Screenshots look weird on a mac, but good on print

Question

Hey guy's I am making a infosheet for the company I work at as an intern. When I make screenshots of the website, they look good in the Mac previewer app, but when I place them in InDesign, and export a PDF, It looks terrible! When it's printed, it looks good again, but since the infosheet will be e-mailed, the screenshots need to look HQ on a screen.

This is a screenshot of the website

This is the same screenshot, but made from the PDF

I hope there is someone who can help me!

Thanks in advance!

`Kevin

Answer 1

For an optimum screen-viewable PDF, don't export as a Print PDF. Choose Interactive PDF instead, and ensure that your Jpeg Quality is set to Maximum @ 144 ppi (a good compromise between low and high resolution monitors).

As a note, also verify that your .indd is using RGB, not CMYK, and the transparency blend space (under the Edit menu) is set to RGB.

(Later Edit) I just now noticed you're on a Mac, so it may well be that the problem is you're viewing the PDF using Preview. Preview contains a very incomplete implementation of the PDF spec, and what's there isn't very good. (Not that it has to be. It's called "Preview" for a reason.) Install Adobe Reader or, failing that, some other high-quality PDF viewer.

Answer 2

It sounds like you have to alter your PDF export settings to something more highres / less compression. Try starting with [Smallest Filesize] and turn off downsampling and compression.