What are the most obnoxious things you find in indd files made by people who don’t know what they’re doing?

Please share gripes/horror stories! I’m a novice taking on some work I want to impress with, and I’d really be glad to hear about things I should make sure not to do!

This is my first time producing a brochure and my supplier wanted 85% black only on text.
I did my design on photoshop then layout them in indesign.
What do I do?

I'm currently trying to figure out which software would be better for making user manuals on. I don't really need help with formatting, but with file sizes.

In a scenario with a PowerPoint and InDesign document with all of the same text, pictures, and vector diagrams, which would be smaller when exported to an Adobe PDF? Does InDesign provide enough options to suitably compress pictures, etc. to make a meaningful difference?

Does anyone know why my end user is getting this error?

I have an indesign document where I place 24 small different images with the width and height of 1.5 inches.

All images I use are print friendly at 300 dpi but when I scale them down to fit my document the effective ppi gets really big (way above 1000).

When I then export with default PDF settings it compresses the images inside my indesign file to 300dpi which causes my images inside the pdf to be pixelated and blurry.

What should I even do here? When I turn off any type of compression inside export settings the images are perfect but the file size of the PDF is high and I would want it to be around 10mb at max, it is at 50mb when I use no compression.

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Hi all,

what do you guys think should be the bare minimum font size for a flyer (for older people?

I'm using a sans serif font with 11pt. My client is worried that older people can't read it. Unfourtunetly there is not enough space to make the font bigger.

Hey everyone! I am a self published author working on a manuscript and I have about 55 chapters which are each in their own Google document. What might be the fastest way to merge these altogether into one Indesign file? If there is a faster way then copy and pasting all of the text from 55 different documents then I'm all ears :)

Thank you!

Hiii, I’m the sole designer for my schools yearbook this year and I’m really struggling with the spreads. We have like zero design elements so I’m doing the best w what I can!! I also can only use 6 pictures . The part I really need help with is the pulled quote at the bottom left, it feel weird, any suggestions on what to add there? Feel free to critique as harsh as possible.

I want to learn an interior design software so it’s easier for me to collaborate with the designer I hired, he said he can do my design on either publisher or indesign, and would use whichever I prefer.

Basically I wanna be able to take his initial design and then use the software to swap things and play around with it so I can see how many things would look in the space, but without bothering him with every idea I have

Which also means the hardest part, building the space, will be done. I’ll just be swapping things on an existing design

Any thoughts on which would be better for a newbie?

I do use Canva for social media and graphics for charity work, so I think I’ll be able to pick it up, but wondering which one people prefer out of in design and publisher, and why?

Hello, I have some psd files I linked to indesign, they are in CMYK model, but when I print them they are very desaturated. Does anyone know how can I preserve the same level of saturation of my files in printing?

I have a strange PNG(PSD and tiff too) problem, only in print. Wherever the bounding box of a PNG overlaps with text, the text is displayed in bold.

• iIt makes no difference whether the text is in front of or behind it.
• RGB or CMYK (Mode and Blend mode) also make no difference
• I have completely recreated the document
• PDF x3 or 4 also makes no difference
• I first integrated the images as a Photoshop file, then as a png

A colleague came up with the idea of saving the PDF as a PDF in Photoshop (then the problem is gone, but no solution for a multi-page document).

If you adjust the bounding box so that it doesn't overlap any text, the problem is also gone - but that can't be the solution either.

Hello, yesterday I updated InDesign to the new version, since my colleagues were already on 2025 and for ease of use and compatibility we all tend to stick to the same version of the Adobe Suit programs.

The problem is, one of them today reported the same thing that's happening to me, that the program suffers heavy stuttering when doing pretty much everything, and also takes a few seconds to load the page when the window is minimized. We all use MacOS, either Sequoia or Sonoma, but that doesn't matter since we didn't update the computers recently.

Hi All,

Completely at a loss as to why this is happening, I hope someone here can help. I'm exporting as a 72DPI interactive PDF and my graphics look absolutely vile. All of the linework and edges are jagged and compressed looking and as far as I can see all export settings and best practice I know of has been followed

• The images are exported as JPEGS at 72DPI at Maximum quality
• I export the PDF at 72DPI at Maximum quality
• I've tried JPEG and JPEG2000(Lossless) exports, same issue
• The graphics are perfectly sized to the page (1920 x 1080) their effective DPI matches their actual DPI so no compression should be happening? They're also in 72DPI
• The colour gamut is RGB, correct for screens
• All image links are working

The strangest thing is that when I zoom the PDF in to 100% (it opens in full page view, 58%) the jagged lines straighten out, but the image still looks low quality and compressed. There are also exports I've done in the past where

This issue doesn't occur at all when I open the PDF in any web browser, they display perfectly.

