• Adobe InDesign

  Poor Quality Tiff Imports and Pdfs

  Posted by Amir Darwish on July 22, 2006 at 4:06 am

  Hello,

  I hope you are all doing well. I am fairly new to desktop publishing and this forum. I ran into a recent problem and was hoping that I’d be able to get some help here.

  I am doing a simple project in which I am putting lined frames around his res tiff images. Each image is 4″x6″ or so and is about 15mbs. When I import the images in Indesign the quality is not very good, even when I go to object – display performance – high quality.

  But more importantly, when I create a pdf w/ absolutely no compression, and then I try to print, the print quality is poor/pixelated.

  I tried to do the same in Quark, and it pdf quality and print quality are perfect. I would much rather not have to redo all the work in Quark, and I find Indesign better and easier to use.

  I would really appreciate any help on this issue.

  Thanks a lot,
  amir

  Amir Darwish replied 19 years, 12 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Mike Gondek

  July 24, 2006 at 7:27 pm

  Strange you should be getting better resolution previews. Besides at the object level checek:
  view >> display performance >> high

  YOur preferences coudl possibly have gotten distorted
  Check:
  edit >> preferences >> display performace

  IF still not working try flushing your preferences by immediately holding down these 3 keys after you boot
  Ctrl Alt Shift
• 

  Jonathan Bishop

  July 28, 2006 at 5:54 am

  Hey Noorodeen,

  It sounds like your problem may be related to the size/resolution of your images, you explained that they were 4″ x 6″, well i’m aussie so to me that would be 101mm x 152mm. First thing I’d check is my resolution of the image/s, to ensure a good quality print output the standard should be 300dpi/lpi (which is located in the “image size” window under the “image” pull down of photoshop (sorry i’m assuming your using photoshop but this function is native to most image correction applications). Now, the image size should be the 4″ x 6″ and the resolution section should read 300dpi (pixels/inch) or 120dpi (pixels/cm), if it displays a lower reolution such as 72dpi (pixels/inch) then the resolution is too low for your desired output. The moral of this lengthy storie is that the resolution of the image should be 300dpi (pixels/inch) or 120 dpi (pixels/cm) at whatever the desired image size is.

  finally that parts over…. sorry if it was a bit longwinded

  Now, if its effected through indesign, check what percentage the image is placed in as (this is found by selecting the image using the direct selection tool when it changes to a hand when held over the image). If the image is placed in at a greater percentage than 100 percent then the diplay will appear pixelated no mater what display featur is specified hi-res or typical. if the image is placed in at less than or equal to 100 percent but is 72dpi (as discussed above) then it will still be too low a resolution for you to print. Rule of thumb “Image must be placed at 300dpi and placed in page equal to or thereabouts at 100 percent”.

  sweet, hope this helps but post again if this doesn’t solve the problem

  cheers
• 

  Amir Darwish

  August 6, 2006 at 11:03 am

  Thanks a lot Mike and JonnoB for your help. It turns out my problem was the printer itself. I was using the samsung ML-1430. I tried to print the same pdfs on a canon and the problem is suddenly resolved. I suppose the printer drivers had a problem in them? Although that doesn’t really explain why my samsung printed the quark generated pdfs perfectly?

  Thanks,
  amir

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