Hi, I try for month now to get high res screenshots from PDF to display them in Layout documents. But the resolution is always shockingly low , even if I convert the PDF to image PNG and screenshot this. Can anybody advise . And no , I don’t have Adobe Pro version. To expensive.
Are you just looking at those images in LayOut or are you looking at them after exporting to PDF? LayOut, be default reduces the resolution of images to speed up performance but during export, the resolution can be set higher. Are you using SketchUp/LayOut 2024? If so, look in Document Setup>Rendering.
Display Resolution adjusts what you see in LayOut. Output Resolution adjusts what you get in output like PDF or Image exports.
I have a similar problem. JPG files insert way out of scale and when I reduce the size the image quality deteriorates. It’s time consuming and frustrating. We need to be able to insert 3rd party technical documents into our plan sets and sometimes they illegible. Clear original but very poor rendering in Layout. Any suggestions? Thx.
Is this in LayOut 2023 or 2024? What size are the images you’re inserting? Can you share an example original image and the LO file after you’ve resized and inserted it?
Hi,
It began in 2023 and has continued in 2024. Changing the rendering settings makes no difference and it happens with all JPG, PNG files.
JPG Test.layout (1.1 MB)
This doesn’t look too bad to me considering you evidently started with a screenshot.
JPG Test.pdf (532.4 KB)
I’d probably add the text as vector text rather than as raster image but the photograph seems reasonable at 100% in Adobe reader to me.
I have two issues. One, it comes in way out of scale to the Layout document. If you resize the image you’ll see what I mean. That’s annoying and time consuming. Then, depending on the image, it is when the image is resized that the deterioration occurs. This did not used to happen with Layout. It began with one of the updates to 2023, I believe.
Inserted images come in sized based on standard 96 dpi (ppi) so of course the image will be huge when you’re inserting an image that is at 600 ppi. If you make the image a reasonable size at 96 dpi. it’ll come in at the correct suze. I edited your image so I could insert it without resizing it.
I get that you want to avoid having the image come in at the right size in the first place. I’ll ask, though, how would you propose LayOut would know how large the image is supposed to be on the page? How would you deal with having images with different resolutions. Your 600 ppi image and another at 96 ppi? If your 600 ppi image is inserted to be 10 inches wide. How big should the 96 ppi image be? How is LO to know how big? And what if you want that image to be only 4 inches wide?
This really isn’t anything new to 2023 or 2024. LayOut has always inserted images at 96 ppi. I wouldn’t mind if they increased it to 150 or 300 but no matter what, some images will need to be resized to fit the page.
You would also help your quality situation if you innsert .png files instead of .jpg file. JPG files are already compressed. PNG files are not.
FWIW, I cropped out the white background and the text and then replaced the text with an rtf file while I’m waiting for my rice to cook.
JPG Test with PNG.pdf (960.5 KB)
Thanks, Dave. the 96 ppi standard escaped me. I think that perhaps the delta came from the Adobe side and its automatic sizing function. When I set in manually to 96 ppi it worked again.
We also use a conversion app called Zamzar and I haven’t found a way to change the ppi setting on that. It is though a great app to convert PDF’s to DSX or DWG files to use in Layout and is a good value at $85/yr.
Thanks again for you generous help and have a Happy 4th!
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 91 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.