Adobe Illustrator Link Information Mystery

[Ptheobald1]

Hi Group,
Happy Friday!
I wonder if anyone has encountered problems like I am with the Illustrator Link Information palette showing placed images at 24% instead of 100% or 12% for placed images scaled to 50%?
I need to resize final color corrected images to the placed size in the client's .ai files but it is kinda hard to do without seeing an accurate reduction or enlargement percentage in Link Information.
thanks,
Pat

 

[rich apollo]

If you're submitting PDFs, then you could simply use an Acrobat Preflight to downsample the images. It's a lot easier.

You could also create a PDF, downsample the images, export the images, and replace the original images with the exported ones.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

But is it not that the image will be replaced with the bounding box? Or you want to see what resolution an image is? Maybe phantasm.cs would help you where you can colour correct, map channels etc in Illy, or "open original" would be of help in your workflow?

 

[Ptheobald1]

Link Info Mystery

Link Info Mystery

Hi Rich,
The final file is going to be a PDF but my efforts in color correction/retouching happen upstream in our workflow, before the assembly operators do their work in Illustrator and save out the final PDFs.

What I would like to do is open the customer's original Illustrator doc, select the images in the Links Palette and see accurately what percentage the placed images are scaled to. Then I could save out my edited .psd or .tiff files at the final print size and eliminate a whole bunch of resampling and server space.
I was wondering if there is some preference or setting in Illustrator to make Link Information more accurate?
Thanks for the reply,
Pat

If you're submitting PDFs, then you could simply use an Acrobat Preflight to downsample the images. It's a lot easier.

You could also create a PDF, downsample the images, export the images, and replace the original images with the exported ones.

 

[Stephen Marsh]

If I am understanding the request correctly, it is that Illustrator does not display placed image transformations like FreeHand or InDesign, PageMaker, Xpress etc - directly in the menu bar or in another easy to find location.

In the links panel options menu - there is a command for "Link Information" - that does show transforms.

As Rich and Lukas note, by looking at the image bounding size or resampling a copy of the file to the intended resolution one can then find the appropriate size/scale/resolution for the new images that you are swapping out.


Stephen Marsh

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

A question, I did some testing, could it be that you get the incorrect % when the link is resampled after it is placed?
e.g The image is placed at 300ppi, and scaled by a %... then the image is edited colour corrected etc and resampled, the image is resized and has the same number of pixels, but illustrator updates the link. and has the original scale value?

Using the direct selection you can see the size in the control panel you can also see the effective ppi. From the links panel it is possible to read the scale, but you sat this is incorrect? (Always? sometimes? is there a pattern in workflow?) It would be nice with the same kind of info as we get in InDesign, but we just have to keep posting Feature requests till they give it us

 

[Ptheobald1]

hopefully the screen grab was attached correctly...I had to blur out some of the info, sorry
What I am seeing is an image that I know was placed at 100% displaying 24% in the Link Information....
thanks,
Pat

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

24% is the relationship between "screen" and "print" (ie 72ppi vs 300ppi) I belive that is no coincidence. What format are you placing? Some formats default all images are 72ppi. Placing an image that is intended to be 300ppi at 100%, but that is assumed to be at 72 ppi will read 24%.

Have some vague memory of some MS servers/server configuration strip all size info and will label images as if they are 72ppi. Check the info of the flie in bridge/filesystem does it say 72ppi, even if you have been creating at 300ppi?

 

[Ptheobald1]

Good morning Lukas,
The placed image file in that Illustrator file is a 300 dpi CMYK .psd document, it shows up in Link Information as 24% if it is placed as in .tiff format also.
I selected the .psd file on my desktop in Bridge and it displays in Link Information as 300 DPI.....
I know my math skills are not too sharp (one of the reasons I work in Graphic Arts), but what is the relationship between 24%, 72 DPI and 300 DPI?
Happy Prepress,
Pat

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

An image that is resized from 72ppi to 300ppi and keeping the same number of pixels will be resized by 24%. It could also be said like this One pixel at 300pixel per inch is 24% the size of one pixel at 72ppi. Or 100 pixels at 300ppi are as big as 24 pixels at 72ppi (ie 1/3 inch).

So if you would change the resolution of your image, without changing the pixels to 72ppi, place the image in illustrator and scale it to 24% you would get a 300ppi image.

It is strange that you get this effect though. I have tried it and not got the same result. But I think we are on to something. What version of Illustrator are you using? Also is your raster effects set to screen (72ppi)? Somewhere the pixel is assumed to be 1/72 of an inch.

 

[Ptheobald1]

I see....
Thanks Lukas for taking the time to explain the 24% relationship to resolution
I am on Illustrator CS5 Version 15.0.2 and the Raster Effects are set to 300 DPI
I will attach a screen grab of the version and raster effects palette
Pat

 

[rich apollo]

Okay, I can kind of recreate the issue. If I place an image, scale it, then change its Placement Options to "File Dimensions" while checking "Clip to Bounding Box". The image will revert to 100%, but it will be clipped and the Link Information will show that the image is scaled. (see the attached screen grabs)

I'm doing this in Illustrator CS 5.1.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

@Ptheobald… hmm still seems to be something spooky, do you know if this was originally set up as a web PDF so that there is some embedded information about it being 72ppi. Do you have InDesign, and can confirm that it's just Ai that is behaving like this?

 

[Ptheobald1]

Lukas
I placed the same image in InDesign and although the Link Info palette is much different it shows as being placed at 100%.
This was originated for print not web.....