Images aren't imported right

[Clor]

Hi, I don't quite know how to explain this right,
I'm just 16 y-old and Dutch - so my English sucks , and use InDesign only to create our school-paper. But I have a lot of problems handling Images in InDesign 4.0. I have all images (photos, drawings) saved as JPEG's that look good when I watch them in Macromedia(Adobe) Fireworks and any other ImageSoftware, but when I place them in Adobe InDesign in once they are very pixelated, you can hardly read any text, though using other image software I can read the text really good...
Looking around on other InDesign resources I see everybody working with very nice looking images, so I don't quite understand what's the cause of this problem.

Is there anyone who understands this, and hopefully can help me?

Thanks,
Erik.

 

[apepp]

...images place into indesign use a low res preview to speed things up a bit, try choosing view > display performance > high quality display...

...this may improve things a bit, but will slow down indesign if using high resolution graphics, when you finally print graphics to say pdf, the images will look better, assuming of course you have enough resolution in the images to begin with, avoid scaling images up too big (higher than about 120-130%) as this will affect the quality...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...yes, forgot to mention viewing you page at 100% magnification will improve things too, zooming in really close will naturally decrease the quality of your on screen view...

Andrew

 

[Clor]

Hi Andrew,
thanks for replying!

The image I want to place is this:

http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4452/dirkjan1je1.jpg

Adobe InDesign shows this (I used the 'place' function and then applied Fit Frame To Content)

http://img391.imageshack.us/img391/2538/screenshotkh1.jpg

It differs so much... And you can not read the text, while in the original file you really can...

 

[Clor]

:|
Unbelievable. I zoomed in up to 130% and it looks much much and much better than it ever did before...!

And I thought I already put the option to always view everything on High Quality Display on a long time ago...

 

[apepp]

...this has always been the nature of layout software, the image you attach is only 150dpi so if running out to an inkjet printer will probably look ok, but if printing to offset litho through a postcript rip the image will output poorly...

...the lesson here is to not go by what indesign displays as being accurate with regards to bitmap images or document 100% display, the key is effective resolution in combination with scaled size...

...some images may display better at 100% zoom while others won't, depends on the image content really...

...print this to pdf and view at 100% in acrobat and you will see a different display again depending on your screen resolution settings in preferences. Different again in photoshop I expect...

...as I mentioned it is the nature of the layout application using a lower resolution display. If you hold a ruler up to your screen you may find that 10mm looks more like 7mm when compared. Indesign uses a lower resolution screen display...

...you zoom up to say 136% (a corrected 100%), the rulers may match and the display may look better...

...actual monitor resolution and the way the software is programmed plays a part too, as you have discovered...

Andrew