Small Size but decent Quality

[uzapuca]

Hi,

I am working my portfolio with InDesign. I have made a template and then paste my works in it. Which do you think is the best type of file to paste to get the best relation good quality and small size? Should it be JPG, PDF or AI?

The idea is to convert the final InDesign file into a PDF and send it through email.

Any advice? Thanks for the help

 

[eugenetyson]

What type of work are you trying to show off?

It won't really matter which file type is used to be honest. If you're emailing then you have to make sure that you can and the recipient can receive that amount of data.

If you have work in PDF, then insert that.

If you have works in AI, then put them in too.

If you have photoshop, then PSD would be better, but you can place JPEG, TIFFs, EPSs and others.

What way are you going to email the document, the InDesign file and links themselves, PDF, JPG, SVG etc? Would the person need to print it out or just view it on screen.

If it is PDF you can choose a number of options in File>Export>PDF (from drop down list). You can have the images downsample to conserve size. Remember that if it's been viewed on screen then you don't need to have the images downsample to 72 dpi, if you need the person to Print them, then you should have your images downsample to 300 dpi.

If you original JPEGs, Tiffs etc are 150 dpi, then when you PDF from InDesign it will try to interpolate the images. So you need to have good Jpegs and Tiffs in relation to DPI before you can make a Hi Res PDF.

There is a lot of questions here, so more of what you want to achieve by placing them in InDesign would be helpful.

 

[uzapuca]

Hi Eugenetyson,

I will answer to what you asked

What type of work are you trying to show off?
A PDF for screen with reasonable quality. Not for printing purposes.

For example, if I have an AI file I can export it as PDF, right? Do you think is better to paste AI file straight away in InDesign or should I rather export the AI to PDF and then paste the PDF?

I don´t know maybe Indesign will talke PDF better than Ai files, maybe original AI files are larger than PDF. Maybe there is some compatibility issue regarding colors, fonts, etc. That was kind of the question.

Thanks for the info you sent me.
Sebastiao

 

[eugenetyson]

Well, ok, for starters,

AI files:

You need to save them with a PDF Compatible file, if you want the data to be previewed in your InDesign document, and for exporting to InDesign. When you save an AI file you get an option to Include a Compatible PDF. This is standard for AI, there is no need to create a PDF from the AI file.

As for file size regarding your PDF for screen.

The Illustrator file, depending on if it is Vector Dense then there is no real way that InDesign can reduce the size of the file, thus resulting in a large file.

There are two ways around this, export your AI files to JPG and then have them about 150dpi. Or in InDesign, Edit>Transparancy Flattener>Preset and make a new preset, then move the slider all the way to the left, but not at 0 at 1, that way it Rasterizes everything but the text.

When you create your PDF you can select this Transparecny Preset, but it has to be Acrobat 4 Compatible to select this.

You should really make a copy of all your work that you want to show off and put it into one big folder.

Open all the files of the same file type.

If it's illustrator, you could export to JPEG or do the transparency flattener trick in InDesign.

All your photoshop files, you should save as Jpeg at 150dpi.

You can just place PDF's into InDesign, that won't cause any problems, but you might want to consider the transparency flattner trick (described above) to reduce the vector dense files.

People may say that vector is a smaller file size than raster, but not all the time, this is why I say Vector Dense, I have Illy files that are 50-100 mb in size.

When you export to PDF from InDesign your settings should be similar to this.


General:

Adobe PDF Preset: Smallest File Size (this will change to modified after you make a few changes)

Standard None, Compatability Acrobat 4


Compression:
Bicubic Downsampling to: 150 pixels per inch
For images above: 150 pixels per inch

Compression: Automatic
Image Quality: Medium

You can leave the rest alone if you wish.

Marks and Bleeds:
Leave alone.

Output:
Colour Conversion: Convert to Destination
Destination: Apple RGB
Profile Inclusion Policy: Don't Include
Ink Manager:
Map All Colours to CMYK, unless you want to show spots in teh PDF.

Advanced:
Leave unchanged.

And that's it.

You should get a good, relatively low PDF from this that is viewable on screen.

If you don't, change the Image Resolution in the Compression to 100 ppi. But it should be low enough.

The reason I say to open all to duplicate all the files and resize them in photoshop to 150dpi is because they make smaller thumbnails for InDesign.

You can turn off the Preview Images in InDesign

Edit>Preferences>Saving InDesign Files, uncheck the Always Save a Preview Image with Documents.

This reduces the size of the PDF too.

 

[uzapuca]

Hi eugenetyson,

You almost wrote a Tutorial!!! great info, very complete. Thanks for showing all the differents alternatives. I thought the JPG were not very suitable for InDesign environment which received AI more compatibility. I will give the JPG a try to see how it works then.

Thanks again and best,
Sebastiao

 

[eugenetyson]

Well there was a lot to go through. AI is more compatible but it still requires a Compatible PDF, which can cause problems when trying to decrease the size of the file, so exporting to JPG is a good option, if just for the screen.

And you're most welcome, if you need any help or any tips then just ask, I and others are here to help. I'm sure if I don't have the answer then someone will.

Thanks.

 

[Eggles]

I only skimmed eugenetyson's post, but if it wasn't mentioned, why are you PASTING your graphics into your InDesign layout? You should be using the File>Place function.