Placing a PDF in InDesign

Ok. I don't know how else to simplify my explanation so here goes…
1. So, I have a PDF article which is 8.5" x 11". It mainly contains text.
2. I want to place this one page PDF in InDesign but it keeps taking out the white space around the text. Meaning it only takes the area that has text on it so it actually comes out as smaller than 8.5" x 11".
3. How do I maintain the PDF size when importing into InDesign.
Here's how I want it to look (notice the white space around the text:
BUT this is how it shows up when placed in InDesign (notice how the white margin disappeared):

Well, first of all, I'm not the best at finding the right/proper keywords
when it comes to searching. I searched "place PDF" and got me to the first
topic you mentioned. I have no patience in going through and reading
through all the list of results. That's why I like going through FORUM. I
know I'll get my answer there somehow and in the meantime while waiting
for someone to respond I am productive with other jobs. That's all.
Also, I do see that at the bottom is the "Related Information" (I have
CS3). But I don't think I would necessarily go to "Import options for
graphics" link to get my answer in PDF. But that's just me.
Bernice de Guzman-Wilson
CDG Marcom, Bio-Rad Laboratories
510.741.4670
Bob Bringhurst - Adobe <[email protected]>
06/19/2009 11:02 PM
Please respond to
[email protected]
To
Bernice Wilson <[email protected]>
cc
Subject
Placing a PDF in InDesign
What did you search for in Help? I can edit text or add keywords to
improve the search experience. I think one problem is that "import pdf"
jumps to the
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/InDesign/6.0/WSa285fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-6bd7a.html
topic, but the information on cropping is in the
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/InDesign/6.0/WSBAC794A2-274A-466f-8254-11FB23B86A5Fa.html#WSa2 85fff53dea4f8617383751001ea8cb3f-6bbfa
topic.

Similar Messages

Crop mark issue when placing and PDF in Indesign

I've just had this strange issue that I can't figure out and I'm not sure if anyone else has had it as well.
I exported a PDF through InDesign with crop marks. I then placed the PDF in Indesign and for some reason the bleed and the crop marks don't
show up! I've never had this issue with Indesign before.
Is it even InDesign, or is it the PDF itself?

Select show options when placing and select the appropriate crop to choice.
Bob

Placing a PDF in InDesign CS5

Hello,
I am new to these forums and new to forums as a whole. I have a question about InDesign CS5. I recently upgraded from CS3 to CS5. In InDesign CS3 when I placed a PDF file (or other Adobe file for that matter) once I selected a crop option if I then placed another PDF (or other Adobe file) the Place command remembered my last crop selection and made that the first option. I find that when I place PDFs now in CS5 that I have to select my crop option every time. The default seems to be Bounding Box (visible layers only), and no matter how many times I select another crop option, say media, and then place the item, I always have to reselect the crop option to media when I again place another PDF. Is there and option for changing this default? Or is there a way of turning on a option that will cause InDesign CS5 to remember my last crop selection under the Place command? If so, how do I do it? It would save my lots of time if I could figure this out.
Thank you.
CB

Stix wrote:
Welcome to the forum Charles, I hope your first experience is a positive one.
I've had exactly this problem, which was solved in a forum on Indesign Secrets, another great Indesign resource. The thread is here, but let me know if you have any problems implementing the scripts in it. I've adapted them and made my own list so for example I can easily just click on one to place page 7 of a PDF to it's trim box, which not only means you don't have to have "show options" ticked when placing but if you drag and drop (which is often a lot quicker) you get what you want to.
Thank you Stix, for the welcome and the information as well.
I believe I have a working understanding of how to edit and place scripts in InDesign. (Now that is scary!) Now I have a new challenge; related to my original challenge. The PDFs that I am placing are not just single page PDFs; some of them can be 50 - 100 pages. That being said, one of my favorite things to do is to take a existing InDesign file, where I have already placed and sized the PDFs, rename it and then go in and select the previously placed PDF and replace it with page xxx; all throughout the document. Perhaps I am doing something wrong with the script information because I do not see away for me to choose the page I want without using the "show import options*. Using this option of course kicks out the script I have selected; does it not? Is there a option in one of example scripts that would help me with this?
CB

Placing an pdf in Indesign

Hi Indesign (cc) users,
I got a pdf file with 2 page's what i want to import in indesign. Now i want to import both pdf pages, but that's not wat happend. He uploads only the first page.
What can i do to import all pdf pages in ones?
Thanks for helping me.
Pieter

No That's the problem there no tick...

