Comments on: The InDesigner - Episode 40: Object Layer Options

By: thomasl

thomasl — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:06:30 +0000

What I want is a preference setting to keep “Use PDF’s layer Visibility” when updating links turned on. If I add layers or turn some off in the AI file, Indesign won’t update with the new layers.

By: Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:22:35 +0000

Bert — In CS3, the default setting for “When Updating Link:” in the Object Layer Options dialog box has been changed to “Keep Layer Visibility Overrides.” In CS2, it was “Use Photoshop’s Layer Visibility.”

That probably caused the problem when you packaged a job for output with CS2. If you hadn’t specifically changed that preference for each image where Object Layer Options are used, it would default to the current state of the Photoshop file. Now, by default, that’s not the case.

The only instance I’ve encountered where InDesign throws out your Object Layer Option settings is if the actual layer structure of the Photoshop file changes. InDesign can’t reconcile the missing (or added) layers, so it reverts the placed file to its new Photoshop state.

By: Bert

Bert — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 16:06:30 +0000

I was wondering if CS3 had fixed the updating problems with Object Layer Options?

The problem I’m referring to is when I send it off to the printer after packaging the file, it has to be updated.

When it updates, Object Layering doesn’t remember the options–from CS2. So the printer has to ask me what object layer options I had used for that layer.

Did CS3 fix that? Or is there another work-around for this in CS2? Can Markzware Flightcheck possibly resolve this?

By: Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 20:18:08 +0000

Thanks, Cesar — That’s great to hear. I have been very busy leading up to, and catching up after, the NY InDesign Conference…but my new episode is in the works. It should be up by the end of the week.

By: Cesar

Cesar — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 19:54:58 +0000

We really miss your vodcast, I know you are probably very busy but any idea when will see the next episode.
thanks.

By: Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy — Fri, 18 May 2007 15:38:17 +0000

Typically, what you don’t want to do is go above 100% on any placed PSD image, because your effective resolution goes down. But reducing the size of the image, in most cases, is no problem. The line screen of your output is going to be applied document-wide.

Therefore, even if my full-sized image is 300 pixels per inch, and a half-size version on the page is, effectively, 600 pixels per inch…when they’re output with a 133- or 150-line screen, it all evens out.

There are a couple of things to watch out for, however, that have nothing to do with image quality, but with the specifics of the image.

For instance, if you have an image with a lot of texture, or painterly effects, they’re going to “tighten up” as the image gets smaller (much as a stroke in a placed image would effectively get “thinner” as you reduce that image), so the level of detail in something like a film grain or brush stroke texture will be reduced in a scaled-down version of that image in your layout. Again…it’s not a resolution-specific thing, it’s more about the nature of the image.

By: Benire

Benire — Fri, 18 May 2007 13:50:29 +0000

I have a question regarding reducing the size of a PSD that’s been placed in InDesign. In this videocast you do this but I’ve been under the impression that in the production stage art should always be 100% of the size it will print.

By: Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:45:45 +0000

From the tests I conducted today, you’ll be happy with CS3’s handling of this. It was only under the circumstances I mentioned above that I ran into the updating issue.

By: Chad Beale

Chad Beale — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:38:59 +0000

Thanks Steve for the heads up on CS3.

Michael,

No, unfortunately I didn’t make any layer changes. I simply opened the pdf in Illustrator, created a box and deleted the box (just so I could save the file again). I went back to InDesign updated the links and that’s when I get the “layers have changed” message. Should I be saving the PDF in a certain version or checking a certain option. I even tried creating a new InDesign document with a new test Illustrator PDF and I encountered the same problem.

I should be getting CS3 in a month, so hopefully this problem is fixed when using .ai format.

By: Michael Murphy

Michael Murphy — Wed, 09 May 2007 12:19:06 +0000

If I understand Chad’s question correctly, he’s referring to the the alert dialog I mentioned at the end of the episode, which you also get with Photoshop files, that appears when layers in the placed file have been added, deleted, re-arranged (in the stacking order), or re-named, InDesign will throw out all Object Layer visibility settings in the document in which that image is placed. That behavior is the same in CS3. Chad’s reference to “a small change to an Illustrator file” makes me think that one of those changes is to the layer structure of the Illustrator file. Small changes (adding, deleting, moving or re-sizing an object, changing a color, etc.) do not cause the Object Layer settings for the file to be discarded.