Photos blurry in InDesign

[MDoudna86]

Hello,

I am new to Indesign and trying to create a documents with a few photos in them.  When I photoshop my image in photoshop the image will look fine but when i place it in Indesign it is blurry and choppy. I have checked my setting and everything is set to high quality.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[Peter Spier]

Select the photo in ID, then open the Info panel or the Links panel and check the value for "effective ppi." What does it say?

[MDoudna86]

It says 89  x126... thanks for responding!

[Peter Spier]

89 x 126 means you scaled it unevenly, and 89 is a pretty low resolution, so it's very likely the source of the problem. Your pixels are being rendered large enough to pick them out with the naked eye.

In photoshop youare viewing the actual image pixels, and waht you see on screen is not affected by the resolution you choose to save at as long as you don't resample. In ID you are looking at those same pixels (well, a screen preview of the pixels, really), but now you've defined a physical size for the image, and the larger you make the image the bigger the pixles must be rendered, like blowing up a balloon with printing on it. No new pixels are added, they just get expanded or compressed as you scale.

[MDoudna86]

Thank you. As i said i am new to InDesign, do you have any suggestions on how i can best determine the size the photo needs to be before i place it in Indesign so i don't have to compress it when i place it.

[Peter Spier]

The resolution you need depends on the type of output you plan. For offset printing the rule of thumb is an effective resolution of 300 ppi. With a soft image and uncoated paper you can probably get by with 200 ppi., even a bit less for newsprint. For digital printing I like to see 200 ppi, but I'll settle for 180, and in a pinch as low as 150 ppi. For screen, 72 ppi is adequate.

Note that all of these values are EFFECTIVE resolutions, the actual pixel density at the size the image is being used on your page. The "actual" resolution number is the one save iin Photoshop and is totally irrelevant.

[MDoudna86]

How would i size my photo in photoshop so that it would give me a effective resolution of 300 ppi in InDesign?

Thanks again for your help!

[Peter Spier]

How big will the image be, in inches or mm or what ever? There is no single answer for how large an image must be -- it depends on how large you intend to use it.

Multiply the width in inches by 300 and that's the number of pixels in width that the image must have to give you 300 ppi. If there are more, you can use the image larger, or crop off part of it without losing quality. Do the same for the height.

[DMS Foto Dude · Accepted solution]

The problem MDoudna86 had is with the view setiing, not with the image itself. If you experience this problem in InDesign go to the View Menu>Display Performance and select Typical Display or High Quality Display. This should resolve the issue.

[inderevery]

it works! faced similar problems as MDoudna86 and your method helps!

[DMS Foto Dude]

Great!

[hans2569]

Same problem so I adjusted the settings in View Menu>Display Performance and select Typical Display or High Quality Display. It does work, but when I download the image and open it up again in Indesign the same issue of blurry images remains.

Any thoughts,

Thank you

Hans

[Peter Spier]

What is the effective resolution that's listed when you select the image?

[hans2569]

Thanks for replying, I got it all sorted out.

Hans

[yyyuhui]

Thank you! 100% solved the problem.

[nickdbane]

Thank you! Worked perfectly!!!

[kevins5576987]

I found that clicking each image and going to Object > Display Performance > High Quality Display fixed the issue for me. Seems to be the easiest way!!

[Peter Spier]

Faster to go to the prefs and disable object level display....

[mikeg6348648]

Until you try to print it. When you print it, it still comes out blurry. This setting is just for when you are viewing it on the computer screen. It does not fix the issue.

[Peter Spier]

If they print pixelated the images are either lacking the required resolution of the links are broken/out of date.

[james_dm83948507]

I'm having same problem. I use screenshots from and iPad, export these to PDFs, then import into Indesign. SOme are a little blurry and some are clear. I export the document into a PDF file for digital imaging and upload to mymobile 365. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[BobLevine]

Just place the screenshots directly into InDesign.

[bria513]

I'm having a similar issue.  Saving things at 300ppi in PS, then when placing in ID they're jagged.  Displaying at high quality doesn't fix it.  I've tried saving different ways, uploading to the CC library and dragging in, nothing seems to help so far.  On one of my images, I have an 'Actual PPI' of 72 and an 'Effective PPI' of 983 somehow.  My other image has an actual of 300 and effective of 304.  Ugh, why is this so confusing.  I'm new to ID as well, if you couldn't tell.

[Peter Spier]

Is Object Level Dispaly enabled? If it is, have you  right-clicked the images and checked to see they are set to High Quality Display?

What version of InDesign, OS and display resolution do you have?

[bria513]

It's not enabled.  I have InDesign CC, and it looks like I haven't updated it lately, so I'll do that first.  I was using the 2014 version.  I'm on Mac OS X Yosemite (10.10.5) and my resolution is 2560 x 1440.