changing images to 300dpi within indesign

[par1sons]

Hi again only me, lol

Within Illustrator have an action set up so i can automatically change the resolution of an image to 300dpi with one click.

I know Indesign doesnt use actions but is there away of simply setting a script to action this very time saving exercise?

Andy

[Eugene Tyson]

You don't need to do this.

Make a PDF

Go to File>Export and in the Compression section of the dialog box there is the option to Downsample All Images to 300 ppi that are above 450.

However:

There are scripts to resize images to do this http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/exchange/index.cfm?event=extensionDetail&extid=1833529

(Window>Automation> Scripts) CS5 it's Under (Window>Utilities>Scripts)

Installing scripts

http://indesignsecrets.com/how-to-install-scripts-in-indesign.php

Why do you want to change all the images to 300 ppi ? There's no need.

There are two things to look for in the Window>Info Panel

When you place an image check teh Info Panel

It will have actual and effective PPI

Actual will show you the ppi that is resident in the file.

Effective will show you the PPI in relation to how it was scaled within InDesign

As long as Effective PPI is 300 ppi or higher then all is fine.

Generally there is no need to go to open all your images and save them as 300 ppi

Just use them as they are - even if they are "effectively" over 300 ppi it won't matter.

When you make the PDF for print you can downsample the images there - reducing the size of the PDF.

[par1sons]

great response thank you

My images need to be 300dpi no less or larger for pagination reasons thats all. The pagination software i use which is old but does the job requires 300dpi.  Not only that it helps keep the file sizes down.

I will take a look at that scripting, cheers

Andy

[Eugene Tyson]

Does the Pagination Software use PDFs?

If so - take a look at what I said about creating PDFs and downsampling the PDFs there.

Much quicker than resizing all your images.

I used to resize all my images when I used Quark. I had an action setup in Photoshop to convert to CMYK and change PPI to 300 - And converting 1000 images for a school journal took most of my morning and where I picked up my caffine addiciton and got really good at crosswords.

RGB images can be converted to CMYK on output. And images above 300 ppi can be downsampled to 300 ppi on export. Takes no time at all - saves you trip to photohsop (effectively cutting out two steps in the process).

Time is money

[Peter Spier]

But exporting to PDF won't upsample (except under very special circumstances).

[par1sons]

The pagination is a different department to mine so i have a very basic knowledge of it. Its does use PDF's to paginate but when the boss says make sure all images are 300dpi, i make sure they are. Remember, within one advert you may get 2 or 3 images max so to bring them in at the correct dpi is no great effort.

You mentioned RGB converted to CMYK, i have noticed when doing that process the image colour quality can be worse once converted to CMYK because you have one more channel which alters the colour balances.

Andy

[Eugene Tyson]

Yeh that's true.