Why are my screenshots blurry in InDesign when I export to a PDF?

Question

Just so you know I am very new to Creative Suite. I am trying to make a whitepaper using InDesign and then export it into a PDF. The PDF looks blurry if I export it at anything, but 300ppi. The screenshots I am capturing are at 72 ppi, so I have been pasting them into Photoshop and increasing the resolution to 300 ppi. When I increase the screenshots resolution and then put it into InDesign it decreases the blurriness, but its still not very readable.

Is there anyway that I can capture these screenshots, put them in InDesign, and have them show up clearly in the PDF?

Sorry if this was confusing, please let me know if you need me to further explain.

Answer 1

If this is correct "The screenshots I am capturing are at 72 ppi," then "Photoshop and increasing the resolution to 300 ppi."

Are you capturing image from other digital media?

The problem lies in the original image/screen capture. You can either capture a Higher PPI image or work a little harder around the issue but you are restricted by the original PPI. What your really doing is increasing the pixel count per inch.

If a pixel had two different colors in it from the re-size problems arise. Each re-sizing program will have different outcomes due to the math algorithms behind them.

If the problem is captured text.

DON'T BE LAZY!!!! Use InDesign to format the text. That means either type in the text of the screen capture or us an OCR to turn that text-in-image into copy and paste text. I would think you could just copy and past in the first place unless you are scraping a flash video slide show or something and if so way beyond what I can help you with.

Is it just printing issues?

Printers print at 300dpi you will start losing quality because the printer has to guess what colors to put into the larger pixels (the opposite of the above image).

Setting issues: InDesign or PDF

InDesign has a bunch of setting that you can change one is image preview (not sure of actual name) and you have a entire projects setting and an individual image override setting with the right click. This should not affect the final outcome at all print it as a PDF and if the image is blurry it is the way you are trying to use the images.

Making small(1 inch) image bigger(3 inch)?

CAN NOT DO WITH A SCREEN CAPTURE!!!! They are bitmap images not vector you will need a vector image and they will be clear at any size. No answer can not fix. Must remake the entire image from scratch.

Answer 2

From what you have written, it sems the export settings are the cause of your problem.

1. EXPORT > Adobe PDF (select Interactive or Print)

2. This screen has some critical settings, and they all afect the file size. Specifically, consider the Resolution and Compression.

3. Finally, open in Acrobat PRO - use the Reduce file size option.

I would like to voice a complaint with anyone from Adobe -reading this. The interfaces to export and optimize PDFs are a travesty of maddenning complexity. From Illustrator, you "Save AS" and risk overwriting your master files, in InDesign it's "Export" and for both, the files are huge unless you re-open in Acrobat Pro. Do the world a favor and make one export module, and make it work great. Cheers.

Answer 3

Which "Adobe PDF Preset" are you using to export from InDesign? It sounds to me like you're using Smallest File Size which will really beat up any images contained in the document.

At the very least, try the High Quality Print PDF settings and see if that makes a difference. If it does, let us know and we can discuss tweaking the Compression and Downsampling settings for better results.