PNG gets blurry when placing it in Indesign and Illustrator. Don't understand why.

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
November 1, 2022
3 replies
657 views

PNG looks fine when just viewed in standard image app, and fine in Photoshop, but when placing in indesign it gets messy. Even when opening it up in Ai the same happens. Nothing to do with display mode. Would be grateful for any help.

Import and export

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Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

InDesign only places a proxy image - not the actual image itself.

If you check the Links Panel it will show you the Resolution and the Effective resoltuion.

If the effective resolution is high enough for your needs then this is what counts.

I wrote an article here

https://creativepro.com/high-res-image-look-low-res/

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

FWIW, I rarely have 'perceptual' issues with images in ID. I am not sure if I'm just used to them being somewhat degraded or if the performance varies across platforms and hardware.

The acid(-ish) test would be a quick export to PDF to see if the output resolution is acceptable.

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Øystein26902468xdjcAuthor

Participant

Yes, i did that, and the result is the same.

Thanks for all the help. I'll think i'll try to make a vectorized version.

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

PNG is a pixel file. Scaling a pixel file causes always a blurry image. Do you have an alternative file type like ai or PDF/X4? If so, use that.

James Gifford—NitroPress

Legend

What's the actual size/resolution of the PNG file? Some viewers will show even relatively small files cleanly, but the more demanding apps show it "as is" when placed.

Also — in ID, do you have the Display Performance set to High Quality and not Typical or Fast?