Find all images that are larger than their frame

[FrederikSt]

I seem to have accidentally, or on insert cropped a few of my images. All of them are cropped outside inDesign, so I want to make sure all images fit their frames and automatically spot those that don't. Is there a function for that?

[tacoeater]

Hello FrederikST

The only way I can think of outside of scripting would be; Open up object style pallette. If you haven't assigned an object style select [Basic Graphis Frame] then open up its options. If you then go to its fitting options you'll be able to globly assign the images to fit to frame.

However this will apply to every image.

[John Mensinger]

It may be possible to script "detection" (and perhaps correction) of ill-fitting frames, but I couldn't help with that.

Using Find/Change > Object, you could find image frames with no auto-fit settings and apply auto-fit; you'd just have to decide whether you want to auto-refit the images to the frames or auto-refit the frames to the images.

[tacoeater]

This is a much better option than what I suggested. This'll allow for you to go through one by one if you require.

[FrederikSt]

This is my first project in inDesign and what I did for my images was: Create one image and its caption, then I used copy paste, dropped the new image and corrected the frame size. Usually it was fit frame to image, but I had to manually correct some. Maybe that was bad, but I remember auto fitting options not to work that well.

I just manually messed up one image and tried to find it with the method suggested, did not find it.

I think that's because in general the option fit frame to content is enabled, but I had to override it when the frame was not the correct size.

[rob day]

This is my first project in inDesign and what I did for my images was: Create one image and its caption, then I used copy paste, dropped the new image and corrected the frame size. 

Where are you copying from? Usually it’s not best practice to copy and paste from another application—you should use File>Place to add an image to the page or into a selected frame. Placed images are linked and you have the option to edit the original. If you place an image directly on the page, the image and its parent frame have the same geometric bounds.

[FrederikSt]

I did not copy paste from another application, just in between indesign docs.

[Laubender]

Hi Frederik,

to answer your question: No, there is no function to detect the ones.

Would be a wonderful feature request for InDesign's Preflight function.

Go to InDesign UserVoice and speak up:

https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/601021-adobe-indesign-feature-requests

Note: Some years ago Marc Autret did a wonderful article about the issue to detect frames where the contents does not fill the frames entirely. There you will find some code that could be the basis for a scripting solution:

2/ Graphics and Geometry
Does My Container Extend Beyond Its Inner Image Frame?

by Marc Autret

https://www.indiscripts.com/post/2016/12/indesign-scripting-forum-roundup-10#hd2

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[FrederikSt]

I might do that, but I hope never to have to touch this mess of a program again. Check my other questions about reaaally basic stuff that required hacks, workarounds and often got no answers at all.
Sorry for the rant but every other click I think: Has any of the devs actually used this program for a book?

[FrederikSt]

Thanks for the tips and the link, though.

[Laubender]

Hi Frederik,

you said, that you used InDesign the first time for this project.

May I ask what application you used before and why you switched to InDesign?

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[FrederikSt]

It was pretty lame, but in the beginning we used google docs, which was great for collab, but bad for automated features like image counting.

Then Latex, which I like, but I almost broke my brain over some minor details that could be achieved if I were just able to move a figure manually. After not finding a solution we switched to inDesign. Sole reason for the Adobe version (there is an Affinity equivalent) is that it supports epub.

In conclusion: Google Docs: Not meant for large scale, Latex: awesome, but hard to manage some details. inDesign: children's toy, but I hope it'll get the job done.

Here are some reasons why I can't take inDesign seriously:

 - The Conveyorbelt. Can't I just make one doc, store all my graphics and link them to the other docs? I have to use this incredibly cumbersome setup everytime I want to use my graphs in another document.
- No Comments for others and the ability to comment on them or mark as done.

- No math formular support.

- Synching styles between docs belonging to the same book is insane. I can't sync single styles and accidentally overwrite styles I changed in another doc.

- Can't wrap the first line of text around an image. Can't wrap the text of a table and the text around the same image.

- Can't place links to headings, need to create a text anchor for each one.

