I recently printed out some pages from my portfolio to get a feel of how they look. As a side note, I suggest that everybody does this throughout making their portfolio, as it is impossible to get a real sense of your layout on a computer screen. Anyway, I was shocked and horrified to see that some of my images were extremely pixellated, diagonal lines looked like they were made with an atari console. I am wondering if this is due to resizing in InDesign (i.e. taking a large image and reducing its size greatly). Can anybody help me with this? The images looked crystal clear on my screen, so it was quite a shock. Should I resize as best I can in photoshop before placing the image onto the InDesign page?
guiggster, I pretty much use indesign as a formatting program - I create all images in photoshop, 300dpi or greater, and then simply 'place' in indesign and export into pdf. I dont use indesign for any editing.
this is one of the most basic aspects of indesign:
it doesn't actually put your images and drawings in the ID file - instead it makes a low-res jpg as a "placeholder" for the file, which is linked to.
The reason for this is speed. if you actually put the full res file in, navigation, as well as editing, in long documents (think books) would be a nightmare. Note that you can right-click on an image to chage the quality of the placeholder jpg (display - high quality) if you need to see more detail while doing your layouts.
if you transfer just the indesign file to another computer, the full-res files are not transfered with it, and if you try to print, you get a print of the low res placeholder. I'm guessing this is what you did - check the links pallate for broken linked files. To transfer an indesign document to another computer, use the package command - this will create a folder containing the ID file, all linked documents, and all the fonts you used, so everything will reproduce perfectly.
and coincidentally, you shouldn't be printing out of indesign. make a freaking PDF and save everyone involved a lot of time and hassel.
also - you can resize in indesign to your hearts content without doing any damage to the actual image - it's not like photoshop or illustrator in that sense.
mana is likely correct, though if you enlarged small files in in-design they will be pixelated. photoshop will fill in pixel data (not very nicely) if you enlarge the image but ID doesn't.
i agree printing from pdf is better.
actually i have a question if any of you folk know the answer i'd love to hear it...
so, i often collage people and such with eps line drawings using In-Design, but if i have a color background end up with an artifact, basically a color change the size of the box of the linked image (which is a psd file with no background). i can get rid of the artifact if i export and open in photoshop and print from there, but this is an annoying way to work round the problem.
Hadn't thought of that- I keep forgetting that architecture schools don't teach the basics of 2d computer graphics (for all intensive purposes you can't make a digital image more detailed than the original, )
but I think since he mentioned jagged lines, it's a links issue.
as for your problem, I'm betting you've got an errant RGB/CMYK conversion in there somewhere (your photoshop overlay is in RGB colorspace and the illustrator/indesign file is in CMYK).
Alright, sounds good then. I kne that InDesign probably used a placeholder from my time using PageMaker, although pagemaker used to ask me whether I wanted to actually copy the full file onto the page. I printed a few pages from a pdf file previously and a few from indesign without a problem so I must have gotten confused as to which had better quality or if there was any difference or...I'm rambling. Point taken though, I will print using a pdf and save the millions of people involved in my portfolio some time and energy.
InDesign help
I recently printed out some pages from my portfolio to get a feel of how they look. As a side note, I suggest that everybody does this throughout making their portfolio, as it is impossible to get a real sense of your layout on a computer screen. Anyway, I was shocked and horrified to see that some of my images were extremely pixellated, diagonal lines looked like they were made with an atari console. I am wondering if this is due to resizing in InDesign (i.e. taking a large image and reducing its size greatly). Can anybody help me with this? The images looked crystal clear on my screen, so it was quite a shock. Should I resize as best I can in photoshop before placing the image onto the InDesign page?
Thanks.
guiggster, I pretty much use indesign as a formatting program - I create all images in photoshop, 300dpi or greater, and then simply 'place' in indesign and export into pdf. I dont use indesign for any editing.
wow...you need a book on ID, Quick!
this is one of the most basic aspects of indesign:
it doesn't actually put your images and drawings in the ID file - instead it makes a low-res jpg as a "placeholder" for the file, which is linked to.
The reason for this is speed. if you actually put the full res file in, navigation, as well as editing, in long documents (think books) would be a nightmare. Note that you can right-click on an image to chage the quality of the placeholder jpg (display - high quality) if you need to see more detail while doing your layouts.
if you transfer just the indesign file to another computer, the full-res files are not transfered with it, and if you try to print, you get a print of the low res placeholder. I'm guessing this is what you did - check the links pallate for broken linked files. To transfer an indesign document to another computer, use the package command - this will create a folder containing the ID file, all linked documents, and all the fonts you used, so everything will reproduce perfectly.
and coincidentally, you shouldn't be printing out of indesign. make a freaking PDF and save everyone involved a lot of time and hassel.
also - you can resize in indesign to your hearts content without doing any damage to the actual image - it's not like photoshop or illustrator in that sense.
mana is likely correct, though if you enlarged small files in in-design they will be pixelated. photoshop will fill in pixel data (not very nicely) if you enlarge the image but ID doesn't.
i agree printing from pdf is better.
actually i have a question if any of you folk know the answer i'd love to hear it...
so, i often collage people and such with eps line drawings using In-Design, but if i have a color background end up with an artifact, basically a color change the size of the box of the linked image (which is a psd file with no background). i can get rid of the artifact if i export and open in photoshop and print from there, but this is an annoying way to work round the problem.
anyone have similar problem or suggestions...?
jump
Hadn't thought of that- I keep forgetting that architecture schools don't teach the basics of 2d computer graphics (for all intensive purposes you can't make a digital image more detailed than the original, )
but I think since he mentioned jagged lines, it's a links issue.
as for your problem, I'm betting you've got an errant RGB/CMYK conversion in there somewhere (your photoshop overlay is in RGB colorspace and the illustrator/indesign file is in CMYK).
Alright, sounds good then. I kne that InDesign probably used a placeholder from my time using PageMaker, although pagemaker used to ask me whether I wanted to actually copy the full file onto the page. I printed a few pages from a pdf file previously and a few from indesign without a problem so I must have gotten confused as to which had better quality or if there was any difference or...I'm rambling. Point taken though, I will print using a pdf and save the millions of people involved in my portfolio some time and energy.
cheers manamana.
sounds a likely culrprit.
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