How do I place images into Illustrator that fits into the artboard, and not show up so huge.

[11Pekoe]

How do I place images into Illustrator that fits into the artboard, and not show up so huge? Whenever I place an image that is bigger than the artboard that I am using the image is placed huge and I have to go in and resize it to fit into the artboard appropriately. Is there a way to automatically place images and resize them accordingly? Or a shortcut to resize images too big for the artboard and resize them down to fit appropriately? Thanks.

Example

My desired outcome when I place images

I don't want to have to resize each image individually. Assistance is greatly appreciated, thanks.

[Monika Gause]

Illutrator respects the resolution of the image when placing it.

[11Pekoe]

Yes. So is there a way to override that?

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Place it via the dialog box and then click and drag to place it.

[11Pekoe]

Very late response but thank you so much this solved my issue entirely.

[Mike_Gondek]

Illustrator imports images at the size they are. 3 solutions to consider:

1) open the image in Photoshop and using Image >> Image Size resize the image. You can use image processor or record an action to do an entire folder of images. If  you are not intimately familiar with al the settings in Imaeg size, I suggest you learn those, as if you are working with images, that is very very important to understand what the resampel checkbox .

2) Drag and drop all your images at once. Then scale them all at once. This is faster than scaling each image.

3) Look at how these images are being created. If a scanner or camera, you may have much more resolution than needed, and want to scan at the proper resolution. 

[11Pekoe]

Thank you for your suggestions.

1) I can't do that because I want to maintain the original image size.

2) Solid idea I'll try it and hopefully it'll enhance on my workflow.

[Bobby Henderson]

If the images in question are lossy-compressed JPEG images I would not recommend batch processing and re-saving them. The quality of the images will be further degraded with another step of data-lossy compression -if the resulting images are saved in JPEG format. If the images are saved as lossless TIFF images the original image quality will be preserved, but at a cost of hard disc space.

Added comment: Photoshop can re-size images without resampling them. It can merely change the PPI setting without altering the actual pixels in the image.

[Monika Gause]

Just changing the resolution without resampling might not even affect the compression.

[Bobby Henderson]

Re-saving a JPEG will add an additional level of degradation to the image. It may be hard to detect using maximum quality settings when re-saving the file. But that will likely yield a file that is significantly larger in file size than the original. The user might as well re-save the altered file as a lossless TIFF image.

[Monika Gause]

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@Bobby Henderson  schrieb:

Re-saving a JPEG will add an additional level of degradation to the image. 

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I have seen several Photoshop experts actually testing that and then printing those images. Even without Max quality, you don't notice in magazine printing quality.

[Bobby Henderson]

The reason images often place at huge sizes is because of the difference in size and resolution settings of your document and the resolution settings of the image. Print documents are often set at 300ppi and sized for normal sheets of paper.

Most JPEG images are defaulted to a 72ppi resolution, regardless of the pixel dimensions of the image. A high res JPEG with a 72ppi resolution setting will place onto a letter sized page at a very big size and needs to be scaled down to a more normal size.

[11Pekoe]

I understand.

I am using a smaller artboard size than the images I am placing which are very big. It is for an assignment so I cannot use a bigger artboard size. I am stuck with the size I have right now.

It would be very convenient if I could instantly place these big images and have them automatically resized to the artboard size. Right now I have to individually resize them to the artboard and it is getting very tedious.

[Jacob Bugge]

11Pekoe,

I have only just seen this thread, hopefully in time.

As I (mis)understand it, based on this "... resized to the artboard size" and your screenshots, there is a relatively simple way to make the added image(s) match the sizes of existing (vector) artwork in the document rather than the Artboard size, using tools (almost) as old as the hills:

1) Place the oversized image (as in your first screenshot);

2) In the Transform palette, with the centre Reference Point selected (as in your first screenshot), change the oversize W value (5 in) or H value (7 in) to the desired value or by the desired scaling factor and hold Ctrl/Cmd while you press Enter to reduce the size of the image and keep it in place; depending on the desired kind of size reduction you can:

2A) For a specific size, simply insert the desired size instead of the current size;

2B) For a specific scaling factor where you wish to divide by a certain suitable number N, add "/N" in the box after the current value; in the screenshots it seems to be about 1:12, so you can change the W value as follows: W = "5/12";

2C) For a specific scaling factor where you wish to multiply by a certain suitable number N, add "*N" in the box after the current value; in cases where you wish to reduce the size of an image with a (print) resolution of 300 PPI to the normal size of (vector) artwork corresponding to 72 PPI, the suitable number will be the reverse scale 72:300 = 0.24, so you can change the W value as follows: W = "5*0.24".

Unfortunately, the Transform palette is absent in your screenshot, hence the 2A) - 2B) - 2C), one of which probably being enough; the resolution part in 2C) is included to meet requirements often relevant.

As you can see, 2B) and 2C) are made to get suitable numbers that give full accuracy.

[11Pekoe]

Hello,

Thank you for your write up, but unfortunately that is not what I'm looking for. I am looking for methods to quicken my workflow. 

[Orange00]

Resize the first image after placing it and then duplicate that image for as many images as you have the place.

Then drop and drag the other images one at a time into each box you have created. It will size down to fit as per the initial image in the box. Or use the relink image and replace with the altenative image. I think the drag and drop is quicker.

[Ton Frederiks]

That (drag and drop replace) works in InDesign, but not in Illustrator.