

It also uses that copy to print if it can’t find the original image it’s linked to. When you link as opposed to insert an image it still places a small, low-resolution copy of the image into the InDesign file, which is what it uses when you don’t have the high-quality or overprint view setting enabled. Looking at the first image being set to maximum, my first thought is it looks like a broken link in InDesign. On the contrary, there’s a huge difference between those two images – the second shows a great deal of jpeg artifacting from high levels of compression. You may need to use multiple preset settings to generate different quality levels of your document depending on purpose. Downloading is a different story, since it depends on how large a file you think your audience is willing to wait for. There are other options that affect that ratio, but it’s entirely possible you won’t be able to get the quality you want, or at least the same level as for print, in an emailable file size.
#INDESIGN PRINTER PDFWRITER PDF#
And for the most part I make sure the pdf writer doesn’t do much in the way of compression because I’ve already done it to the images myself before linking them to the Indesign document.īeware that this is where things are going to start getting tricky with quality vs file size. I don’t have the interactive option (though there are some interesting results Googling for “pdf interactive vs pdf print”) so I can’t see what things are set to nor do I know anything about your original files, but I create my own preset for pdf generation based on the High Quality Print preset so I know what all of those things are set to.

There are two factors that affect quality for each of three types of images – downsampling, where if your original image is over a certain ppi it will reduce it to a lower ppi and image quality, which sets the level of loss in lossy compression formats (like jpgs). In particular, the options in the Compression group. The most likely issue is the Adobe Preset for pdf that you’re using.
