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I am trying to figure out what I should be doing for a 94+ page catalogue.

I have been researching and from what I've read understand that linking files is the best practice for putting complex vector art in an InDesign file...and that it will make a low-resolution raster of it for preview purposes.

Why I need help:

  1. To show why I'm concerned, I selected 5 pieces of artwork and illustrator shows (screenshot) that they are made up of over 7700+ points. FYI, simplify breaks any pieces of art I have tried it on. Some of these vectors are almost 10 years old.

  2. In a 94 page catalogue, half of each page is artwork.

  3. I felt like following any guide i read online would not be the best route considering how much art i'm going to have to deal with. I read not to copy/paste that much art..could corrupt the indesign file. I read to link and let it make low-resolution EPS, but that still seemed iffy.

  4. I calculate that linking would equate to anywhere from 600-750 linked files containing over 2,000 pieces of artwork.

screenshot of example file layout

  • Should I size all of the art to the size I need, and then rasterize everything and link them within InDesign?

  • Could I just rasterize it at the correct size, and save as a JPEG? (Background not an issue.)

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Link! (aka Place)

Embedding images into your InDesign document will create a much larger .indd file, especially with as many images as you are going to be working with - your file will be MASSIVE. This can sometimes lead to your document taking forever to open, if it opens at all. It will sometimes just cause InDesign to crash, upon trying to open the document.

Linking images displays previews of the linked graphics inside your InDesign document and then pulls in the data and embeds the images when you export as a PDF.

I wouldn't rasterize anything either. Link the vector files.

Just make sure to Package your project's files together, if you need to send the .indd file to anyone. Otherwise, they won't have any of your linked images.

Package

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    Explaining why linking is better would improve this answer.
    – Scott
    Commented Oct 15, 2014 at 20:51
  • thanks for the answer. I figured it may still be linking regardless of complexity. I was just concerned that i wont even be able to use the file it'll be so slow.
    – mephisto21
    Commented Oct 15, 2014 at 21:06
  • @orbitalshocK, I explained a bit more as to why you should link
    – Manly
    Commented Oct 16, 2014 at 17:37
  • IIRC InDesign creates low res JPEGs to use as placeholders when linking images, which helps keep performance high. If you find that your file isn't getting too slow you could always split the pages across more than one file.
    – Dre
    Commented Dec 18, 2014 at 18:03

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