Failed to open PDF file when placing a PDF in Indesign CS5

I am also having an issue when I am able to place the PDF that the bleed isn't showing up and the crops aren't either

The failure dialog usually means the import options are set to crop to one of the options that isn't defined for that particular file, and changing the crop options to one that isn't grayed out should work. To show bleed and marks, first they must be present in the PDF, and second your choice of crop option must be large enough to include them. Media would be my choice for that.

Placed jpgs - pdf much bigger then jpgs filesize - why !?

Hi,
i can't understand what exactly indesign doing, hopefully someone got an idea..
thanks in advance..
I placed a few jpgs, which are overall about 1.4 mb. The final Pdf, which only includes these jpgs is much bigger, 3.3 mb. I tried different export settings (best quality, smallest filesize, played with image compression ..) but the pdfs filesize always was between 2.8 (bad quality..) and 3.9.
In another test i printed the jpgs directly in a pdf file with Adobe PDF Printer directly from Windows Photo Viewer. Filesize was a few percent smaller than the original jpgs, Quality was pretty the same.
Finaly i placed these Pdfs in indesign and export the whole document as Pdf -> 2.3 mb
whyy ?!

Exported PDF supports a large number of features not supported in distilled PDF and contains information beyond just the text and images you place on the page, like color management information as one example. Some older versions of ID also tend to export overly large PDF, but that has mostly been corrected in CS5 and later. You can try running the PDF Optimizer in Acrobat Pro to reduce size.

Placing & scaling a multi-page PDF in InDesign?

I need to place a 300+ page PDF that is 8 1/2 x 11 into an InDesign doc that is 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, and have the PDF pages scale proportionately to the smaller size.….can anyone help? In the "Place" command there is no option for this; yes, I can import then scale the pages one at a time but to have to do that 300+ times is simply ridiculous. There is what seems to be a great script here:
http://indesignsecrets.com/placing-all-the-pages-of-a-pdf-inside-indesign.php/comment-page -3#comment-494840
however, there is no way I can figure out how to get to the dialog pictured in the article. All I can do is right click on the script itself and tell it to run, but it doesn't bring up that snazzy little dialog box.......Am I missing something? Is there a particular folder inside the Scripts folder where I must place this script? And then is there some specific menu I must go to to bring up that dialog box?
Many thanks in advance!

Use the updated version, which you'll find at InDesignSecrets » Blog Archive » Zanelli Releases MultiPageImporter for Importing both PDF and INDD Files
If you don't see the dialog, odds are that you didn't actually install the script into ID. For that, see How to install scripts in InDesign | InDesignSecrets

Placed PDF crashing InDesign (CS4)?

I extracted and cropped a photo from a pdf and saved to a new pdf file. Then I placed it in my Indesign layout. Since then, several things keep happening -- the progress wheel starts spinning (forever) so I have to force quit, part of my toolbar disappears, or a dialog box appears notifying me that it has crashed.
These things happen when I try to resize the photo, or when I try to change the layer order, or for no apparent reason at all!
Is there any conflict with PDFs I should know about? Or any restrictions on use? Wouldn't just telling me be easier if there is? I don't know the original provenance of the PDF.
Should I save the PDF first in Photoshop?

Hi Peter, I'm back!
I went to the Apple Store and got my machine checked.
I worked on the document for about 15 seconds before it crashed. They "Reset
the Home Folder Permissions", check the memory, tested the RAM -- all O.K.
Then we created a new User Account. I created a new Adobe InDesign document
and worked in it for awhile and it didn't crash. So that said to my "Genius"
that the problem was with Adobe InDesign and I would likely have to
uninstall and reinstall the program.
When I got back home, I opened the file that had been crashing -- this time
in the new User Account and worked on it and it did NOT crash. I could make
it through this project working in the new directory. But I decided to call
Adobe Tech Support again and see what they said.
They said I might have to reinstall the program, but first there was
something else we could try that would avoid all that time and trouble.
So we threw the Adobe InDesign Preferences folder in the trash. We also
threw a folder called "Adobe Indesign 6.0" out.
Then I opened up the document and worked and it didn't crash. Only there
is still one problem: several palettes do not display -- they are empty and
I can't add anything to them (such as a new Swatch). They are:
Palettes:
Glyph sets
Character
Swatches
Object Styles
I'm not sure why these are missing and it's tricky trying to work without
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I went back to the new User Account and checked and these palettes are NOT
missing.
We tried copying the plist from the new User Account Preferences and pasting
it into the preferences for my old account, but that didn't work.
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Acrobat 5 - Placing PDF into inDesign and Output to Colour Separations are Wrong

Acrobat 5 - Placing PDF into inDesign and Output to Colour Separations are Wrong
I have a 2 Page PDF file from my client which I have to have setup 2UP on 450x320 for Metal Plates for the Press.
I setup my page size in inDesign and Placed each page from the PDF file into the inDesign Document.
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I know this is a error with dropping a PDF file into inDesign, outputting to a PS file and then Distilling it to the SEPS. I've had the same problem when I've opened a PDF file that has been distilled in Illustrator and the Artwork is sliced into pieces and uneditable.
Has anyone else found this problem and if so is there a workaround?
I'm using Adobe inDesign CS and Adobe Acrobat Professional Version 5.

