Expert: Scott Valentine - 3/22/2008

Question
not sure if you can help, we have adobe distiller 5.0 i think is simple question. when we distill from a tiff in photoshop to distiller,  the size comes out smaller than original tiff. i think there is a simple solution in distiller to get it to distill to exact same size. any help would be great !
thanks

Answer
Hi June,

I presume you are trying to go straight from Photoshop to a PDF file. If so, check the document's settings in Photoshop (Image > Image Size). There is a spot there to adjust the dpi (dots per inch). For a TIFF file, you should set this at 240dpi, but be aware that changing these settings may require you to resize the document dimensions.

Note that there is a difference between image dimensions and pixel size. The relationship is dpi. The easiest way to think of this (though it's not entirely accurate) is to imagine a line that is 100px long. At 100dpi, that roughly translates to a 1" image in print. At 25dpi, that gives you a 4" line. This explanation ignores some details like printer settings and differences in pixels to dots, but it's a general concept.

So, your TIFF file has a pixel dimension and a document size. The document size is what will change the size of your Distiller document. Uncheck the box labeled Resample Image, and change the document size to what you need. Be aware that dropping below about 150dpi will begin to degrade your document for printing. 72dpi, however is the target resolution for screen images.

Another thing to check is Distiller itself. You may have some settings there that force a particular dpi, so open up Distiller and check the preferences. Since I no longer use Distiller directly, I can't give you more specific details than that.

I hope this helps! If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

-Scott