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Known Participant
December 16, 2017
Answered

Indesign PDF Export results in jagged lines when zoomed OUT!

  • December 16, 2017
  • 2 replies
  • 3679 views

Hi,

My image appears to be jagged when the zoom is close to 100% but the jaggedness disappears at 200-300% zoom.

The pdf is exported with no downsampling. I got similar esults even with downsampling. I also varied my original image resolution from 300-1200 dpi and tried jpeg and png formats.

Thank you for your time.

Here is the link to the pdf:

jagged_issue.pdf - Google Drive

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer rob day

My image appears to be jagged when the zoom is close to 100% but the jaggedness disappears at 200-300% zoom.

That's expected behavior with fine line art drawings. The more you reduce the image the fewer screen pixels are available to resolve and display the drawing’s fine lines. If you leave the lines as vectors you might get some improvement with how the lines are anti-aliased for display at lower zoom percentages, but the available screen resolution as the preview gets reduced will always be a factor.

2 replies

rob day
Community Expert
rob dayCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
December 16, 2017

My image appears to be jagged when the zoom is close to 100% but the jaggedness disappears at 200-300% zoom.

That's expected behavior with fine line art drawings. The more you reduce the image the fewer screen pixels are available to resolve and display the drawing’s fine lines. If you leave the lines as vectors you might get some improvement with how the lines are anti-aliased for display at lower zoom percentages, but the available screen resolution as the preview gets reduced will always be a factor.

Willi Adelberger
Community Expert
Community Expert
December 16, 2017

IOn which programm did you make these drawings? If it is Illustrator, why did you use JPG or PNG?

Known Participant
December 16, 2017

I made it in illustrator and then painted it in Photoshop. Hence jpeg or png

Known Participant
December 16, 2017

There is no reason I can see to have used Photoshop for this. Do it all in Illustrator, save as AI or PDF and place in InDesign to maintain the vectors.


Yes, I could, but this was made by someone else. The other images dont appear jagged.

Also, I expect the images to appear jagged when zoomed in and not the other way around right?