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Anonymous

Answered

Pixelated images (with High Quality Display turned on)

Forum|Forum|14 years ago
October 10, 2011
3 replies
26901 views

Here's my problem: The images look sharp on the internet, but when I download them, place them in Indesign and print them, the look pixelated!

Take this one for example: http://media.smashingmagazine.com/images/typefaces/productus.gif

It's resolution is 72 ppi. But when I place it onto the Indesign A4 page (or Letter format for that matter) it occupys almost entire width of the page.

Why is it so? Why is it so big by default without enlarging it? It's kinda logic that a small 72 ppi image stretched across the whole page will appear blurry when printed on 300 dpi printer.

So how can I set the indesign page to 300 ppi/dpi so images with lower restion will appear smaller when placed on the page and - will be printed sharp?

This topic has been closed for replies.

Correct answer

are you placing it in a frame? The frame may be of a size that the effective ppi just happens to be 72, Place it in a smaller frame....

what does your actual PPI say in the INFO panel (with object selected)

G

Hey y'all, thanks for help - I figured out what the problem was!

The image has GIF extention! If you increase the resolution of the GIF in Photoshop while maintaining pixel size, and then save it, the new file has the same resolution as the previous one because of the GIF compression.

I have to save it in PNG so the new resolution is actually saved. Now when I place it in Indesign, it gets placed at 300 actual&effective resolution.

Yeah, well I'm glad it finnaly works.

P.S.: I'm heading over to Photoshop help to learn how to use Actions to automaticly change the resolution of 200 images. See you around!

C

Cornelius29120924mwlu

Participant

Obvious one here but I've tried that when you view images in I design it will automatically display them as a lower quality resolution by default!
if you go View... screen mode

high quality!! That should display them at the quality they will be printed at🙂

Peter Spier

Community Expert

I think your size problem (if you scaled in Photoshop without resampling) probably has more to do with the setting of your preference for preserving dimensions or scaling on relink. If you preserve dimensions, you'd see the behavior you describe since the number of pixels remains contstant.

As far as your question about setting all images to 300 ppi in ID, that is scriptable. I think there is even one already floating around that will allow you to select an image and choose a resolution.

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Anonymous

@Peter Spier

Where can you specify this preference?

And you mean there's a script for InDesign? Wow, it would be cool to get it. So far I solved that problem by recording an Action in Photoshop and than apply it to all the images using Batch command.

@Daniel Flavin

I'm creating a poster with the images of typefaces from different articles from smashingmagazine.com. Some are installed but majority are not.

the website posted samples of many wonderful typefaces so far, which will serve for an inspiration when printed out.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

mike.n03 wrote:
Where can you specify this preference?
And you mean there's a script for InDesign? Wow, it would be cool to get it. So far I solved that problem by recording an Action in Photoshop and than apply it to all the images using Batch command.

Preference is down at the bottom of the File Handling section ... Check the bos to preserve dimensions and a the relinked file will be scaled back to the same size in ID. Uncheck, and the scale percentage will be preserved.

Almost anything is scriptable in ID (but I don't write them). I recall a script that was posted a year or two ago that would allow you to select an image and type a desired effective resolution into a dialog. The image would get scaled to reach that effective ppi. Your batch action in Photoshop is fine, and useful if you want to palce everything at 100%, but it isn't required to change the resolution in Photshop to achieve what you want. Scaling in ID is exactly the same thing as changing the resolution without resampling in Photoshop. No pixels are added, removed or altered -- only their dispalyed size is changed. If you want a script to set all images to 300 ppi effective resolution, you should probably pay a visit to the scripting forum.

Peter Spier

Community Expert

Resolution only becomes relevant when you put theimage onto paper. On the web, the number that means something is the pixel dimension.

If your image is 720 pixels wide at 72 ppi, it will be 10 inches wide on your page, and it will look pixelated in print. Scale it to approximately 2.5 inches to get it to an "effective" 300 ppi for print. In the info panel you will see values for both "actual" and "effective" resolution. For print, the opnly one that matters is effective.

A

Anonymous

Thanks for clearing this up for me.

But is there a way to scale all imported images to Effective resolution 300 ppi? I work on a poster that will include at least 200 images and it would take a lot of time to resize every single one of them...

If I resize them in Photoshop to 300 ppi and place them in InDesign, they still get placed at 72 ppi resolultion - they just appear bigger.

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Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

Ok, I get this. But even if I change resolution in Photoshop from 72 ppi to 300 ppi - with pixel dimentions staying the same and actual size in inches/cm decreases - and place it in Indesign, the image gets paced at 72 ppi actual&effective resolution. That's what's bothers me. It should be placed a 300 ppi.

How can you get all imported images to effective resolution 300 ppi in Indesign, without manually scaling every sningle one of them after they are beeing imported?

You should turn off "Resample Image" when inputting the 300 ppi for the Image Size in photoshop

That will lock the Pixel Size and decrease the width and height to the correct size.

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