Placing a photoshop file into Indesign for printing

[hoynala]

Hi all,

I am working on a poster that I have made in photoshop and now it is getting time to print it. I need to set up margins and bleeds(which I should've done in the beginning) and I'm wondering if there's a way to do it in photoshop? If not, then I was wondering if it is possible to take the psd file and place it into Indesign and still maintain the full resolution for print?

Thank you!

[Laubender]

Hi,

the best way to maintain vector shapes or live text when placing PhotoShop contents on an InDesign page is to save the PhotoShop file as PDF/X-4. Change the predefined PDF/X-4 settings so that no downsampling of image data is done.

Regards,
Uwe

[Derek Cross]

You need to have an image that is more or less the size it will appear in InDesign with an Effective resolution of between 250 and 300 PPI (you can check this is the InDesign Links panel) expand the image to give a 3mm/1/8" bleed on the appropriate edges. Keep the image in RGB color mode (and let the PDF/X-4 software do the conversion). Add any text in InDesign (which can be under or over the image).

[Bill Silbert]

InDesign will  be able to maintain full resolution if the file is imported as a PSD or TIFF as long as it is brought in at 100% of it's size. It should never be enlarged since it will lose resolution. If it needs to be reduced it should be resampled in Photoshop before importing into InDesign. Since you are doing a poster you should check with your printer as to their resolution requirements. Large posters do not usually need resolution set as high as smaller print jobs.

[Derek Cross]

Bill makes a fair point, if the poster is to be viewed at a distance the resolution can be reduced by quite a lot.

[hoynala]

Perfect, thank you.

So as long as I keep the same document size and resolution I should be ey-okey then?

[Laubender]

hoynala  wrote

… So as long as I keep the same document size and resolution I should be ey-okey then?

I'd always prefer to save to PDF/X-4 from PhotoShop with no downsampling of image data.
With that you are always on the safe side when placing the PDF on an InDesign page.

Regards,
Uwe

[Bill Silbert]

I have always found that a PSD provides the most flexibility in the workflow since not only does it, in my experience, always retain full resolution but InDesign also recognizes the PSDs full transparency and even allows the ability to turn on and off layers within InDesign. I work in the production studio of a large New York agency and in the many years I've been working on and releasing jobs to printers I've never had a problem when working with PSDs in InDesign.

[Derek Cross]

I agree with Bill, also you can "round trip" between InDesign and Photoshop to easily make further changes.

[hoynala]

Great information, thank you Bill!

[Bill Silbert]

Happy to help.

[Eugene Tyson]

However, text layers are rasterised when it's PSD placed in INDesign and exported to PDF.

Text will remain vector if you place the PDF from Photoshop and place into InD and export to PDF>

[Bill Silbert]

All of this depends on the requirements of the job and the workflow. I agree with Derek's first comment that most text should be done in the InDesign file. That way there is no worry about text anyway.

[BobLevine]

If the Photoshop file is saved as a PDF, the text will retain its vector quality.

[Eugene Tyson]

All the same - if you want vector masks, vector shapes or text to output crisply, then it needs to be a photoshop PDF that's placed into InDesign.