Just the first few reasons that come to mind, if I check my Skype history I'll find a ton more where I just thought: seriously? You are calling this professional?

[tacoeater]

Hello FrederikSt,

I am sorry that indesign is frustrating you. It has been built in a way that gives you a lot of power but... and there is a huge but it doesn't do any of the work for you out of the box. Most of things can be automated but you have to set up your document in a way to take advantage of it.

The Conveyorbelt. Can't I just make one doc, store all my graphics and link them to the other docs? I have to use this incredibly cumbersome setup everytime I want to use my graphs in another document.

You can do this. It's called CC Libraries. This is a palette you can drop all your graphs and images into and access them in other documents. These will be set up as a cloud library so you can access them any where. Find this under Windows > CC Libraries.

- No Comments for others and the ability to comment on them or mark as done.

Yah Indesign is a little late to this party. But if you export the document as PDF you can get others to comment on the pdf. After this using Windows > Comments > PDF Comments to import it into your document
Alternatively you can just use Windows > Comments > Review. This will allow you to publish your document online and make it public or private, giving access to other to comment on the document. This comments will automatically feed into your document review palette.

- No math formular support.

Out of the Box you are correct. But it does have access to a Javascript engine. Scripting can be setup to handle complex maths. Or Alternatively just do it in excel and import it in.

- Synching styles between docs belonging to the same book is insane. I can't sync single styles and accidentally overwrite styles I changed in another doc.

Indesign Styles are very powerful, but at the same time very complex. If you have a style called 'bob' in one document and a 'bob' in another that is different style, you copy across the content the new style will take over. In some ways if you don't know this it can come across very painful. But if you do know this it can be a very powerful tool. Recommendation would be if you need a set base with your styles make them, but any changes you deviate from them rename the style. ie Master_H1_Red.

That way you can track whats changed.

- Can't wrap the first line of text around an image. Can't wrap the text of a table and the text around the same image.

This should work. Maybe submit a image of this. Sounds like a bug.

A table is actually a type of text if you have a text wrapped image it'll push the table around and not the content.
I think this was decided as the best use case. However there seems to be a bug stopping content pasted in the table from wrapping.

- Can't place links to headings, need to create a text anchor for each one.

Table of contents can do this automatically and create a linkable ToC for you. This can be found in Layout > Table of Contents.

[FrederikSt]

Thank you verymuch for the detailed reply.

I should have clarified, whit 'graphics' I didn't mean images, I meant constructs of shapes that I created in indesign. I'm not sure if I can create an SVG that is supposed to become a custom text box and then change the size of the body without distorting the rounded edges, sprite-style. So I tried to create this from shapes in inDesign. Somewhat worked, but I could not insert it into the main text frame, I guess because it includes a text body.

I'm working on an encyclopedia I need to be able to link from a text (word) in chapter 5 to a section heading in chapter 7. I have to go to ch. 7, create an anchor, go back to 5 and choose from a tiny menu the anchor I created. I have no problems with the ToC.

Creating a PDF So that others can comment, then find the chapter where the comment belongs to, scroll down to that line and have the pdf open on my 2. monitor, so I can see them both. That's a hack, a workaround at best. Same goes for the method of creating boxes with the comment and put them out of page bounds.

I get the styles system. I can see that it's good for automation. But if they all belong to ONE book, why in the world are styles with the same name copies, not instances? And why can't I just right-klick on one style that I changed, choose: apply for all chapters or something. I never want bob in doc a to be different from bob in doc b. I would use another name for that.

For the image that can't wrap the way I want it to:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/anchoring-an-image-does-not-make-the-first-line-respect-the-...

There are also some tiny issues, but they do add up and definetly keep me from recommending it to anyone.
- Using new line in an image caption creates a new image number.
- Sometimes the image captions have moved (I must have missed when it happened) independently from the image and dragging and resizing just makes them jump back as soon as you release the mouse.

- I guess this is intentional, but I don't get it. If I disable border in a table, I also have to go into the cell style and a bunch of other styles to disable their borders. Why no override?