Im facing a similar kind of problem. I want to store and retrieve Office files, PDF and Jpegs into/from the database to view them on web in disconnected mode. Please reply as I cant find any help/documentation regarding saving BLOB data into files. I was able to store file data into BLOB, using DBMS_LOB package.
Shahzad

When placing a PDF created with Distiller, I only get Crop and Media as import options -- I need it to crop to the Trim! PLEASE HELP!

I'm having a MAJOR problem placing PDF files in InDesign CS4...
When I try to place a PDF that has been created in Distiller, the ONLY import options I can choose are CROP and MEDIA. I need it to crop to the TRIM, but that option is grayed out. The PDFs I'm trying to place were created in-house, and converted from Post Script files to PDFs using Distiller. We use PDF/X-1a equivalent settings when creating our PDFs.
If I export the file as a PDF and then try to place it into a CS4 file, I am able to select Trim as an option.
ALSO, if I open the Distiller PDF in Acrobat and then save it (without changing anything), I am able to select Trim as an option. A workaround I have found is to open all of the PDF files in Acrobat, save them to my desktop, and then save over the ones I need to place. Here's the problem with that: I work for a publishing company, and need to place hundreds of ads for each issue of our publications, and it adds a lot of time if I have to go and re-save everything just to be able to place all the ads.
Does anyone know how to fix this problem? I need to get this figured out so we can use CS4 for all of our publications again. -- We've gone back to using CS3 until I can get this figured out...
- Valerie

Steve,
Thanks for the reply, but my PDFs all have trim boxes on them. If I try to place the same PDF in InDesign CS3, it gives me Trim as an option. Also, if I open the PDF and save a copy to my desktop, I am able to select Trim as an option when placing the PDF, and I didn't change anything about it.
I've been trying to see if it's something with the Print Preset settings I'm using, but I can't find anything that seems like it would affect how InDesign would read the Trim area of the PDF.
I've attached 2 PDF files. One that was created with Distiller, and one that was exported from InDesign CS4. The Distiller one doesn't show Trim as an option in CS4, but the exported one does.... but they started out as the same ad. Ugh! Help me please!
- Valerie

Export to pdf vs. print to pdf, from InDesign CS3

We are using Indesign CS3 on Windows XP. We are creating documents for offset printing, with 300dpi photos placed in the document. We are finding that when we "EXPORT" to pdf, and choose a "high quality print", the pdf is fine. However, if we 'print to pdf' and choose "high quality print", the photos in our pdf are more pixellated, and appear to be 150 dpi or lower resolution. Is this a problem with CS3? Does it make any difference how the tiff files have been placed, or sized, in InDesign? Has anyone else experienced this problem?

In the print dialog, when printing to PDF, under the graphics panel, make sure you change the default value of "Optimized Subsampling" to "all" for the "Send Image Data" field.
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What plugin do I need to open a PDF in InDesign?

What plugin do I need to open a PDF in InDesign? I have twice lost my changes in an InDesignfile but I have saved in in PDF form. I want to open it in InDesign but it says a plugin may be missing.

You can't OPEN a PDF file in InDesign. This has never been possible.
You can PLACE a PDF file. A placed PDF is treated as a graphic, you cannot edit it. If you choose Import Options, you can choose which page(s) of the PDF to place.

Place pdf into InDesign CS4 js

Hi, I have those lines of script that place the pdf into InDesign, but in the process new frame gets created in which the pdf is placed, and I need it to be placed into my existing frame. How could I do it:
    var myRectangle = myDoc.pages[0].rectangles[0];
    myPage = myDoc.pages[0];
    myPDFPage = myPage.place(File(myFile), [0,0])[0];
Thank you very much for your help.
Yulia

