InDesign questions about placed images

bamme

Senior Member
Hi All!

So to get better at inDesign (a person i am contracted to will want some indesign stuff done soon) I've volunteered to design some print stuff for a lady I did some webdesign for.

Part of it is to include some photos she got from istock. I'm not sure I got this part right -- I placed them in, but they looked pixellated.

So i took them into photoshop (they were jpegs) copied and pasted into a new 300dpi cmyk document. I re-saved as a jpeg, re-placed them into the indesign file, but still pixellated looking.

I reopened the jpeg, and it had become a 72 dpi rgb document again :/

I then tried simply doing the above and saving as a .psd instead of jpeg, and placing that in. Still pixellated (yes im looking on Overprint Preview mode)

Im not sure what the best method is of adding jpeg photos to indesign documents or, whether this is possible

I have uploaded all the files to:

http://www.ameliealden.com/poster.zip

-- its quite a big file but the indesign file is there as well as the photos, called "child handup" and "ann presentation small.psd" (currently linked to the indesign file) and also the jpeg version of the second, "Ann_Presentation__small.jpg".

Can anyone tell me how to better place these into the indesign file please?
 
Hi Emma,

Try View > Display Performance > High Quality Display
By default it's set to be lower quality to speed it up when working with lots of big image files, eg. a catalogue or brochure with lots of pages.

Also check you're sizes are correct, so once you have an image placed and at the desired size in InDesign click on to it and view the 'Scale X and Scale Y' percentages in the top bar, just to the right hand side of the Width & Height info, if this is substantially over the original image size then it may pixelate on print.

Another tip, when in InDesign (think you're on a PC?) if you press ALT + double click on the placed image it will open up the image file in Photoshop so you can double check all the details knowing you are looking at the correct placed file (very useful when you have tons of images, like a product catalogue)

Haven't checked the files you uploaded, but let me know if you want someone to double check.

Hope that helps,
Greg
 
Sounds like Greg is spot on there, I used to struggle with this all the time but checking you have High Quality Display selected normally sorts it out. You can even do an apple click (or right click on a pc) on the selected image, and 2nd from bottom of the list is Display Performance where you can tick High Quality Display. (Does the same thing as gregs way, just quicker)
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Thanks Greg and Dave,

So, this time i placed the photo but just clicked to place rather than clicked and dragged, to avoid resizing the image.

I've reuploaded the same folder with the new indesign file, and the pdf result - poster_nomarks.pdf.

The photo still appears pixellated on high quality display, but the pdf looks fine.

I rotated the photo to fit the design - is this why? In the pdf it looks okay but I dont have a printer to test this out and im not sure if it'll still come out a bit weird in print.

Also - the design contains a website screenshot -is there a better way of including one of these other than to paste into photoshop and save as a jpeg, then place the jpeg/psd file? as this does look a bit blurred. (see pdf)

Thanks so much for the help

Dave - I have you on facebook :) I noticed from your logo.
 
Hi Emma,

Just downloaded the zip, you still need to update the two photos to CMYK, showing as RGB in InDesign, and yes I think the website screenshot is appearing pixelated as it's rotated to an angle, it should be fine in print at that size though :)

Only other thing I can suggest is to maybe save your images as TIFF files with no compression, this has been the best for exporting to PDF from my experience in using InDesign.

As for web screenshots in general, unless you have an up-to-date PSD of the web design then a screenshot pasted like that is the only way I know of, someone else may have a better suggestion..
 
Update: Just ran a quick test print on my laser at home (with the no bleed PDF) and all looks spot on :up:
 
your welcome emma, looks like greg has sorted you out so glad to see your problem solved. I just checked my facebook but Ive got quite a few emmas! Thanks for adding me though, Im not sure how useful it is for work purposes, I seem to use twitter more than FB lately.
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Ah thanks for checking it Greg! amazing, thankyou.
Can i ask -- is the easiest way to change a rgb photo into cmyk ready for print to open the photo, copy the photo, open new photoshop doc and set as cmyk @ 300dpi, paste, save as jpeg (or tiff?)

Just so I get it all right. :)

And Dave im not sure either or how we became fb friends I've not seen your logo pop up on DF before, but i am Emma Rose. Hi. heh.
 
As far as I know Emma, you can open your RGB photo, select image from the menu at the top of your screen, choose mode, and then click CMYK. I think that gives you the same outcome as your suggestion but without the hassle of setting up a new document.

P.s I just checked my FB, we have Glen Wheeler as a mutual friend so I guess we must have crossed paths on here at some point!
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As Dave mentioned, Image > Mode > CMYK Color to switch to CMYK, and Image > Image Size to check the resolution of the image :)
 
Hi Emma,

Another thing that I always do, is to view the artwork in overprint preview mode (alt+shift+ctrl+Y), as images as more than always placed in at a screen resolution, nothing to do with the actual image, but just saves memory in Indesign. Apart from that, I think Dave and Greg have covered the other issues.
 
Thanks v v much so helpful that should be a sticky or something I think everyone who's starting out in print stuff screws up when it comes to image modes etc .. Anyway thanks!

Greg nice sig lol
 
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