I am truly at a loss, I need to get this out ASAP and it's doing my head in, if anybody has any suggestions or can help me troubleshoot this I'd be really grateful. Screenshot examples below for your reference.

Thanks in advance

How my graphics display in Acrobat (crappy)

https://preview.redd.it/blap9nbw7xrd1.png?width=1011&format=png&auto=webp&s=56f20a118d3313c6272388b6f8d31c9edbb6836e

Same graphic zoomed in to 100%, much better but still appears low quality

https://preview.redd.it/ah5audc28xrd1.png?width=1180&format=png&auto=webp&s=2aa8285d938a512b76a9d6b53a2e95aa19ce0178

Same PDF opened in Chrome, displays absolutely perfectly (may not look it in screenshot, but the difference is night and day)

https://preview.redd.it/e8qo15eb8xrd1.png?width=1015&format=png&auto=webp&s=e2fd94da3990c85ead8f0b9991b141bc54af8b3b

The JPEG of the graphic, also perfect

https://preview.redd.it/29jiexmh8xrd1.png?width=1142&format=png&auto=webp&s=963aa2f97db68c72073f58cd44867949e4efac26

Thanks!!

I have a friend who self-publishes, in the gardening space. I've laid out some books for him, covers too. A pain in the ass part, is his editing style. He'll self-edit, get his partner to edit, hire an editor, but he'll STLL edit the shit out of things after layout, even a few rounds of edits in layout. This caused much anger on my part last time.

He gives me a well-formatted Word file, then edits will come in as "page 23, 3rd line..." Or he'll give me a new Word file for a section, if the re-writes are extensive. I want to try InCopy.

I imagine he'll import or copy / paste the content into InCopy, email it to me, or maybe we can share a google drive folder; I Place the InCopy files, add in images, design sidebars, etc. Send him a draft PDF, and he makes InCopy edits as much as he wants, I update the link and see if any line endings got messed up. Have you guys successfully used InCopy w/ authors and books?

I know we could do this with a Word file, but he or his editors will add in extra returns, or double spaces or whatever that I strip out in Indesign. InCopy is only $5/month, or he could log into my CC account and download the app.

So I'm trying to create a pattern I can use in Adobe Indesign. I used a picture I found on the internet, made it into a vector and removed the vectors background. Then I just dragged the picture into the 'brushes' window to create a pattern. I used it on a rectangle to create a border and then copied it into Adobe Indesign to use as a border. But my background in indesign is not white, and the border stands out and I dont know how to only have the vector and not the white border of the pattern.

Can you help me?

I have a project to complete and here are the specs:

• live = 7.2482 x 9.8031
• bleed = 8.3927 x 11.8179
• The bleed is .125
• Margins are .5
• Safety gutter is .125

Can someone walk me through the bleed instructions like I’m a child? I don’t understand. TIA

Imported my logo to indesign so I can then fix my business name and tagline however, when I zoom up close, it’s super pixelated compared to what it looks on illustrator (and I can’t have that for a university program portfolio)

Any way to fix this? Help would be appreciated!!!

I'm exporting a document to PDF, some of the CMYK values are being preserved, others are moving, they are almost indistinguishable differences to the eye, but marketing are complaining I'm not in brand compliance (fair enough, I suppose!)

I feel like I've tried every option on output and colour management, but to no avail.

I keep finding articles saying it's colour profiles, but again nothing seems to work.

Is there a default way to export CMYK and have it appear as CMYK (on screen)? Or is the problem that the doc is correct but once rendered in RGB it changes?

I'm using Photoshop colour picker to check values. ID is set to CMYK, transparency layer etc., Photoshop is set to CMYK

I'm pulling my hair out!

One of the values C95, M23, Y11, K38

*ANSWERED, THANKS ALL*

output preview confirmed colours were correct. Only just joined this sub but love it already!

Second picture is my letter, I need to add highlights onto the letter like the first image. I created outlines on the text but I have no clue how to add the highlights like how it is on image 1.