Size and resolution

An image prints at the size its resolution gives it: 3000 × 2000 pixels at 300 ppi is a 10 × 6.67 in (254 × 169 mm) page. For a file opened from Files, the Tools tab has a Size & resolution section for images and a Scale section for PDFs. The file in Files never changes: the editor works on a copy at the new size, and the print-ready file is made from it.

What the section shows#

Pixels

The pixels the page is printed from.

Size

The page's size in your unit.

Resolution

The effective resolution: pixels per inch at this size. It is green at or above the image resolution your preflight profile asks for, amber below its warning limit and red below its error limit. The limits come from the file's latest preflight report, else your team's default profile, else the Offset preset (300 ppi, with 225 ppi an error). An image without a resolution of its own is read at 300 ppi, and the section says so.

Choose a new size#

Type a Width or Height (the proportions are kept), a Percent of the original (100 is the image's own size), or a Resolution (ppi). The line under the fields shows the new size, pixels and resolution before you press Apply; Cancel forgets the change and Back to the original size undoes an applied one.

Keep pixels (change ppi)

The default, and lossless: the same pixels printed larger or smaller. Printing larger lowers the resolution, so the colour turns amber or red when the image gets too soft for your profile. Typing a resolution sets the size the pixels give at it.

Resample to N ppi

The image is resampled (Lanczos) to that resolution at the new size, with Sharpen a little after resampling if you like. Resampling down makes a smaller file; resampling up adds pixels, not detail, and the section says so. Images are limited to 400 megapixels, so a size that would need more is refused.

What follows the new size#

• A die made on the Die & lines tab follows the artwork: a shape or a drawn outline scales with the page, a contour is traced again, and the cut offset stays as you set it (see Create a die). A trim-box die or a rectangle you typed scales too.
• The print-ready file made at the old size is removed: its page no longer matches the new size, so it could never be saved, shared or printed by mistake. Your bleed and trap settings stay; press Generate bleed (or Apply to print-ready file on the Tools tab, which a size change alone is enough for once there is a die) to make it again. Versions already saved from it stay in Files. The 3D view follows the new size.
• New versions of the file open at the same size.
• A job made from an image prints it at the size set here. A PDF you scaled can't go to a job at that size (a job prints a PDF as it is in Files): save its print-ready file as a new version and use that version (see Files and images).

Scale a PDF#

A PDF supplied too large or too small, such as artwork at 50% for a banner, gets Scale: type a Percent of the original and press Apply. The page, its content, its boxes and its lines are scaled together about the page's corner and stay vector; line types and the die follow. PDFs are never resampled. Pages are limited to 200 in (5080 mm).

The same is in the API: see Prepress API.