Image Frames & Linked Images

Image frames are created in several ways: when we place an image either freely on a spread or into an awaiting “unassigned” frame, or when we simply paste an image in InDesign, embedding it.

Linking vs. Embedding

An InDesign best practice is to keep image documents separate from our layout document. In so doing, the images (we think) we see on our layouts do not bloat the InDesign document’s file size or compromise its performance. This also allows us to more easily edit those graphics files and see those edits in InDesign.

Embedding gives us the one small advantage of having most of our assets in one document, making it more portable. A small document with few images may work fine this way, but we usually create PDFs as our deliverable, which better ensures preserving text formatting, too. In my work, it is a rare graphic that is embedded, usually by pasting.

When we place images and graphics, a link is established between our layout and the image file. To keep that link healthy, there are dos and don’ts that we’ll need to discuss. But first, how do we place a file, and thus establish that link?

Placing Images

The most reliable way to place an image or graphic file is to use File > Place… then navigate to the image file you’d like to include in your layout. You may also drag images into InDesign. The native file formats of Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop (.ai and .psd, respectively) may offer extra options. To enjoy these, check the box labeled Show Import Options. These will mostly consist of choosing which layers in those documents should be visible when they are placed in InDesign. You can place an image multiple times, with different choices each time.

You may also choose more than one image or graphic at one time. For example, if there are several images in the same folder, it would be easy to click one, then shift-click on an image down the list to select those two and all the images in between; or click one then ⌘-click/Ctrl-click to highlight discontiguous images. Then click the Open button.

Now you have a loaded Place Gun, a cursor bearing the likeness of the image (or one of the images if you chose multiple). If you chose multiple images, the cursor will also show you a number indicating how many images have been loaded.

With your Place Gun loaded, you have several ways to, eh, discharge it. If you simply click where there’s nothing, InDesign will create a frame as big as the image or graphic (the size designated in the originating application) and fill the frame with the image. There is a high probability that an image will be much too large this way. Many cameras capture images with many millions of pixels. They deliver these pixels spread out over a large area with a low density—often 72 pixels per inch (or ppi). An image that is 3,000 pixels across will be 42 inches wide! Luckily, we don’t need to go to Photoshop to deal with that. If you do click to place the image and find it to be huge, undo (⌘-Z/Ctrl-Z) to reload the cursor.

Instead of clicking, drag. As you drag across the page, you’ll notice that the shape of the box being formed is the same shape as the image. When you release the mouse, the frame will be as large as you drew it and the image will fill that frame exactly. A image that is 3,000 pixels across squeezed into a frame that is 8 inches wide will have a pixel density (known as resolution) of 375 ppi. In InDesign, we call that the image’s effective resolution, since its actual resolution was only 72 ppi.

If we’re using a template, it’s likely the designer included empty frames to hold images. Graphic designers learn early to use pencil and paper to draw many quick sketches of a layout, called thumbnails. I argue these get the worst ideas out of your system. Later, the more promising sketches can be migrated into InDesign in the form of placeholder text and empty frames most likely drawn with the Rectangle Frame tool.

If you do have empty frames awaiting images to fill them, you can click on each with a loaded Place Gun. You may have to adjust how the images fit each frame, but we’ll get to that shortly.

If a frame is selected when you choose an image using File > Place…, another checkbox in that dialog box comes into play: Replace Selected Item. Thus, if you select a frame, empty or not, then place an image, the image will automatically take over that frame, removing the content that was there. I sometimes fail to notice that I have a text frame selected when I place, then I find that the text is gone, and there’s an image in its place. Here, some joke about a picture being worth a thousand words would be appropriate, but I’ll leave that to you.

Frame Fitting Options

When an image’s size doesn’t match the size of its frame, we may wish to do something about that. Again, InDesign lavishes choices upon us. With one or more image frames selected, these choices can be reached in several places: buttons in the Control panel, by right-clicking, or in the Object menu. For the last two options, a Fitting submenu is shown.

The most commonly needed (and safer) commands are Fill Frame Proportionally and Fit Content Proportionally. The “proportionally” part means “without distortion.”

Fill Frame Proportionally will enlarge or reduce the image so it completely fills the frame with the least amount of crop. A tall image in a square frame will have its top and/or bottom cropped, but not its sides. If there’s an area of the page that you want filled with an image, to set a mood perhaps, this is the command you need. You may adjust the image’s position with the Content Grabber for a better composition. Below, cropped parts are shown as translucent.

