InDesign Images Still Changing Size When Link Is Updated

[gplumblee]

• Frame-Fitting Options set to None and Auto-Fit is not checked
• Make Content-Aware Fit the Default Frame Fitting Option is not checked
• Preserve Image Dimensions When Relinking is not checked

Yet STILL my images are changing size when the link is updated. What am I missing?

Thanks Community!

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hi @gplumblee,

We are sorry to hear that. A few more details will be very helpful-

• Please share the version of InDesign and the operating system you're working on.
• Have you tried saving your document to IDML and opening it as an InDesign document? Maybe that will get rid of any small corruption or oddity in the document. 
• Does that happen with all files or with a specific file?

We will try our best to help.

Thanks,

Harshika

[joes75077544]

I am a Long time InDesign user, and couldn't find anywhere else to report this bug. I found this post so figured I would reach out here hoping to reach Adobe support.

This is a bug in Indesign 2024 for me, it works correctly in Indesign 2023 (mac os, ventura 13.1). I have this issue when trying to adjust (choose different artboard) a link to an illustrator file (with different artboards, all identical sizes). When it updates the content is wider than frame. This is in a menu file that I've updated for 5 years the same way and have never had an issue. Usually you just relink the image select a different artboard and move on, this time the image updated and enlarged it to about 4x the size it was originally in the object/frame (so it was bleeding/cropped within frame). The illustrator file is unchanged for 5 years, aside from text updates and image (icons) changes. Resizing these images by hand everytime I need to relink one is cumbersome. I hope this is fixed quickly. Note "Preserve Image Dimensions When Relinking" is checked. I tested (restating each time) and this has no effect on this behavior when the udpates image is placed.

[joes75077544]

Reinstalled and this seems to be working correctly

[gplumblee]

I believe it has to do with this setting in preferences, which should be unchecked:

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @gplumblee,

Thanks for following up and sharing the update! I'm glad you're looking into the preferences setting. Has unchecking that option resolved the issue for you, or are you still experiencing changes in image size when updating links?

Feel free to let me know, and I'd be happy to assist further if needed!

Thanks, 
Abhishek Rao

[gplumblee]

Yes, unchecking that option resolved my issue way back when it was happening. I'm the one who was importing a lot of music examples into a student text book, and the percentage would change if a music correction caused the example to use more vertical space. All good now.

[leo.r]

(mac os, ventura 13.1)

By @joes75077544

Before anything else, make sure to update to the latest version of Ventura. You can have serious problems with InDesign on anything below macOS 13.5 (although not necessarily related to the issue you report).

[Peter Spier]

>> Preserve Image Dimensions When Relinking is not checked

Perhaps it should be checked. Are the two images actually the same size?

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

Agree

"Preserve Image Dimensions When Relinking"

Very definitely it should be checked.

[gplumblee]

Thanks guys. I must've misread some of the posts. I will make sure Preserve Image Dimensions… is checked.

[gplumblee]

Okay, I just checked and updated an image—and the percentage changed. I checked to make sure it was 100% beforehand, and after updating it, it was larger than 100%.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

..and you didn't change the image's dimensions/resolution at all?

ID remembers the physical pixel dimensions on the horizontal axis, so if you changed resolution, or cropped the image, that would affect what is says for percentage even if it imports exactly the same dimensions.

e.g. Place a 500x500 pixel (300ppi) image. size 100%

Via the links panel:

1. if you replace it with a 500x1000 pixel image, it will replace at 100%, but the extra image will be cropped off the bottom of the frame, since it maintains the horizontal dimension.

2. if you replaced it with a 400x500 pixel image, it will replace at 125%. It expands the 400 pixels to fit what the 500 original pixels previously occupied, and there will be now some image cropped off at the bottom.

As for changing resolution:

3. if you replace it with a 500x500 72ppi image, it will replace at 24%, as the pixel dimensions are the same

[gplumblee]

The images are music and diagrams that may change in width and height with each round of corrections. I just want to update them then hit Command-Option-C to make the frame fit the image nso that nothing new is cut off.

[Peter Spier]

You don't really have a good option here. Unless your images are the same aspect ratio you are always going to have adjustments to make in the frame. InDesign will either remember the image scaling factor and apply it, or it will remember the scaled dimension and apply that.If the aspect ratio is the same, then remembering dimensions is probably the best option as your frames won't need to change and your images will all be the same size on the page. If the aspect ratio is changing, I think I would do as you have been and not check the box to remember dimensions.

As Brad has mentioned, if you have saved the same pixel dimensions with different resolutions when you bring them into InDesign they are going to be scaled to different factors, so if you are not using the remember dimensions option it is vital that all of your images be saved at the same resolution to have the same relative size on the page. In theory an object style for your frames that automatically fit frame to content would be the way to go, but InDesign doesn't yet seem to have that ability.

The images are music and diagrams that may change in width and height with each round of corrections. I just want to update them then hit Command-Option-C to make the frame fit the image nso that nothing new is cut off.

By @gplumblee

So what about that is not working? That does seem to be the right approach.

[gplumblee]

Thank you Peter and Brad. I usually will import by Media, which has a page-sized bounding box put in by the music sofware., and that works fine without size changes. But when I am adding multiple music examples and diagrams on a page, it is better to crop to the images so there is no overlap. I feel like this used to work well until recently, so I'm not sure what changed. I just have to remember to check the sizes. 

I also thought that Clearing Frame Fitting Options—assigned to a key stroke—would reset sizes to 100%, but that was not the case. Is there another reset command? Because currently I have to change to the Direct Selection Tool, go up into the properties at the top and double-click on the percentage. When there are lots of these imports, this process becomes inefficient.

[Peter Spier]

Changing the crop option to "art" might also be a good idea.

[Sean5FDA]

Hi gplumbee,

I had a similar issue, and clearing "fitting frame options", checking/unchecking "Preserve image dimensions when Linking" in the file handling preferences, changing import setting (crop, art, bleed etc) had no affect on the outcome. The linked image would still be misaligned. I discovered that if I changed the import option to "Bounding Box (all Layers). Only then did the linked image replace correctly.
Hope this helps

[gplumblee]

Good to know. I've never used that, but it makes sense. Most of the books I put together don't have layered art imported, so it probably hasn't been of consequence. It was when the vertical size of an image changed—because of an added or deleted element—that it would shrink or enlarge to fit the parameters of its import frame.