Why does my pdf off-centered after placing into indesign?

[lauraa59895785]

I created a pdf and carefully made sure it was properly in the centre before I saved it. Now when I place it into another document in Indesign it is off by a few mm? I feel like I'm going crazy! H@ow is this possible?

[Willi Adelberger]

1. How do you create the PDF?
2. From which application and version?
3. What are the PDF settings?
4. How do you place it? What are your import options?
5. Has the PDF the same size?
6. Which standard do you use? PDF/X-4 is aways recommended.

[Bill Silbert]

Even if your document was visually centered in the original InDesign document there may have been edges of graphic or text frames that would change the overall x and y coordinates of the file. This would affect any centering of the placed pdf in the new InDesign document.

[Scott Citron]

When you place a PDF make sure you choose Import Options. On the Mac you can do this by holding Shift before clicking the OK button.

Doing so will allow you to place the PDF based on the artbox, bounding box, trim, with transparency, without transparency, etc. My guess is it's one of these settings which is behind your problem.