Fan of creative technology, elearning, instructional design and a little geeky

Image formats – InDesign 2

July 20, 2003 Leave a Comment Written by Cari Jansen

Digitip 012 – Adobe InDesign 2

(revision 1.2)

Photoshop format, PDF, Illustrator format, EPS or TIFF? Are you confused as to what to use in InDesign? The tables below are meant to give an overview of format preferences. Yes, you could stick with EPS and TIFF for all, but why deal with flattened files when you don’t have to?

From Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop image integration with InDesign is very good. When prompted ALWAYS embed fonts and include vector data when saving images from Photoshop.

Image description Colours Format and placement in InDesign
Layer(s), transparency CMYK, Grayscale .psd (photoshop) or .pdp .pdf (photoshop pdf) – retains transparency
Layer(s) , transparency, text CMYK, Grayscale .pdp .pdf (photoshop pdf) – retains transparency
Layer(s), transparency, text and vector masks CMYK, Grayscale .pdp .pdf (photoshop pdf) – retains transparency
Layer(s) and alpha channels CMYK, Grayscale .psd (photoshop); alpha channels accessible in InDesign- retains transparency
Layer(s) and (clipping) paths CMYK, Grayscale .psd (photoshop); Photoshop paths accessible in InDesign
Layer(s) – transparency flattened Duotone .eps (photoshop eps); spot colours added to Swatches palette
Layer(s) – transparency flattened contains one or more Spot channel(s) .eps (photoshop eps); spot colours added to Swatches palette

From Adobe Illustrator

Illustrator image integration with InDesign is great. When prompted ALWAYS embed fonts when saving images from Illustrator. Refer to Illustrator documentation to read up on certain limitations when combining for instance spot and process colours and applying different blend modes.

Image description Colours Format and placement in InDesign
Layer(s) , gradient meshes, gradients, text, etc. CMYK, Grayscale .ai (illustrator) or .pdf
Layer(s) , gradient meshes, gradients, text, etc. Spot colour only .ai (illustrator) or .pdf
Use of overprint settings in combination with other effects and transparency features Spot and CMYK interaction .eps (illustrator) or .pdf – some spot colours may convert to CMYK.

Other photo editing applications

If you are going to work with complex images, layers, transparency etc. Then I really suggest you invest in Adobe Photoshop. For non-Photoshop images use the tiff and eps formats. If there is font support, assure font embedding is enabled when saving the files.

Image description Colours Format and placement in InDesign
If your photo editing application suports layers and transparency merge and flatten to single “layer”. CMYK, Grayscale .tif
Image needs transparent background: set background colour to white CMYK, Grayscale .tif – use detect edges to create clipping path in InDesign
Image needs transparent background: application supports alpha channels CMYK, Grayscale .tif – use alpha channel to create clipping path in InDesign
If your photo editing application suports layers and transparency merge and flatten to single “layer”. Duotone .eps ; spot colours added to Swatches palette

Other drawing (=vector or bezier) applications

If you will be creating a lot of vector based artwork AND wish to use the paths and illustrations in InDesign, than I’d consider purchasing Adobe Illustrator. It really is a fantastic and very powerful illustration application. When receiving vector EPS data (from Freehand or CorelDraw), you can often open these files in Illustator, without too many hassles. Obviously with more complex artwork some features might not convert as you expect.

Embed the fonts when saving to .eps. If that is not possible than convert to outline paths. Some of these applications also support PDF. I suggest you run a test in InDesign to see check that these PDFs separate properly as they might not be Adobe PDFs.

Image description Colours Format and placement in InDesign
If your drawing application suports layers and transparency merge and flatten to single “layer”. CMYK/Grayscale/Spot colour .eps – embed fonts

Adobe Design Collection

You might want to consider purchasing the Adobe Design Collection, Apart from InDesign, this bundle includes full versions of Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop and Illustrator. Check pricing with your local reseller.

NOTE: Refer to your imaging software documentation to read up on known limitations and flattening requirements, also check out recommended reading and Nick Hodge’s InDesign tips.

Adobe InDesign
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