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davuudg70928086
Participant
Feb 10, 2021 6:05 PM UTC
Answered

indesign export for print

Issue with exporting to pdf for print, taken off compression as it is a large scale print that's required.

The file size ends up being 100mb+ yet preflight in acrobat shows it to be 52ppi, does anyone know why this is and could please help?

 

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Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.comCorrect answer
Legend
Feb 10, 2021 6:29 PM UTC

Many things affect the final size and resolution of the PDF. Here are a few of the most common ones to check.

 

  1. In InDesign, select each graphic in the Links Panel and check its Actual PPI (pixels per inch) and Effective PPI in the lower "Link Info" section.
    • Actual PPI is the resolution of the graphic before it was placed into InDesign and possibly resized.
    • Effective PPI is the final resolution of the graphic after its resized, and is what will end up in the Acrobat PDF.
    • You want the Effective PPI to be high enough for your print requirements, mostly 300 PPI or even 400 PPI.
  2. In InDesign's Export utility, select the correct settings to maintain the resolution for print.
  • Select the PDF (Print) file type.
  • At the next dialogue, select Press and then PDF/X-4:2010 as the Standard. This is the press industry's standard for PDF files that maintains all the resolution and color settings you built into the InDesign layout.

 

|    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
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4 replies

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
Feb 10, 2021 6:44 PM UTC

I noticed your terminology “taken off compression.” Does that mean you exported with no compression whatsoever of the images therein? If so, that doesn't help you one iota and could be the cause of any file bloat. If your concern is that JPEG image compression is “lossy” then use ZIP compression compression which is lossless (no loss of quality) or even JPEG2000 lossless compression.

 

The resolution (ppi) depends on two factors, the resolution of the images placed into your InDesign document and how they are scaled within InDesign in combination with what downsampling you specified when you exported PDF.

 

Generally speaking, following @Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com's recommendation for using the PDF/X-4 settings will yield best results as a starting point. 🙂

 

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- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
    davuudg70928086Author
    Participant
    Feb 10, 2021 6:47 PM UTC

    thank you both for your responses @Dov Isaacs & @Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com  you have helped a lot!

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    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Legend
    Feb 10, 2021 11:58 PM UTC

    Always glad to help!

     

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    |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.com
    Bevi Chagnon - PubCom.comCorrect answer
    Legend
    Feb 10, 2021 6:29 PM UTC

    Many things affect the final size and resolution of the PDF. Here are a few of the most common ones to check.

     

    1. In InDesign, select each graphic in the Links Panel and check its Actual PPI (pixels per inch) and Effective PPI in the lower "Link Info" section.
      • Actual PPI is the resolution of the graphic before it was placed into InDesign and possibly resized.
      • Effective PPI is the final resolution of the graphic after its resized, and is what will end up in the Acrobat PDF.
      • You want the Effective PPI to be high enough for your print requirements, mostly 300 PPI or even 400 PPI.
    2. In InDesign's Export utility, select the correct settings to maintain the resolution for print.
    • Select the PDF (Print) file type.
    • At the next dialogue, select Press and then PDF/X-4:2010 as the Standard. This is the press industry's standard for PDF files that maintains all the resolution and color settings you built into the InDesign layout.

     

    Translate
    |    Bevi Chagnon   |  Designer, Trainer, & Technologist for Accessible Documents ||    PubCom |    Classes & Books for Accessible InDesign, PDFs & MS Office |
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