Fit Content Proportionally will show the entire image (no cropping), and may leave some empty areas in the frame. To get the frame to fit the image snugly, use…

The most dangerous choice: Fit Content to Frame. If the frame is square and the photo in it is not, the result can be disturbing. To confirm that something bad has occurred, select the image inside its frame. I’d just click on the “Content Grabber” (page 199). A look at the scaling in the Control panel for the portrait above reveals that the horizontal and vertical scaling are different (56% and 85%, respectively, for the image here).

Fit Frame to Content aligns each edge of the frame with the image within. No crop, no extraneous frame. A fast way to achieve this is to double-click on a frame’s corner handle. Double-clicking a side handle resizes only that dimension. For example, double-clicking the handle at the center of the top edge resizes the frame only vertically.

Center Content does exactly what it says: if the content is off-center, whether it’s larger or smaller than the frame, it will be centered. I reduced the example image’s size for clarity.

Content-Aware Fit attempts to detect the subject of the image and make it fit within the frame in a pleasing way. This may be a handy default for product shots in a catalog…or not. It may yield images of various magnifications when consistency is required. If you find that this setting works well for you, consider leaving it as the default behavior in General Preferences.

Frame Fitting Options… opens a dialog box that allows you to apply settings to a frame so it might automatically fit its content as desired! Choose one of the first three fitting options and Auto Fit. If you then resize the frame, the image will maintain the fitting options you chose. You can set these options on an empty frame so that when an image is placed into it, the image will do what it’s supposed to. Further, you can specify that a small amount of the image is cropped on any side. So if your images have a rough edge or unwanted border, you can get rid of that automatically, too. If you don’t need the crop function, you can set Auto Fit from the Control panel. These options are available only on image frames.

Edit Original

One of the more useful benefits of linking to an image or graphic is that it can be edited easily in its original application (usually Photoshop or Illustrator). The most straightforward way to do this is to select the image in InDesign, then right-click and choose Edit Original. Soon, another application launches with that document open. Complete your edits and save your changes, and when you return to InDesign, you’ll see the image in its new state.

The Links panel also affords a way to edit placed images, graphics, and, under certain circumstances, linked text. You can manually highlight an image name in the Links panel, or select it in the layout, then click the Edit Original button (resembles a pencil).

Modified Links

A funny thing can happen if you edit and save that linked graphic without choosing Edit Original immediately before doing that edit. In this case, the image’s appearance in InDesign won’t update automatically and there will be a warning icon displayed in both the Links panel and the upper-left corner of the image. This indicates that the link’s status is “modified.” To update the link and change the status to “OK,” either double-click on the error icon in the Links panel or single-click on the icon in the image frame. If the edit occurred when the InDesign document was closed, you’ll see a more obvious message when next opening that document. Simply choose to Update Links (or you may choose to defer the update, but there is little reason to do so).

Missing Links & Relinking

Sometimes, the message you see when opening a document says that there are Missing Link(s). This requires more effort to correct: you have to locate the missing file, if it actually still exists. When you place an image, InDesign notes not only the filename, but also the entire path to the image; every folder, subfolder, etc. If any part of that path changes—say you move an image to another folder or rename the image or one of the folders along that path—InDesign can no longer find that image!

So when you see that dialog box warning of Missing Link(s) and you click Update, you are faced with a dialog box asking you to find where that missing image is now. If it’s truly lost (deleted, for example), you will have to find a substitute or delete the image from your document. Note that the likeness you see in the document is a proxy that InDesign creates so you can better recognize the image you’re seeking. The proxy does not have sufficient data for high-quality output.

If you’ve deferred updating or otherwise must deal with a missing link via the Links panel, there are clues. When an image is selected (or its name is highlighted in the Links panel) you can reveal more information by using the disclosure button (>) in the lower-left corner of the Links panel. In the Link Info that appears will be the last known path to the image. To tell InDesign where the image is, double-click on the missing link status indicator icon, then navigate to the file’s location.

If you’d prefer to link to a substitute image (and not just for missing ones), use the chain-like Relink button. Again, you navigate to an image file.

When relinking, you may have to fuss with the frame fitting options.

Note: The Link Info contains a lot of potentially useful information. For example, Scale values and the Effective PPI. Recall Effective Resolution in “Placing Images” (page 208).