Poor quality images exporting from InDesign to PDF

We are having an issue with poor quality images exporting to PDF from Indesign (CS6). It makes zero difference whether the images are Ai images or PDF. They look perfect in Ai, perfect in the InDesign document, but appalling in the exported PDF. If the PDF document is printed, they print fine, but as a web based pdf document it is not publishable. We must use compression on export to keep the file size small enough for web/email use, but even with compression turned off on export there is no improvement in the PDF quality with a document ten times the size.
Any help would be appreciated?

I appear to have answered my own question, but will place it here to hopefully help others.
On comparing another InDesign document that appeared to export to PDF ok, we noticed that the type of frame makes a huge difference to image output quality. In the suspect document the frames with the images in them were " [Basic Graphics Frame]+ ". When I changed the frame (or made a new frame) to " [None] "; not only were the images a lot clearer in the InDesign document but they exported to PDF perfectly. Something so simple!!!!

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Problems with image conversion from InDesign to PDF

My images look posterized when I convert from InDesign to PDF. Any ideas about this?

That'd be in the export settings not in Reader. Ask in the InDesign forum, they'll probably know better.

Exporting from InDesign to PDF, and the updated PDF is larger than a month ago and not printing easily on letter paper, it is PDF presets?

Hello,
I am exporting from InDesign to a PDF and the page is larger in the PDF then others I have exported. Is this because of the PDF presents? One of the project managers is not able to print it out on 8.5 x 11 paper, but the document presets for InDesign are the same as before. I wish I could upload the PDFs to show, but the newly exported PDF is larger than the version I created a month ago. I created a PDF binder and the newly updated PDF is almost a .5 inch wider with the same export presets. Any thoughts?

Sadira00123456789 wrote:
One of the project managers is not able to print it out on 8.5 x 11 paper, but the document presets for InDesign are the same as before.
I suspect the project manager simply has his/her copy of Reader/Acrobat set to print at actual size, rather than "Fit" (assuming the InDesign page size is truly 8.5 x 11).
..the newly updated PDF is almost a .5 inch wider with the same export presets.
It would have nothing to do with export presets. How are you determining that half-inch difference?

Embedding font problems (when exporting from InDesign to PDF)

A message alert is shown, when opening a pdf - after exporting from InDesign: Cannont exctract the embedded Font Frutiger.
We have uninstalled the frutiger font and installed an open type. But the font is not embedded anyhow..?
Can anyone help?
Thanks very much.
Jane

I don't know if you need help scripting this, but...........
If you can not re-create the PDF from InDesign using the OTF,
In Acrobat, highlight the text with the acrobat touch-up text tool, right click and go to properties. You should be able to assign the OTF font running on you system, and select the embed option.
If not, this is why PitStop is an indespensable (sp?) tool.
Best of luck

Background missing when exporting from indesign to pdf

Sometimes when I export a file from indesign to pdf, my background doesn't show up. The background is just a block of solid colour, or gradient. The background block of colour is usually the full size of the page. I've tried to play around to see what is causing this to happen and sometimes if I reduce the size of the block to say, 1/3 of the page then the block of colour shows up, but then when I make it the full size of the page as I actually need it to be, the colour block doesn't show up when I export it to pdf (i've tried all the different pdf presets and it doesn't make a difference)??? Does anyone know why and how to fix it?
thanks!

I believe export is an ID option, not an Acrobat option. In that case, you probably should ask in the ID forum.

Preserving Black when Exporting from InDesign to PDF

Hi All:
I hope someone who knows Acrobat can help me with this. I have an InDesign file that I must export to PDF. That in itself isn't the problem. This is:
The text in InDesign is solid black (000000), but once it exports to PDF, it collects a myriad of colors and will not print preperly to the newsprint. I'm doing this for a newspaper. I use InDesign, they use Quark. The client uses InDesign as well. I can NOT figure out how to convince Acrobat to leave the color alone.
I've tried to figure it out with the Ink Manager, etc., but for the life of me, no matter what I do, It comes out as all the colors of the rainbow. It LOOKS black in the PDF, but when you select it, it is NOT black. It's a mess. Two full pages of this stuff and I'll have to redo the whole darned thing in Quark unless I can figure this out.
I have tried using "Preserve Black" once it's in PDF format, but it doesn't seem to do anything. Obviously I'm missing something in the Export from InDesign function, but I can't figure out what.
Can someone help me?
Thanks so much, in advance.

