Best diagram format to place in InDesign

Hi all,
I am creating a few diagrams - circles, lines and text - in Photoshop that I want to include in the book I am laying out in InDesign (CS6). I have tried saving the diagram as a jpg, gif, tiff and pdf (no compromising) and on transparent backgrounds where applicable but frankly, they all look pretty terrible. In particular, the text is fuzzy (I have been using Garamond, since it is a generally considered to be a good print font) even when saved and reviewed in Photoshop.
Somtimes the size of the image gets changed as well; generally it saves larger.
Any clue on what I am doing wrong and/or the best file format to use? I would truly appreciate some experience on this. Many thanks!
Linnea

Firstly, photoshop is not the correct program to be making diagrams in - you're better off using Adobe Illustrator - or if they are simple enough you can create the Diagrams directly in InDesign.
Photoshop is primarily a Raster editing program, in that it deals with pixels. Illustrator is a Vector program and allows a much better image that can be printed a lot sharper.
For photoshop diagrams you would need a resolution of 600 PPI or in excess of that depending on the output for print.
Why the image is fuzzy?
InDesign is a Page Layout tool - when you place an image into InDesign it doesn't place the image itself, but rather a proxy image that is there only for the purpose of layout. To view a higher resolution proxy (thumbnail) you can go to View>Display Settings>High Quality - again this is still a proxy image but should show it in more detail.
The image in photoshop might be very low quality - what is your resolution in photoshop and at what size are you placing the image? For example, if I have a 300 ppi that is 300x300 pixels in size in photoshop and Place it in InDesign at 300% it's original size it will be only 72 ppi - which isn't great for print reproduction.
Correct format from photoshop?
PDF would be the best to use when saving from photoshop for diagrams - as this can contain vector information but this relies on you using
Vector shapess in photoshop
Vector masks in photoshop
Retaining all text layers as Text and not rasterising them
You can then save the file as PDF and be sure to tick Retain Photoshop Editing Capabilities.
But be warned that if you have black text and black lines, depending on your setup you may force those thin black lines into 4 colour Blacks which might make it difficult for a printing press (litho or flexo etc.) to keep in register.

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If after it's in place I need to change I can just right click and chose edit original make the changes and save and the illustration in inDesign will reflect the changes.
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Hello,
I have played with many options. but can someone tell me the best way to save an illustrator file, so I can place it InDesign and it will print faster yet still hold true to quality and color?
Is it .ai, eps, pdf, tiff, or .png ..I didn't like .gif, or jpeg.....
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iBabs2 wrote:
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babs
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Greetings, good folk and happy holidays!
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I am not asking you how to rip a DVD. I am asking how to convert any video file for decent playback on my iBook or iPhone!
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Don't tell my watching movies on my iBook, even the ones I made is illegal.

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I assume your line art is drawn as vector art in Illustrator, correct?
As far as I'm concened, the "best file format for online line art" would be .swf, because it would retain its scaleable vector nature, and the Flash Player is most likely embedded in any reasonably recent computer's browser.
But a little simple experimentation would be in order regarding file size. SWF (as exported from Flash, not necessarily AI) is very efficient. But the complexity of the line art could still make a given image require more bandwidth as .swf than as a rasterized version.
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> However, not all web browsers can view PNG graphics.
Personally, I think its way past time to stop cow-towing to outdated browsers and use PNGs anyway. So if it were me, and the nature of my line art required rasterization for online use, I would use PNG for its obvious advantages. But then, my livlihood is not affected by some minority of outdated web viewers not being able to view my PNGs.
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> Gilbert seems to...
> Doonsbury seems to...
The two images are very close to the same size (132K & 125K). They both include contone grads. Between JPEG and GIF, I would expect JPEG to more consistently yield acceptable results. Since GIF is limited to an 8-bit lookup table, I would expect aberations such as unwanted banding to be more likely in GIF if the artwork contains many colors and alot of highly-rendered shading.
Since you specify
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Message was edited by: Nicholas Natteau1
Message was edited by: Nicholas Natteau1

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Hi,
We have recently redesigned our website at http://www.aljoufilaw.com/ar/ and inserted photos in the homepage and its sub-pages.
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See screenshot from Photoshop.
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