Importing images from pdf file to indesign layout

[finstead]

I have to do a magazine layout for an entertainment magazine.
The images that they send us are on PDF.
In the document summary it says that the
creator: Adobe Indesign CS 3.0
producer: Adobe PDF Library 6.0
There are 12 images on one page, there are 5 pages.

When I do my layout and would like to use some images on a page on the magazine would I have copy and paste or should I take it to Photoshop and save the images as .tiff's and then import them to the new Indesign page that I want the images on.
Any help will be kindly appreciated.

 

[jmgalvin]

Indesign supports direct import of pdf. You just have to make sure that the printer who's printing the mag can handle the separations. I've run into that once in awhile. You have to hope that the people who sent you the pdf saved it at a high enough quality. If it came from the marketing/advertising dept of a major corp, you shoudl be ok.

I honestly don't know about copying/pasting from pdf to ID. I do know that it's not that great an idea when pasting from other graphics apps so I err on the side of caution

If you only want to use some of the pics that are on the same pdf page, Id can do that. Assuming that the pdf is letter size or so, draw a rectangular frame on the blank ID page, the entire size of the page, and leave it selected. Then use the Place command. On the place window, check Show Import Options. Select the pdf with the pics you want and hit Open. On the options window that follows select Crop to Bounding box.

You can then just resize the box to crop out the what you don't want by dragging the frame to just around the part of the pdf (the pic) you want. If you want more pics from that same page you can clone the image on the ID page (Option click - drag on mac). You can then drag the handles bigger of that one to make it big enough to see the next part of the pdf page (another pic) that you want to use. Resize that to crop out everything you don't want.

If you want to use part of that on another page, you can choose View/Entire pasteboard and clone the thing from the the first page to any other page. Then use resize to crop.

The advantage to this is that you really only have one linked image - that pdf. This might sound complicated, but once you get the hang of it it's very fast.

 

[jimoblak]

Why are they sending you PDFs instead of editable INDD files and linked images? Did they want you to maintain the design that they specified in the PDF layout? Did they give you permission/rights to alter their design?

PDFs can be edited in Illustrator if the PDF creator saved it in an editable PDF format. Rasterizing vector PDF content in Photoshop is a last resort.

- - picklefish - -
Why is everyone in this forum responding to me as picklefish?