InDesign Document Setup and Image Resolution

Report · May 17, 2019

Hi,

I am creating a standard screen use PDF file in InDesign.

Whenever I create a new document at a resolution of 1280x800 and place an image that was created in Photoshop to the same resolution of 1280x800 @ 72ppi, the placed image has a size of 640x400 with an Actual ppi of 72 and an effective ppi of 144.

I want this image to be full-screen so I scale the image up to fill the canvas but it becomes badly blurred and pixelated. (The info panel says it now has an Actual ppi of 72 and an effective ppi of 72.) Note: I have all the display settings for the document and the specific image(s) to be High-Quality Display.

Why is the placed image not coming in at the correct 1280x800 resolution of the document and why the loss in image quality when scaling to a matching document size.

Finally, when I use the Zoom Tool to set the view to be Actual Size it sets the view to be larger than 1280x800.

Thanks,

Eoin

Report · May 18, 2019

Yes, it will probably be full screen on iOS. But that doesn't mean it will be usable by a human with ordinary eyesight. They will need to zoom unless it is a very simple page with big elements on it. That same page will be a major annoyance to people on a computer.

Bottom line, if you want to be responsive, use a responsive format. HTML can do a great job of this. Nothing is going to be marvellous without reformatting on screens from a couple of inches to over a yard.

Report · May 18, 2019

I gave up on this after a while — at the beginning I asked the OP twice what s/he wanted the final output to be and I never received an answer - and that’s why we’ve been going around in circles with mentions of pixels, PDFs, ePubs, Photoshop, InDesign, screen sizes, resolutions, tablets and more.

Presumably that’s why Bob stated he thought the OP was overthinking this project!

Report · May 18, 2019

Hi Derek,

Sorry, I did indeed neglect to address the second part of your initial reply. I did respond about the intended use in post #18 in response to Bob's reply about the intended use. However just to note, the first line in my post was:

"I am creating a standard screen use PDF file in InDesign."

Thanks,

Eoin

Report · May 18, 2019

However just to note, the first line in my post was:
"I am creating a standard screen use PDF file in InDesign."

The important bit of information came later—the PDF will not be printed (it's ok to use pixel units), and ideally the image quality needs to work on (any?) iPad.

If that's the case, the simple answer is set the document’s width to the largest iPad‘s pixel width (2732px) and keep the placed images’ Effective res at a minimum of 72ppi. If you want a client on the largest iPad to be able to zoom in on an image and keep a high quality, then the Effective res should be higher than 72ppi. When making that decision, you have to consider PDF's compressed file size vs. the audiences bandwidth.

Report · May 18, 2019

https://forums.adobe.com/people/rob+day wrote
However just to note, the first line in my post was:
"I am creating a standard screen use PDF file in InDesign."
The important bit of information came later—the PDF will not be printed (it's ok to use pixel units), and ideally the image quality needs to work on (any?) iPad.
If that's the case, the simple answer is set the document’s width to the largest iPad‘s pixel width (2732px) and keep the placed images’ Effective res at a minimum of 72ppi. If you want a client on the largest iPad to be able to zoom in on an image and keep a high quality, then the Effective res should be higher than 72ppi. When making that decision, you have to consider PDF's compressed file size vs. the audiences bandwidth.

Hi Rob,

Not sure I get what you mean by 'the important bit of information came later' as I mentioned in the first line of my first post the plan for the PDF is 'standard screen use' Also, I mentioned in subsequent posts that the intended use was iPad/Pc Screens and not print.

Eoin

Report · May 18, 2019

Just to note:

For anyone who has a similar issue - from what I have tested, bigger is better. When I place a 1024 x 768 px image into an iPad (1024 x 768 px) preset template the image is very badly pixelated (when viewed in InDesign @ actual pixels and in the exported PDF), but when I adopted a larger resolution template of 2048x1536 the overall quality was better than before on all platforms (iPad and PC screens) The compromise being file size and making sure the view settings at PDF export were set to Fit Height so the starting view for the client on PC screens was already set to show the full page.