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Placed image scaling, rotation info
Hi. I am a photo editor who works primarily in Photoshop. In addition to retouching and color-correction one of my duties is to prep images for various output methods, often offset printing. Projects get handed off to me by designers working in InDesign. I have my own method for sizing images to 100%(adding sharpening, etc) in a late-binding workflow. This involves having designers provide me with a pdf which I then rasterize in Photoshop and size by dragging images into the rasterized file, scaling it and then resize either in Photoshop or using Genuine Fractals. If I knew the file resolution of the placed files, which are often something other than 300 ppi, I would just have designers package the InDesign document and I would look at the scaling factors for each image and size to that. My question is this: Is there a way to generate a report from InDesign with information about scaling, rotation and resolution of placed images? Does anyone have an alternate workflow that is effective. I’ve used my method for years. It works well for the most part and I like to have the ability to “eyeball” the images in place without having to go out of Photoshop. However I would also like an alternative for larger projects. Thanks in advance for any feedback.
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2 Replies
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I’ll look into the report as that sounds like something that I’ve seen.. however, as I worked in publishing for a few years at different companies, I’m wondering why you don’t receive the files at the proper size?
I can understand a layman providing something but if you’re producing a publication, why are you having to resize the work from the designers? Why wouldn’t they have the specs to provide you a pdf at 100% of the dimension?
Or maybe I’m just reading this wrong?
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Thanks for the feedback. Maybe our workflow is a little different than most situations. I am in the Photography Department of a Creative Services Division that also includes print designers. If we are shooting the content we supply designers with jpegs as FPOs or they are getting images supplied to them by clients. At the end of the approval cycle the job comes back to me to size, optimize and convert images for press (or whatever the output will be). What I get from the designers are the linked files from their now-approved InDesign layout, and a PDF to use as a sizing template (rather than the InDesign doc itself, as I stated in my original post). I then do any final retouching, color-correction, sizing, rotation, etc. The final files go back to the designer who replaces the FPO’s with the final press-ready versions. They then package and/or PDF the document to send to the print vendor.
If I could get a report that shows the image size , rotation and resolution as placed in the InDesign document, I’d be able to more easily prepare the final files. I find it cumbersome to work from the InDesign document and there doesn’ seem to be a way to know the resolution of the placed file without having to go out to Photoshop again. Like I said it’s not a big deal with small jobs as I like to check things like sufficient bleed, etc. But when the jobs reach a certain size, say an image-heavy 32 page brochure, I’d like to have some flexibility in getting the job done. I hope this makes sense. Thanks again for the feedback.
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