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Eric Reuss
Participating Frequently
Jul 8, 2020 2:37 AM UTC
Answered

Viewing page with placed image causes document to be marked as dirty (needs saving)?

When I open an InDesign file, after I first view any portion of a page that has a placed image on it, roughly 2-10 seconds later the document gets marked as dirty (asterisk by the filename). It's odd, and kind of annoying, both because of the needless prompt for saving when I close it, and because when I'm deep in the weeds opening and looking through multiple documents it can make me second-guess whether I actually *do* need to save something.

 

I assumed this was a bug and made a report... but then I thought to try it in earlier versions, and it's happening all the way back to 14.0.3. (I jumped straight from CS3 to CC recently.)

 

So now I'm second-guessing myself: is this actually expected behavior? Is something really being changed / updated when a page containing a link is rendered? (If it's just that I have some preference set that's, I don't know, dynamically adjusting some layout setting based on linked images, I'm going to feel both kind of silly and rather relieved.)

 

[EDIT: I don't seem to be able to make >1 correct answer show; the TL;DR is:

 • No, it's not expected behavior;

 • It only happens for PNGs, and only when the PNG is at higher than 72dpi resolution.]

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Barb Binder
Barb BinderCorrect answer
Community Expert
Jul 8, 2020 2:18 PM UTC

Well, I just replicated it.

 

In my tests, I started with a transparent .psd (which is what I would normally use), then this morning used Photoshop's File > Export > Quick Export as PNG (72 ppi/225 ppi) and finally used File > Export > Export as and exported 2x the original size (72 ppi/450 ppi)—that's what did it. 

 

Eric, I would add a link to this thread on your bug report.

 

~Barb 

~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
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12 replies

Barb Binder
Community Expert
Barb BinderCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
Jul 8, 2020 2:18 PM UTC

Well, I just replicated it.

 

In my tests, I started with a transparent .psd (which is what I would normally use), then this morning used Photoshop's File > Export > Quick Export as PNG (72 ppi/225 ppi) and finally used File > Export > Export as and exported 2x the original size (72 ppi/450 ppi)—that's what did it. 

 

Eric, I would add a link to this thread on your bug report.

 

~Barb 

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~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
    Eric ReussAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    Jul 8, 2020 2:28 PM UTC

    Thank you!

     

    (And Uwe Laubender has already kindly linked my bug report back here. Thank you, Uwe!)

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      Barb Binder
      Community Expert
      Barb BinderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      Jul 8, 2020 2:11 PM UTC

      The behavior does not happen if the PNG is set to 72 pixels/inch or lower. (Tested 20, 50, 70 - 75, 80, 150, 300)

      Effective PPI or Actual PPI?

       

      ~Barb

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      ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
      Eric ReussAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      Jul 8, 2020 2:25 PM UTC

      Actual is what I observed - if I use Photoshop to create two identical 1x1px grey-background PNGs, choosing 72 pixels/inch in the New Document dialog for the first and 73 pixels/inch for the second, the first PNG does not cause the behavior while the second does.

       

      I haven't messed around with scaling inside of InDesign to see if that affects it.

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      Community Expert
      LaubenderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      Jul 8, 2020 2:10 PM UTC

      Thanks, Barb.

      Hm. Then perhaps another component is responsible for this?!

      Maybe its my view settings? I always work with High Quality as default.

      Or the settings for transparency reduction?

       

      Regards,
      Uwe Laubender

      ( ACP )

       

       

       

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      Eric ReussAuthor
      Participating Frequently
      Jul 8, 2020 1:53 PM UTC

      I just did some more testing, and found:

       • The behavior does not happen with TIF, JPG, or Photoshop formats - only PNG.

       • The behavior does not happen if the PNG is set to 72 pixels/inch or lower. (Tested 20, 50, 70 - 75, 80, 150, 300)

       • The behavior doesn't seem to care about any of the following: contents of the PNG (tried flat white, black, grey, red); whether the file is RBG/CMYK/Greyscale; or PNG file-size option ("Largest" / "Medium" / "Smallest").

       

      It didn't seem to make a difference whether I did 1x1 pixel PNGs or 1.5"x1.5" PNGs, but I didn't do much size testing.

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        Barb Binder
        Community Expert
        Barb BinderCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        Jul 8, 2020 1:46 PM UTC

        OK,  tried it again with a PNG with transparency. Followed these steps:

        1. Create a new empty document.
        2. Add a second page to the document.
        3. Place image, onto the page you're viewing (I did a PNG)
        4. Save and close the document.
        5. Open the document.
        6. Wait 2-20 seconds several minutes, doing nothing to change the document.

         

        The asterisk never appeared. 

        Mac 10.15.5

        InDesign 15.1.1

         

        ~Barb 

         

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        ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
          Community Expert
          LaubenderCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          Jul 8, 2020 11:21 AM UTC

          Hi Eric,

          tested on with a different kind of image:

          A tif file with no transparency: 1-Bit

           

          Here I cannot see the issue.

          Either the cause of the issue is the PNG file format and/or the transparency in the file, I think.

           

          Regards,
          Uwe Laubender

          ( ACP )

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            Community Expert
            LaubenderCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            Jul 8, 2020 11:07 AM UTC

            Hi Barb,

            did you place a PNG file with transparency?

             

            Regards,
            Uwe Laubender

            ( ACP )

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              Community Expert
              LaubenderCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              Jul 8, 2020 11:06 AM UTC

              Hi Eric,

              thank you very much for posting this!

              I can see this issue as well with my German InDesign 2020 version 15.1.1.103 on Windows 10.

              Also placed a PNG file ( with transparency ).

               

              Now I tested with CC 2019 and yes, the issue is there as well.

               

              Regards,
              Uwe Laubender

              ( ACP )

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                Barb Binder
                Community Expert
                Barb BinderCommunity Expert
                Community Expert
                Jul 8, 2020 3:10 AM UTC

                No. Nor can I replicate the behavior. Was the file you are opening created in an earlier version than you are using now? Are you opening the file from a local drive, or a network drive or a file-sharing service?

                 

                ~Barb 

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                ~Barb at Rocky Mountain Training
                  Eric ReussAuthor
                  Participating Frequently
                  Jul 8, 2020 3:39 AM UTC

                  While I did first notice it with a file created in an earlier version, that's not the only place I'm seeing it - I can reproduce with a completely new, blank file to which I add a single small linked image. (See linked bug-report for exact steps.)

                   

                  The image file is on a local drive, in the same directory as the .indd file.

                   

                  I do have two services that monitor local files and sync them to the cloud, but if I pause them the behavior continues. (And even if they were doing something weird and touching any file I open, I'd expect to see it after any file-open, rather than only happening when I go to a page with a linked image.)

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