- Why is the language for spellchecking hidden in 3 places? And sometimes a overrides b and sometimes vice versa. Have not found the logic yet.

- Why does the book warn me that my docs have been altered outside the book, even though the last changes were made by opening the chapter from the book overview. Makes me nervous that I missed something.

There are some more that I have made peace with, because just because I think it's a bad idea to put that button there, doesn't mean people agree.

I have similar issues with PS. In my opinion the older an Adobe product is, the worse the UI. They seem to be afraid to spook users from 1980 by putting a button to where it belongs, according to 40 years of UI development and research. After Effects is well done when it comes to logic in UI, functionality and workflow. I have a hard time believing those 3 were made by the same company.
I'm almost afraid to out me here, but this is the philosophy of the greatest program I know when it comes to workflow: Have the devs and the users sit in the same room. When there's an issue or an idea regarding the workflow, mention it and if enough people agree, fix/move it. Do not care if users over 70 have a problem with this new feature/location, and also expect professional users to adapt to a button being in a different location if it makes more sense. I'm talking about Blender. People may have a hard time learning the basics, but once you grasp the concept, you can work with it so fast, you wish more programs would be this unconventional.

[FrederikSt]

P.S. This just happened to me, too. An error message would have been nice.

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign/pages-won-t-delete-in-indesign/td-p/9800680?page=1

If you need a 5 page description how to remove a single page, it's fundamentally not well thought of.

[FrederikSt]

UI is like a joke. If you have to explain it in detail, it's not good.

[FrederikSt]

Sorry for my tone though. I appreciate you guys trying to help me.

Thanks

[rob day]

All of them are cropped outside inDesign,

Why are you cropping outside of ID? The point of the image container frame is to allow easy cropping and scaling of the placed (or pasted) image without leaving the layout for edits. Pasted images are embedded with no reference to the original (there’s no link). A large document with many embedded images could easily bloat into multiple gigabytes.

[FrederikSt]

Why would I save my images larger than they have to be? I don't embed images, I link to them, so I can easily exchange them.

[rob day]

Create one image and its caption, then I used copy paste,

You said you were pasting—unless the copy is a link from another ID doc, pasted images are embedded.

You leave them uncropped so you can change your mind and adjust the scale and cropping in the layout via the image’s scale or its parent container frame. When you export to PDF for printing the PDF bitmaps get cropped—with disk space running at $20 a terabyte the uncropped linked image costs nothing.

[FrederikSt]

Most of my images are renderings, some even have a few pixels frame around them, they need to be placed and cropped exactly how I pre-planned it. I don't care that much about disk space, it's just cumbersome to crop images pixel perfect inside ID and I don't see the point since I can prepare them exactly how I need them.

When I say I created an image and the captions, yes, that was inside ID, don't really know how to create and import the caption as such outside of ID.

[rob day]

it's just cumbersome to crop images pixel perfect inside ID

Are you working for print or web? For a typical grayscale or color print image resolution (300ppi), a line of pixels would be half the size of a 150lpi halftone screen—the image gray values would be converted into halftone or stochastic screen dots at output and you would not see the pixels in the print. If you are working with black and white line art, the effective resolution needs to be much higher 1000ppi +. At that resolution the pixels would not be discernable in output without magnification.

It's quite easy to add a frame stroke of any dimension to the image’s parent frame.

[rob day]

Also the Display Performance set to High Quality there’s plenty of resolution in the link proxy for cropping to the pixel—here I’m cropping the top row of image pixels in ID with the same image in Photoshop showing in front:

[FrederikSt]

I'm working for web, but that's not too important. Not all my images need a frame. In those that have it, the frame was inserted into the original png by my scripts. I don't want to go into detail, but it's easier this way.

I think you are missing my point (sorry if I was imprecise). I don't need all the fancy stuff. I know how to show them at full res. I don't want to mess with different image styles for frames that are supposed to do the same thing.

All I want is for them the pictures to stay as they are and if I accidentally messed it up, I'd like to be able to spot it reliably.