Question on importing photos into Indesign

[G Designz]

I worked on photo in PS and it looks clear with good resolution. The resolution is set to 72 by default. But the picture is huge. I am wondering why would it be set to 72? Also, the clear picture I just finished working on in photoshop doesn't look good when I import in Indesign. The quality of the picture decreases. It look pixelated. I always have this problem when importing photos in Indesign That's why I never like to use Indesign.

What can I do to fix this problem or why does Indesign do that?

[cornfed]

Try right clicking, then scroll down to preview resolution. Then set it at high quality. That should fix your indesign issue.

Where did you get the picture? If it came off a digital camera, then those are usually humongous in inches and 72 dpi. You should be able to scale the inches down and bring up the resolution without losing any quality. That is if I'm understanding your problem correctly.

[DesignVHL]

In PS, Create a new doc...make that doc the size you want the image to print out at....set resolution to 300. Drag 72 DPI image into the new document image. Control-T to resize (hold shift of course) to fit it in there right or as needed....

Flatten - set mode to CMYK if for print, RGB for web or inkjet printing.

Then Import image into ID again...now it probably looks not as clear because it is low-rez preview by default. If you right click on THAT image and go to Preview Display(or similar i can't remember I don't have ID open, sorry) > HIGH REs Display (should be at bottom of menu for the Image Display Options)....Thats all there is to it!

Its the way you setup your file, not ID- ID working as it should. :)

[budafist]

If the picture is large, then Overprint Preview should fix it.

[Virgo Nightingale]

InDesign creates a lo-res preview image for onscreen viewing when you import an image into a layout. If it was left at full resolution, your computer might not be able to redraw the screen as quickly when you moved the page around, and things would move really really slowly. You can change this setting, though there's really not much reason to unless you've got a top-of-the-line speedy computer.

72 dpi is meant for web images, not for print. Go to Image > Image Size... and click OFF the Resample Image checkbox. Then enter "300" next to "Resolution". This will make the general image dimensions smaller, but will not sacrifice a single pixel of information.

Out of curiosity, where did you get this image from if it's set at 72 dpi? I really hope you didn't pull it from the web, since that often implies some sort of impending copyright violation....

Edit: I guess I type too slowly!

[budafist]

This Indesign question gets asked at least once a week. Is it a sticky?

[DesignVHL]

virgo, many images from digital cameras and stock images even come at 72DPI...the pixels are just higher...so the image is HUGE.

[Virgo Nightingale]

Just wanna make sure... ;)

[budafist]

Yeah, my digi saves at 72dpi but the files are physically about a metre wide. Does anyone's digi NOT do that?

[DesignVHL]

Actually I have some confusion....maybe someone can shed light on this one....I shoot in RAW and I think that the NATIVE DPI is like 128 or something weird like that....but when i open the RAW file in PS, I can choose what resolution I want it to open in...I just want to be able to open it at the native size it was shot in though, any one know how to do that? Probalby something easy and stupid i missed....

But for JPEGS I do think it is always 72DPI...but RAW depending on your camera, I think they go higher in the res.

[hewligan]

Jpegs straight from my digicam seem to open in Photoshop with a res of 314dpi. Which is an odd choice. <shrug> Doesn't much matter what resolution photoshop thinks it is, it's the pixel dimensions that matter. Whatever number it picked for res, I was going to have to change it most of the time, anyway.

Photoshop camera RAW lets you pick a resolution, which makes more sense. The value picked by the camera is pretty meaningless, anyway, and RAW has a far more useful behaviour.

[DesignVHL]

ah yes, this makes much sense to me grasshoppa

[urstwile]

Go to Image > Image Size... and click OFF the Resample Image checkbox. Then enter "300" next to "Resolution". This will make the general image dimensions smaller, but will not sacrifice a single pixel of information.

This is what I usually do.

You're not resampling the image, just simply bring the bounding box in to accordance with what a 300 dpi image would print like as inches when change from 72 to 300 dpi without resampling.

I'm curious to know if it's even necessary to do this, though, since InDesign will tell you the print ppi if you look at the info for the image.

[hewligan]

It's not absolutely necessary, but it is convenient. It means that when you place that image, it'll come in at the correct size for 300ppi.

[urstwile]

Yes, and that's why I do it. Just didn't know, with the advent of digital photos, etc. what the deal was, since it's such a trend to get huge canvas sizes with 72 dpi images that are fine for print, etc.

[hewligan]

Well, to some degree it'll depend on workflow.

If you're sending your raw files for output, then there are probably potential problems it could cause in-rip. And I'd imagine having the wrong DPI on an image would be a major problem for the weird stuff PD works with.

But if you've got the typical PDF workflow that most of us deal with these days, then it shouldn't cause any problems - except for the one where you're way more likely to make a mistake ;)

[urstwile]

Ahem, so perhaps I should stick to my happy number than. :D I generally go in and do the "uncheck resample box, hit 300 dpi thing" for all of our ad work. Just makes me feel kosher, I guess. ;)