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images unexpectedly resize
hi. we’ve encountered this problem at our agency – wondering if anyone else has as well…
Working on Macintosh (OS 10.6.2), InDesign CS4 (6.0.4). Recently, we’ve been working on a large annual report project, one with 100 or so placed Illustrator charts/graphs (all EPS files). All of them placed into boxes with identical width/height (3.5″ x 2.5″). All placed in said boxes at 100%. The individual Illustrator files themselves are all based on an original of similar dimensions.
As the project moved along we received occasional changes to wording or numeric values in many of the charts. Usually, it’s simple enough to update the charts in Illustrator, update them in InDesign, and continue working on something else. What we found, however, was that the updated charts were resizing by small increments – 100% would suddenly become 100.0834759%, say. Very random and more than a little concerning when working with so many linked images, any of which cut have portions of type/numbers cut off or missing as a result of the resize.
It took me some time to find the right way to search to see if others had experienced this problem, but eventually I found a similar thread on Adobe’s InDesign forums. I did follow the suggestion posted there to turn off Indesign’s preference to ‘Preserve Image Dimensions When Relinking’. I was actually able to recreate the problem – I tested a couple of versions of the same Illustrator graph (one saved as a CS4 EPS, one saved as CS3 EPS), placing each into a picture box in InDesign, altering them slightly, updating them… What i found was if the InDesign preference ‘Preserve Image Dimensions When Relinking’ was turned on, updated links would scale randomly as mentioned above. Turn the preference off, and everything updated normally.
The project is nearly complete, and we’ve compensated for the weird issue by working with the file handling preference turned off. However, our InDesign files our now in the hands of the printer, and any additional changes to this annual report happen on THEIR end – as a result, we’ve had to be extra mindful and make sure we check and double check updated links when we receive proofs/files back from them. we’ve already noticed a couple of instances where the issue has happened in their file as well.
I have to admit that I am surprised that this issue hasn’t affected more InDesign users. It was mentioned on the Adobe thread that there was a similar issue way back in InDesign CS2, so obviously we’ll keep an on things and hope for a patch or the next update. If anyone else can offer more advice/input, that would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
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2 Replies
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I haven’t encountered this problem yet. Nice to know about it and the workaround. I was wondering though, when the files were initially placed, what import options were used? I’m guessing “Crop to Art” or “Crop to Bounding Box” was used. I can see then a possible problem with updating text in which the spacing may become affected by a very small amount.
I wonder if instead, “Crop to Media” were used if this situation still were occur?
Tech-T Productions
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hi. thanks for the feedback…
it does seem like a problem that isn’t affecting a lot of ID users. mentions of it on the Adobe forums are scarce (although there are a couple). The ‘workaround’ was the closest thing to a solution posted anywhere, although it’s not official Adobe info that i can tell. ‘Preserve Image Dimensions When Relinking’ is the default setting in ID, if I’m not mistaken, so if it IS a bug, obviously Adobe needs to fit it in the near future.
To answer your question – to the best of my knowledge (a number of people were working on the annual report during the length of the project), images we’re initially placed WITHOUT using any of the import options. Nearly all of the charts/graphs were built at a standardized size in Illustrator, a size that corresponded to the size of the graphic frames in InDesign.
cheers
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