Importing Photoshop images into Indesign

[helend79583668]

My Indesign document is very slow as I have imported dozens of images from Photoshop. What is the best way to save these images without loosing resolution but keeping my Indesign document easy and light to work on?

[davescm]

Hi

You posted in the Lounge which is for non-technical discussions. I have moved your post to the InDesign forum where you are more likely to get an answer to your problem.

Dave

[Jongware]

Are your images embedded or only linked to?

InDesign should not have a particular problem with dozens of linked files, something I use on a daily basis.

But I don't understand the "loosing resolution" part. Surely you are not using copy-and-paste -- which would embed just a screenshot? That would be two bad actions in a row.

[rob day]

which would embed just a screenshot? That would be two bad actions in a row.

Pasted images would be embedded and create bloated documents. However, if you are using OSX there's no quality problem pasting from Photoshop because the clipboard object is a PDF. With pasting there's no original to edit, which could be a problem later.

Here is a page with a pasted image exported as PDF/X-4, and you can see from Object Inspector the color and resolution has not been affected by the paste:

[helend79583668]

Hi, thanks for your reply.

Im importing them as PSD file. The document is a book, so there are many pages. I guess I wish to know what document extension would be better: kpeg, pdf, eps..

Thank you

[BobLevine]

Set the display mode to typical.

[rob day]

Use File>Place and keep the images linked not embedded. PSD is the most flexible—it can be saved with layers and transparency and gets saved with some lossless compression. Don't use EPS.

[helend79583668]

Thank you!

[Raimundo Illanes · Accepted solution]

If you import a PSD file on InDesign your able to control de layers on it, form the menu Object > Object Export Options

[Heather_Mitchell]

@ Raimundo - thank you thank you thank you!!

[Willi Adelberger]

JPG, PSD, PDF, TIFF are ok.

Avoid EPS in any case,

[Scott Falkner]

First: You should be placing your images as links. Don’t embed and don’t copy and paste.

Second: Linked images will not lose resolution, but…

Third: When an image is placed as a link a low-resolution preview is generated and embedded in the Indesign file. This preview is a rendering of the image at actual size, but at 72 pixels per inch. If the source image has a lower resolution that 72 ppi then that resolution is used.

For example, say you have an image that is 600 × 600 pixels with a resolution of 300 pixels per inch. Importing this image at 100% will give you a 2 inch × 2 inch image that will print at 300 pixels per inch. InDesign will generate a preview that is 144 pixels × 144 pixels. When you are using quick view this is what InDesign will show you. When you zoom in you won’t see the full resolution of the image.

If that same image was 72 pixels per inch (but the same 600 × 600 pixels) and it was placed at 100% it would appear to be 8.33 inches × 8.33 inches. InDesign will generate a preview that is 600 pixels × 600 pixels. If you scale it to 24% you will get the same image as above, except zooming in will show you a higher resolution preview because a higher resolution preview is embedded in the InDesign file. This will also make your Indesign file larger since the preview is 317% larger. If you have a lot of images like this this will add up.

Images downloaded from a website, stock images, and images imported from a camera often have their resolution set to 72 ppi. Some have no resolution data, since it is not a requirement for many image formats. In that case InDesign and most other programs will assume the image is 72 pixels per inch.

This is why it is a good idea to prepare images at an appropriate resolution any place them at the size they need to be, rather than scaling down images that are a lower resolution. In Phoshop set the image resolution to 300 ppi in Image > Image Size (turn off resampling).

[Heather_Mitchell]

@ Scott Falkner -- Thank you!! OMG i couldnT figure out WHAT i was doing wrong 0:) have to search now how to place images as linked files....