Okay. Above is the swtch from the original Color Preset. Below is the swtch after I made the changes mentioned above. I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees no difference. ??

PDF quality problems exporting from InDesign and Photoshop

Hi There.
I'm having big problems exporting my InDesign files to PDFs and retaining the res. And it's not just the images (I understand about the dpi) it's the type on there too.
I have been exporting as the preset High Quality Print - is this wrong. Are there other settings to ensure the PDF I export retains the high-res quality and clarity?
At the moment it comes out high-res when I export it as a jpeg or eps but not PDF.
I have also noticed the same problem when I export to a PDF from Photoshop.
I really need to create interactive and high quality print PDFs from my InDesign files.
Please can you advise.
Thanks
Karen

I am also having problems with pdfs exported from Illustrator and Indesign recently. I didn't have these problems before, so I don't kno if something has changed in my settings that I am unaware of.
When I use the 'japanese dots' border in Indesign, it shows on the pdf as a kind of dotted line. I'm exporting as 'High Quality Print'. I switched to Illustrator and drew a line with the pen tool, and converted it to a dotted line; it looked just how I wanted in in Illustrator, but as soon as I exported it, the same thing happened.
I have used the 'japanese dots' border in the past, exporting as 'High Quality Print', and not had this problem.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Format changing when exporting from InDesign to PDF

I am using Acrobat 8 version 8.1.2, and InDesign version 5.0.2.
I am noticing a very specific problem when exporting some files to PDF from InDesign.
We often have a format where we have a numbered list of right-aligned number, followed by some text, a leader line, and then another number at the end of the line. This is set up with a left indent and a first line left indent (rather than using the numbered list options), and then the necessary tabs later in the lines.
I am finding since we switched to IDCS3, that when I export to PDF, lines containing this format change in the PDF. The text that appears after the number in the front of the line is pushed over on top of the leader line, leaving a huge white space. On rarer occasions, it will move things in lines that have no indents, but contain tabs that aren't being used.
I have been able to get the files to export correctly by removing the left indent and first-line left indent and using tabs instead (or by removing unused tabs). But we have hundreds of files set up in this manner so going in and changing how they are all set up is problematic to say the least.
Is this a known issue? Does anyone know why this might happen and how I can prevent it?

I haven't tried printing to PDF. I will try that and see what happens. Unfortunetly, where I work we are required to export to PDF rather than print to PDF, so if it works it will only be a clue for me rather than a solution.
Thanks for the reply. I'll try a cross post to the InDesign forms.

Vector shapes suddenly looks jagged when exported from InDesign to pdf

I've read several discussions on pdf export topics but none of them seem to solve this issue. I have an indesign document with multiple pages, its both vector shapes, text and pixel graphics. I worked on this for weeks and I exported this document to pdf numerous times and it all looked good every time I did it. All of a sudden I started to get a very bad looking export, just out of the blue the shapes, logos etc got this jagged look and it looks aweful - see my enclosed examples.
I have done nothing to my pdf export setup, InDesign setup or any screen preferances. It's just a mystery to me. It seems to be hurting all my sirculare shapes and not my text in general! Every pixel image / photography exports perfect to pdf. My page display is set to smooth text rendering in my pdf preferences. What's up? What puzzles me is this happened so sudden after numerous fine exports. I'm using InDesign CS6.
This is the O in a logo that's been placed on a page. The right one is what I get when I export to pdf now, the left one is what I used to get