Yes, you are right, I am stuck for a different reason, it does places the second page.
What I think is going on, and maybe there is a better approach to it than the one I am going about it: when I have single page pdf for the 1st page and single page pdf for the 2nd page, my script first tries to upload 1st pdf as multi-page just in case there is only one pdf with both files. And for some reason it uploads single page pdf twice (into the second InDesign page as well when there is no second page in the 1st pdf [If I could avoid that all together would be great]). So my script verifies if the pdf uploaded into the 2nd page is 1st page of 1st pdf then it deletes it. And then it looks if there is a file for the second page, and uploads it. So my new challenge is that when it verifies what page of the pdf is uploaded into the 2nd page of InDesign after the 1st pdf upload, it just crashes, and it worked with the previous way of placing pdfs (the green line of the script).
The second my issue is that, as it places the files, it dis-attaches the frames from the master page, and I need them to be still half attached. For the same reason new frames created by place command - is a problem for me. Maybe easier way, if it's possible at all, half-attach those new frames to the Master page afterwords. (This is the main goal for me).
Here are both functions: to upload first pdf and second pdf:
function myPlacePDF(myDoc, myFile){
    app.pdfPlacePreferences.pdfCrop = PDFCrop.cropMedia;
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    var myRectangle = myDoc.pages[0].rectangles[0];
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    //PDF.place (myFile);
    //myPDFPage = myPage.place(File(myFile), [0,0])[0];
    myRectangle.geometricBounds = [0, 0, myGB_Y2, myGB_X2];
    // page 2
    myPage = myDoc.pages[1];
    var myRectangle = myDoc.pages[1].rectangles[0];
    app.pdfPlacePreferences.pageNumber = 2;
    myPDFPage = myRectangle.place(myFile);
    //PDF.place (myFile);
    //myPDFPage = myPage.place(File(myFile), [0,0])[0];
    myRectangle.geometricBounds = [0, 0, myGB_Y2, myGB_X2];
    if (myPDFPage.pdfAttributes.pageNumber != 2){
        myPDFPage.parent.remove();
    try{
        var myFrame = myDoc.pages[0].rectangles[1];
        if (myFrame.isValid == true){
            myFrame.remove();
    catch (e){}
    try{
        var myFrame = myDoc.pages[1].rectangles[1];
        if (myFrame.isValid == true){
            myFrame.remove();
    catch (e){}
    app.pdfPlacePreferences.pageNumber = 1;
function myPlacePDFback(myDoc, myFile){
    var myFrame= myDoc.pages[1].rectangles.[0];
    if (myFrame.isValid == false){
        myDoc.pages[1].rectangles.add();
        myFrame.strokeWeight = 0;
        myFrame.geometricBounds = [0, 0, myGB_Y2, myGB_X2];
    app.pdfPlacePreferences.pdfCrop = PDFCrop.cropMedia;
    myPage = myDoc.pages[1];
    var myRectangle = myDoc.pages[1].rectangles[0];
    app.pdfPlacePreferences.pageNumber = 2;
    myRectangle.place(myFile);
    //myPDFPage = myPage.place(File(myFile), [0,0])[0];
    app.pdfPlacePreferences.pageNumber = 1;
Kasyan, your script might be helpful, and I would like to look into it.
Thank you very much for your help.
Yulia

How do I import a .PDF into inDesign?

How do I import a .PDF into inDesign? Does anybody know how? I need to edit a book in inDesign that is a .PDF. So if anyone know how to do that please tell me.

Bob, Peter, grmg, many thanks for your very helpful comments. Delighted mac/pc not relevant. Will scratch that from list of herrings to chase.
Re PDFs - actually, I'm working in Acrobat (not just a finalized PDF), and Acrobat does of course allow editing of a sort; I'd concluded that since Adobe is willing to tolerate that degree of editing with its product, it should therefore tolerate moving its native format (*.pdf) into another of its own native formats (*.indd). I see that's a misconception.
This morning I tried all flavors I could find of getting my Acrobatted content into ID3, including copy/paste, place, and import (from the ID side); none was satisfactory. Output from Acrobat to Word and then placing Word was fine for English but destroyed the Greek - not just wrong font, but complete gobbledygook and loss of all diacriticals. Names of fonts don't matter for my purposes; the legibility of the English, and the legibility and tonic accuracy of the Greek do matter. Author of this project is not tech-savvy and is using old Greek system as well; nothing he or i can do to fix that.
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YC

Opening a PDF into InDesign.

Hello, I'm new to InDesign and need help importing an existing PDF to modify. I tried following the instructions here: http://bim.wikispaces.com/file/view/How+to+Import+and+Edit+PDFs+in+Adobe+InDesign.pdf , but do not have the option of opening from "Place" -- The Place option in in gray still.
Help?

File > Place... is not available?
And you do understand that you cannot change the content of the PDF inside InDesign, right? You can scale or crop, but nothing else with a placed PDF.

Placing a PDF in InDesign

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