InDesign CC 2019 Document preview problems

[Andersson]

Mac OS 10.14.1

InDesign CC 2019 is set to render previews at 1024 px size (biggest).

I'm using Quicklook with ArtView 3.

Problem: Linked vector logos are rendered with same poor quality as would a broken link (lowest resolution).

This worked fine with older versions of InDesign (and a quicklook at some older work files shows that).

Link to PSD or pasted vector data is not a problem.

Can someone confirm this problem?

[dave_c_courtemanche]

Are you referring to the QuickLook preview render? I just downloaded & installed ArtView 3. Same configuration as your machine. Seems to work fine for me. Perhaps it's something to do with the logo file? Maybe the PDF preview of the .ai file is corrupted. Try resaving as a new name.

[Andersson]

I only mention ArtView because without it no preview is shown. ArtView is only showing a built in jpeg as I understand it. And the size of this preview image is set in Indesign preferences. I use the full size 1024px.

Looking at your preview we see the logos - that is not the problem. Vector links are not rendered crisp as they always have been before.

Here is a quick test you can do.

I start a new document and add some text. I export the page as PDF and EPS and mount these files next to the text.

This is not how InDesign previews used to look. Something is wrong now.

I noticed this at work and this test was made with my computer at home.

[Andersson]

Same test as above but I turn the text over to vectors first, then export to PDF and EPS.

[Steve Werner]

Like Dave, I've also had good experiences with ArtView 3.

You might want to contact the developer. They should provide support for it.

[Andersson]

Here is a test with a pixel based logo. All files are the same size in pixels - only the resolution is changed.

So the 72 ppi logo is scaled down to fit the frame and gets a higher resulting ppi. The 300 and 600 ppi logo is scaled up to fit the frame but gets the same resulting ppi.

Only the 72 ppi files are renderade crisp. Higher resolution increase the jaggedness. 600 ppi is worse, 300 ppi a bit better but not good.

[Andersson]

Three vector logos saved as .ai.

It's a three page document so all pages are the same size. I make copies of the logo and scale it up in Illustrator so I have the same exact vector data but it is scaled to three different sizes.

InDesign is of course showing all three logos in high res on the page.

[dave_c_courtemanche]

I'm trying to recreate what you're seeing, but cannot. I've taken this logo (granted, it's not as detailed) and scaled it in Illustrator. #1 is 1" wide, #2 is 2" wide, #3 is 8" wide. I've placed in Indesign, and scaled them all to 8" wide. The preview is the same.

Are you actually using an .eps format from Illustrator? I always use .ai and avoid .eps like a plague. Saving the same logo file out of Illustrator as a PDF yields the same results (viewing in Indesign).

[Andersson]

The important part was that the "ground zero" logo is pretty small on the page.

Lets say the logo is using a drawing area of 3x3 cm in Illustrator. When we place this in InDesign on a A4 paper it will just be a little thumbnail in the corner of the paper. This represents the 1X size.

My guess is that InDesign at this moment decides the quality of the preview image "aha 3x3 cm at 72 ppi - got it". And when I scale the logo up to 10x10 cm this low res preview will not be recreated and look really bad.

So that's what I've seen here. Could it be that your test logo isn't that small to begin with?

.ai is my prefered vector format - I'm just adding pdf and eps for comparison. When InDesign render these three formats on the page in high res it's just high res crisp and sharp vectors. So I fint it peculiar that these formats produce different results for the preview. It should be equally bad or good.

[dave_c_courtemanche]

I think there is an issue with your logo or logos. My .ai files are about 10 mm in size. I can enlarge them in Indesign with no loss of clarity. Are your vector graphics settings in preference set to high resolution?

[Andersson]

My display prefs are set to highest quality.

The problem has nothing to do with my logos. I pick a vector file at random for each test. This time I used a vector graphics of a basketball from freepik. The problem is repeateable with any vector file.

Take a look at a demo here. You will see a much improved preview at the second try, but still very jagged.

Dropbox - demo movie.mov

[Andersson]

To clarify. Your latest screenshot is from InDesign. I don't have a problem showing vector logos in InDesign. I use the high res setting and resized logos always looks good.

But I have noticed that the size matters for the documents preview image as shown in the demo movie.