62701757Author
    Participating Frequently
    October 7, 2018

    Hi, Thanks for your reply.

    This is happening in all my PCs. It is really annoying. We thought it might have to do with the Windows version of the program?

    You can download a sample of files we use from the following URL: WeTransfer

    It is a 600 dpi bitmap image.

    Bill Silbert
    Bill Silbert
    Community Expert
    October 7, 2018

    I tested your image and it looked fine in InDesign CC 2018. But, unfortunately in this instance, I am on a Mac which supports your theory that it is a Windows 10 issue. Hopefully, someone more versed in Windows will respond for you with a solution.

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