digital photos move when printed or distilled

[angler2229]

I have some yearbook files I got from a school that claims they have used File> Place to insert all their digital photos in PM 7.0. However, when I make a pdf of the file, some of the photos move to another position on the page. This is really weird.

I decided to print the page first, and the same thing happened again. Unfortunately, these folks imbedded the photos into the file instead of linking them. Could this be the problem? They also seem unwilling to provide me with the original photos so that I can reinsert them. How is that for cooperation?

I've never seen this happen before. Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Daniel

 

[Eggles]

If the photos are truly embedded then you can export them out and then try re-placing them properly and seeing if this solves the problem of them moving (unlikely, but worth a shot). Just click on the graphic, and go to File>Export>Graphic. If the photos are really there (and not just the preview) then you should be able to get them out intact. Then make sure you use File>Place to get them back into PM, and also link but not embed them.

 

[angler2229]

Lynn,

I tried that, and the image actually degraded to a jaggie mess! At one point I got a warning that the image would become a low res image and did I want to continue?

The job I am doing is actually taking a lot of Word Art and exporting it to a folder to be linked at the printing plant. Some of the images went wild and pixelated beyond recognition. I had took a snapshot of some of them with Snagit and saved them as a tiffs. Then I File> Placed it. Those graphics were great and printed very well.

This photo problem is way beyond me. I have never seen it happen in the five years I have been doing yearbooks.

Daniel

 

[Eggles]

>>At one point I got a warning that the image would become a low res image and did I want to continue? <<

Getting this message indicates that the image is NOT embedded, and all that you can export is the low-rez preview.

So the people who made this did not "imbed the photos into the file instead of linking them". They linked them, then did not provide the actual image file.

>>This photo problem is way beyond me. <<

It's not your fault - the creators of the PM file did not supply you with the original photos.

>>The job I am doing is actually taking a lot of Word Art and exporting it to a folder to be linked at the printing plant.<<

Wordart: Red rag to a bull (when the bull is PM).

 

[angler2229]

Lynn,

I am making an appointment to meet with the yearbook advisor next week. But get this -- she told the yearbook rep that it wasn't her job to supply us with the images. That was our job! Whoa. Do I need to wear a flack jacket when meet this lady? I have to travel 100 miles to get her images because she won't burn them to a CD and send them to us! How is that for cooperation?

What I intend on doing is burning a CD of all the contents of her yearbook folder and bringing them home. I will basically have to find all the pics (she says she has them on floppies -- Oh, Lord!) and relink them to the publication. It's only 144 pages, so it shouldn't take more than a couple of days.

Do you have any idea what is causing the images to move about the page? Do you think it could be a conflict with my PM plugin and her plugin from a different yearbook company?

Basically my plugin allows you to create an images palette. I add images both graphical and photo to the pallette. All you do then is draw a placeholder using the crossed rectangle tool on the page. I make sure that the placeholder is the same size as the graphic to avoid stretching or squeezing. Then you drag the photo from the images palette to the placeholder, and bingo! It appears(think of using Fill Effects in Word to add a photo. A database keeps track of all the locations of graphics by page and location on the page and stores the images in a folder nearby. I have been using it for two years and have created thirty some yearbooks with absolutely no problem until now.

With this book I am not using the plugin but am just exporting Word Art images that the plant cannot see. Most of the photos just aren't there. Well, they are not on my computer either!

Well, thanks for your support.

Dan

 

[Eggles]

Dan

I have heard of these yearbook plug-ins but have never used one. So I really can't help there.

Re the problems with this yearbook advisor. Why are you doing this job? Have you contracted to do this as a freelancer? My reaction would be to turn the job down - it sounds far more trouble than it's worth. I hope you will be well paid for all the trouble it is causing.

>>she told the yearbook rep that it wasn't her job to supply us with the images. <<

So you can just conjure up images of unknown students out of thin air, can you?

>>I have to travel 100 miles to get her images because she won't burn them to a CD and send them to us! <<

I quite honestly don't understand why you are bothering.

 

[angler2229]

It's billable time! I am just a sub contractor for the yearbook rep and can't reject a job. That would be biting the hand that feeds. I am also a teacher and can use the extra cash! Is that bad or what? =-)

Daniel

 

[Eggles]

Well that makes a difference. As long as they get charged for all the extra grief they are causing.

 

[susolov]

If you can create a PDF of the PageMaker document, you can try this work-around to have your own images. (Not sure this can be done if files were linked rather than embedded in the original file. My Distiller is "missing" due to some "help" I got here at work, so I cannot test it right now.)

After you create the PDF file, In Adobe Distiller use the File>Export command to export images in a couple of formats--tiff for example. Just follow the options in the drop down menu and dialog boxes.

The Tiff images can be saved to a folder on your PC. The images I get from the PDF file look fine for the work I do, which is formatting and illustrating electrical equipment manuals. I'm not sure how good it will be for photos of people when you want them to look like, say, themselves. (LOL) But it takes only 5-10 minutes to try this work-around.

 

[Eggles]

susolov

Sounds like a very roundabout way of doing something that can be done right in Pagemaker itself, and certainly won't get you any better images than were already in the PM doc. You can select an image in PM, and go to File>Export to get it out as an independent graphic. Of course if the image is not embedded and has lost its link, all you'll get is the preview, which is all you'd get from the PDF if that was the scenario.

 

[angler2229]

Lyn and susolov,

The good news and the bad news.

First the bad news... I went to Indiana and opened the files on the computer that created them. They were a shambles. No links there either! Talked to the advisor and found out that the staff had used their own digital cameras and tried to File> Place from them directly. Sooooo, none of the photos ever made it to the hard drive! No wonder there were no links.

The good news... the advisor said just use the proofs she provided us, and paste them up. In her words, "This book couldn't look any worse than last year's!"

So we're off the hook for this year, and we plan on training the staff for the next year to do things right.

Talk about weird.. we also stopped at another school who wanted to go digital this year, and the advisor was having the staff use an older Sony camera that only delivers 640 x 480. They were stretching the photos across the page! Photos were coming in 72 dpi.

He also used a method I have never seen used before to get his photos in PM. He used Edit> Insert Object then selected Adobe PhotoShop Image from the list. The problem then was that there were no links to the photo. I told him to use File> Place instead, and he said said he had never heard of that before! The good news here... we told him he was not ready for a digital yearbook until he got a better camera. We also stopped a bad work flow before it ever got started. Whew! Dodged a bullet there.

Daniel

 

[Eggles]

Daniel

I'm glad to hear things got sorted out (sort of). It sounds like you have the opportunity to train people in doing things the right way in PM - how I wish I could do the same for my boss, who has used PM (self-taught) for a long time and uses the most impossibly bad workflow. She's still does things like they were done 10 years ago, and if a graphic file is missing, she just 'strips' the image in from the film made from last version of that publication (or whenever she last had a decent copy of the graphic).

A really good summary of the preferred workflow for PM which touches on most of the important things can be found here:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/2f0d6.htm