Photoshop seems to be shrinking my PDFs?

[Pusser]

Hi, I am using 2017 CC on Windows 10.  I have a set of plans in A4 PDF's which I wish to join into a single plan on B0 (1414 x 1000mm) to produce some working drawings.  I set a canvas to the B0 size and import the PDF's.  They show as full size A 4 Documents.  I crop the two long side margin.  The property box shows them as the correct length for A4 29.68mm.  I copy all and past onto the B4 canvas document.  The properties of the layer now show the document as only 19.97mm.

When I past in the full width the image has shrunk and no longer fills up the B) Canvas.  How do I get the image not to resize please?

Thank You

[Mylenium · Accepted solution]

Your document DPI settings don't match. Check them.

Mylenium

[Pusser]

Thank you.  You were spot on.  I thought my PDFs were 300 ppi but they were 200.  I should have guessed from the 1/3 reduction in size.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Do the pdfs contain vector data?

If so you may want to stop degrading it and either work in a vector oriented application or at least place them as Smart Objects (which will still produce pixel output but at least multiple transformations do not accumulate image degradation).

Anyway you forgot to mention the resolutions (of the receiving file and the converted pdfs).

[Pusser]

Many thanks.  My PDFs were 200 ppi and the canvas was 300 ppi.  I haven't worked with PDF's in Photoshop before but it should have been obvious.

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Rasterizing pdfs that originally contain vector data means a potential significant loss in quality.

Photoshop should not be the first choice to edit pdfs.

And even when the pdfs contain nothing but images it can save quality and resolution to open Images instead of Pages.

[@mj]

When placing your PDFs, you will get the Place dialog.

Choose Media Box on the top right.

More info here. Place files in Photoshop

HTH

[Pusser]

Thank you.  The issue was with resolution.  I thought my PDFs were 300 ppi but on checking they were 200.  However I did learn something from your response that I was unaware of.  Again, many thanks

[MtheInsomniac]

Thank you! Teaching the importance of file prep, however this .pdf complication snuck past me.