John, your are very wrong about post #2. I personally had a rendering problem that was all solved by setting the opacity to 99.9% - it was exported horribly but fixed by this operation. You can read other user stories that confirms this too. But this is not the same issue so let's leave it at that. I just wanted to mention it in terms of having jagged exports.
There's been no updates thats been changing the Acrobat settings. Acrobat has a default setting in terms of page display that I haven't changed ever as a matter of fact. I shared that info in case someone asked. I'm not connected to any printer, the file is for screen view and third partie receivers can print if they need to (I'm not connected to any printer at work, there's a no print policy). Watching the corporate identity material look terrible on the screen is hardly something a marketing manager likes to do and I don't wanna be the designer responsible for that. So all I want is to solve this mystery and get things back to how it was just two days ago. As described nothing is changed in terms of technical things AND the same terrible results occur when opening a new indd file with a new vector file and exporting that. So the error is not connected to a spesific document or file.
I remember having export rendering problems of all kinds in CS3, CS4 and CS5, it was all sort of quirky operations I had to do to solve them. Once I actually sat on the phone talking to a technical advisor at Adobe in Ireland while he was trying to explain that this was one of those weak spots of InDesign vs Acrobat. I was emailed a script, if that's not a bugfix I don't know what is. He tried to explain how to embedd the file into the installation setup but the end of the story was a full CS4 MA Collection refund. I'm trying to avoid placing foreign calls this time around and nothing has helped so far. I've been reading endless forum threads different places that describes the problem I have but they never end up with a solution for InDesign CS6 and export routines. It's just a series of errors and questions. I've turned the stone a million times, but all I see is...stone

Black and White Gray Scale Photos Are Dark When Exported from Indesign to PDF

When I print right from InDesign the black and white photos look great. However, if I print the exported pdf file, the black and white photos are much darker. Is there something I should be doing upon export so that they will look as they do in InDesign?
Thanks,

I have tried different settings in format and color space all with the same results. I'm sure it has to do with system not being calibrated. I'm not to computer literate so not sure how all this works. The other programs must go along with my computer and moniter settings where LR and Elements produce their own rendering independent of settings. Yes, I checked and Elements renders like LR. I found some other forums that discussed similar problems but with color rendering. HMMM, just tried something. In Picassa I switched to Linear Gamma 2.2 in display mode and the LR edited photos look correct. So it must be something along those lines being the problem.

Exporting from InDesign to PDF

I have an InDesign file that contains colors and text. There are pantone colors within vector shapes. The vectors were created in illustrator. I am having problems exporting to PDF. My client is stating that their colors are not coming through consistent from one page of the PDF to the next. For instance, there are multiple pages of the PDF that contain pantone 2945c. Apparently, 2945c is not appearing the same from one page to the next.
I have tried saving the InDesign file as both High Quality Print and Interactive. Both formats are resulting in mixed results on multiple platforms. As a side note, I can open the High Quality Print in illustrator and it is maintaining pantones and outlines. If I screenshot the Interactive, the pantones have consistent values.
In short, the problem is not on my machine, it is when sent out to various platforms. Colors are not being interpreted as intended on all monitors (regardless of "Print" or "Interactive") and colors render differently form one page to the next.
Please advise to what format to save InDesign files for client review via PDF. Help on this would be greatly appreciated.
I am working on both MAC and PC platforms. Operating software is newest version of CS.

DesignSource123 wrote:
I do not know exactly what program the file is being viewed on. It would be across multiple platforms. Basically, I'm trying to nail down the method that "Should" give the best results. This is for client review.
For4 sure that's going to include viewing in Acrobat or Adobe Reader (lots of readers out there that don't have full support for all the PDF features that ID produces). Users should probably check to make sure that Simulate Overprint is enabled, too.

Corrupt crosslinks when exported from InDesign to PDF

Two of my colleagues are using Indesign on win7 64 bit computers.
CS 4, one computer has indesign version 6.0.4, the other computer has version 6.0.5 - and that is the computer where our problem is.
When we open a file in indesign and chose the alternative Export to PDF, export with hyperlinks and bookmarks, a pdf-file is created. Some of the links are ok, but most of them doesn´t work. The properties for the link seems to be ok with the correct destination name. (and if we try to export the same indesign file from the other computer all links are ok, so the orignal file must be ok?)
We have tried to create a new user account on the computer, with full admin-permissions.
Any other ideas, anyone?

