Indesign to PDF - Document Becomes Bigger

Images and the whole document is larger than in Indesign View... Help!

[damlag]

Hi guys,

I've started creating a brochure for a company. I have Indesign and Photoshop. Now when I import an image from Photoshop to Indesign, theimage looks great. But as soon as I publish it in PDF format, the whole document becomes larger and the image doesn't look so good in 100% size.

What's the problem here?

I'm very new to this whole thing... When I look at indesign at 100% size, the document looks smaller than normally should. When I publish it in PDF, the size of the brochure becomes as it should (11" x 8.5"), but the images become larger too and don't look good.

Isn't it possible to view the same exact size in Indesign, just as I get in PDF?

With Photoshop it's the same. In the layout, the view has one size, but in PDF it's different.

So how can I print high quality pictures, when images become larger and lose the quality?

Any help appreciated.

Thank You.

[monkeythumpa]

You need to make sure your images are 300 dpi. If you go into "Image size" in PS you can change it, and right now it is probably at 72dpi. Save it as a JPEG or TIFF (NOT A GIF) at 300dpi and "Place" it in InDesign. When you export to PDF, make sure you are using an output setting for "Press". If you are exporting the PDF to "Screen" settings, it will automaticly downgrade all images to 72DPI. In the Export menu there should be a settings button where you can tweak all of this.

It should look a lot better now. Don't rely on the screen for a good representation, you need to print it to see the quality of the images.

[damlag]

Thanx.

You know, that's the problem. I didn't even know that I need 300 dpi for print... Well, I have 72 and there's nothing that can be done.

However, I'm talking about the PDF file that is generated. The image there in 100% is much bigger than the same image in Indesign or Photoshop at 100% size.

You know, on the screen the image looks smaller and more quality, but when I export it to PDF, it becomes larger and lower quality on screen.

This annoys me. Couldn't it be the exact same size as already done PDF...

So tell me, if I have a large image and I smaller it in Photoshop and then export it in PDF, the quality will be low.

But if I scale the image down in Indesign and export it into PDF, the quality will be higher, right?

That's because Photoshop rasterizes an image and Indesign doesn't right? So when exporting into PDF in Indesign, the program automatically adjusts the resolution, right?

Cause, you know, it's like those imags on the web. Some look great and are like 15KB and others are just as small, but have like 450KB...

So, I thought that if I make a small image in Photoshop and it looks quite good in resolution, when I export it in PDF, the resolution should be good. But it looks like crap.

But indesign, doesn't rasterize the image, it just makes it smaller in scale, and when exporting it creates a resolution automatically right? I can't get in PDF the exact same image size and quality I see in Indesign, right?

[travelin cat]

What are you using to make the pdf? Don't use Photoshop. You need Acrobat. Within Acrobat you can adjust the output using the Distiller function.

Experimenting with the different aspects of Distiller will provide you with great results.

[jessejump]

Start in Photoshop - you have an image, set the PPI (without resampling) that you want - 200-300 ppi. SAVE

In InDesign, PLACE (File/Place)the image onto the page. Add text etc.

Export this ID file to Adobe PDF.

Doesn't that work?

[waziwazo]

You may try a pdf printer program (Look on Google for Print2PDF)
These small utility add a "software printer" on your computer that can create pdf file from any programs print menu.

[damlag]

thanx guys.

What I did was simply put a picture as big as possible into Indesign. Then scale it down to appropriate level. When I output the image from Indesign to PDF, PDF automatically adjusts the image and it looks like of high quality. I can make the document larger in PDF, but image quality stays quite good. It's probably until I zoom so much, that the actual size of the picture becomes insufficient...

Anyway, I think it works now.

Thanx for help.