using non standard extentions in InDesign

[Jimbo2112]

Hi All,

We are migrating to using InDesign as a typesetting system. We currently have a file extension naming convention which is agnostic in that our technical editors use .f1, .f2, .f3 etc, extensions to figures, as opposed to .tif or .eps. Our previous typesetting system had no issues with this as the figures all displayed on screen OK and the high res PDFs to printers worked fine.

Having looked at how InDesign works I notice that it will bring in files to the page and display that use .fx extensions but they are not editable from the InDesign page.

My question is; is this because InDesign does not know which graphic application it should use to edit the image (when .fx is used) and it displays a (possibly low res) preview version that is attched to the file. Or is the version shown on screen the proper high resolution image but with no editable state due to InDesign not knowing the associated graphics application that it comes from (which woul therefore not affect the spec of the press ready image).

Sorry if the email is a little confusing. Ask me a question if you need more explanation

Cheers

Jimbo

 

[jmgalvin]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by not editable from the page. Can you select "edit original" from the links window and get the right app or do you get zip there?

There could also be a mac vs. pc question involved. OSX still embeds data forks in saves, meaning that the extension is not necessary. This dan be seen by simply saving a photoshop as jpeg or tiff but not using the extesnion when saving. The pic will still open automatically in photoshop if you reopen it. It can be placed in Indesign and will open in PS when you hit "edit original" I don't know if this will happen in Windows.

The quality of the pic display is dependent on your settings - View menu/display performance (or the preset default you've chosen on preferences). The only exception is eps, since postscript can't really be seen on screen, you're seeing a lower resolution bitmap of the eps on screen (prints fine as long as you go postscript).

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4

 

[Eggles]

Jimbo

>>is this because InDesign does not know which graphic application it should use to edit the image (when .fx is used)<<

Yes.

You have to tell InDesign which is the default application for editing pics from within ID - but if the extensions you are using apply to both vector and raster graphics, then this is just going to confuse ID, as it won't know which of the two graphics programs to open.

jmgalvin

>>It can be placed in Indesign and will open in PS when you hit "edit original" I don't know if this will happen in Windows.<<

Not if there is no extension on it. In fact, Windows will not recognise a graphic without an extension.