I´m not a user of the program myself, so i´m not definetely sure... What we have done on the problematic computer is to reset the settings. We got help to remove some setting-files.
Are there any specific settings that you might know about, that could cause this kind of trouble? We have checked in acrobat that "use hyperlinks" (?) is marked under Edit, Preferences,

Problems with JPGs that have been exported from InDesign

I have used InDesign CS4 for years and recently been upgraded to the Creative Cloud package, I have gone from a PC to a MAC as well.
The problem seems to be when I export a document in InDesign to a JPG file, when I try and use the JPG in other applications such as Powerpoint (for the Mac), the jpg isn't highlighted as an option to insert...like it hasn't been recognised.
I also recently had a problem uploading some jpg photos I had edited and exported to jpg and tried to upload to Snapfish and although I have done this many times before, it said my jpg file was corrupt.
No virus, or anything like that.
Does anyone know whether you can tweak the 'export' settings for indesign, I wondered if it was a compatibility issue?
Anyone help me?
Thanks

gillybardo wrote:
Does anyone know whether you can tweak the 'export' settings for indesign, I wondered if it was a compatibility issue?
Well of course, there are the settings in InDesign's JPEG Export dialog, but there, all you can really do is make sure you're writing a "baseline" JPG in RGB mode. (Disclaimer: I haven't seen the 'CC' dialog, so there may be more about which I'm unaware.)
...when I try and use the JPG in other applications such as Powerpoint (for the Mac), the jpg isn't highlighted as an option to insert...like it hasn't been recognised.
That sounds like it could be a Microsoft Office issue. Can you insert a JPG that isn't the product of InDesign export? This is also why I mentioned RGB. I've seen Office apps choke on or ignore CMYK JPG's.
The number of posts in this forum on the subject of InDesign's JPEG export is unsettling to me. I truly believe it's a case of "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." Maybe I was "raised differently," figuratively speaking, but it would have never occurred to me to develop a workflow around the regular/routine export of raster images from my page layout application. If JPEG is my intended output, InDesign is the last application I'd reach for, perhaps unless I had a rare and specific need of a raster image depicting an InDesign-originated page layout. But even then, chances are I'd export from InDesign to PDF, then rasterize that by opening in Photoshop. If you need full control over raster image output, Photoshop is the much better bet.

PDFs exported from InDesign cannot be printed

Our Marketing Manager is using Adobe InDesign and exports her documents to PDF. These PDFs won't print in any of our printers in the office. It spools and then gets stuck and it actually makes our HP Coloured Laser Printer throw an error (error 79) and we'll have to restart the printer due to this error. We can print other documents and other PDFs in the printer so we know it's not a printer driver issue. In fact, we have isolated the problem to only PDFs exported from InDesign. Even if we create a blank document or add just text from InDesign and export it to PDF it still won't print. Really odd.
**I also posted this in the InDesign thread but was asked to post it here too. I tried printing the document using Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Reader with no luck. We tried printing directly from InDesign but it is inconsistent, sometimes it will print but most of the time it does not.

Hmm. Yeah. The ID forum may be more help. Especially if it's also a problem in ID.
My first suspect would be corrupt fonts or possibly an image file. Can you create a blank ID file with no text (maybe insert just an image or something that isn't on any of the other ID files) pdf it and print it?

Stitch lines created in a PDF/X-1a due to transparency flattening during export from InDesign

Has there been any sure fire methods to avoid the digital stitch lines created in a PDF/X-1a due to transparency flattening during export from InDesign? If I attempt to edit the PDF using the Acrobat Edit Text and Graphics tool the PDF is actually carved into sectors and images are not selectable as a whole. Also contrary to what I have read those white lines do indeed image from time to time. I could export as PDF/X4 to preserve the transparency but on occasion it would be advantageous to flatten it before supplying to the printer. Currently using CC and have done the usual things in an attempt to avoid the lines such as all text above transparent objects on a separate layer and 'Clip-Complex-Region' on export.
Thanks in Advance!

If the default High Res flattener preset is stitching make a custom preset that's all rasters and use it in the advanced tab of the PDF/X-1a preset

Poor quality images exporting from InDesign to PDF

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