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Re: Does InDesign change image format like Word does?
Subject:Re: Does InDesign change image format like Word does? From:Joanne Wittenbrook <jwittenbrook -at- ameritech -dot- net> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 9 Mar 2007 12:45:47 -0800 (PST)
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>I can't answer your questions in general, but from experience, InDesign
>seems to like .eps files better than .bmp. So you might save the Snagit
>file
>before importing it into InDesign.
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No. Word is an Office program, designed for people who are not going to take a document to an actual printing press. Office programs use the RGB color space because monitors use it and most office printers translate it on output. In the average business application, color accuracy is not a concern. The goal is pleasing and bright color.
InDesign is a page layout program. The usual work flow is for the images and text to be created in other programs. Illustrator or Photoshop for images, word processors for text. The content is imported into frames in InDesign for formatting and manipulating, pagination, indexing etc.
BMP is a pretty old format. To have enough resolution to successfully print, it will be a large file. JPEGs or TIFFs have a greater capacity to compress color information and are less likely to degrade the color quality. Programs like InDesign are set up for using the CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color space because that is the ink colors used by an offset press to print color.
InDesign does not "change" images. It is designed for an end user that understands graphic arts and printing. Frequently InDesign users will import a low resolution image for position to keep file size down while they are designing. When the file goes to the printer the high resolution image is sent with it and swapped into the file during prepress operations.
The basic Microsoft suite is designed for the Office user with no particular expertise in print or color management. Microsoft makes the decision on image format for you because they assume you are not concerned with that aspect of the document.
Joanne
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