Images

Uploading images, placing them in frames, and positioning them inside the frame.

Placing an image

1. Drag on the canvas with the Image tool (I) to draw a frame. An empty image frame with a gray X appears and the tool switches back to Select.
2. With the frame selected, click Choose an image from the gallery in the Image section of the Attributes tab. Clicking inside the empty frame with the Image tool works too. The Media Gallery opens.
3. Click an image in the gallery. It is placed in the frame.

To place an image in an existing shape, click inside the shape with the Image tool. The same button (Choose an image from the gallery) swaps the image in a frame that already has one.

You can also skip the gallery.

• Paste — copy a picture in another app (a screenshot works) and press ⌘/Ctrl+V on the canvas: it is uploaded to the document and an image frame appears at the center of the view.
• Drag and drop — drop an image file onto the canvas and it appears where you dropped it.

The size is the original pixels at 96 dpi, scaled down proportionally if larger than the page inside the margins. Pictures other than jpg, png, gif or tiff (webp, for example) are converted to png on upload. The uploaded file appears in the Media Gallery on the Document tab: pasted pictures are named pasted-date-time, dropped files keep their own file name.

Related questions

• How do I insert a photo?
• Can I paste a screenshot directly?
• What happens when I drop an image file on the canvas?
• I want to replace an image
• How do I put an image inside a shape?
• How do I upload a picture in another format such as webp?

Media gallery

The Media Gallery is the dialog for choosing uploaded files.

• Tabs at the top: Document holds files uploaded to this document; User holds files uploaded to your account. Placing an account file in a document copies it into the document.
• Kind: choose Image (jpg, png, gif, tiff), Clipart (png, gif) or PDF in the Type: list on the right.
• Upload: click the Upload button or drag files onto the gallery. After uploading, wait a moment while the server builds a screen preview.
• On a file, View original shows an image in an enlarged view over the gallery and opens a PDF in a new tab. Delete removes the file. Images placed in the document are marked In use and cannot be deleted — remove or replace them in the frame first. Deleting on the User tab removes the file from your account only; copies already in documents stay.

Images uploaded on the web portal's Images tab also appear under the User location.

You can upload tiff files straight from the print workflow — CMYK, grayscale and RGB, 16-bit, 1-bit line-art scans and files with an alpha channel (transparent background) all work. A layered Photoshop tiff uses its flattened image. Browsers cannot show tiff themselves, so the server makes a separate screen image; the PDF and print use the original unchanged (CMYK stays the same CMYK numbers). Only transparency saved as the file's alpha is used as a transparent background; other Photoshop alpha channels are ignored. For a multi-page tiff only the first page is used. A file the server cannot read is not uploaded and shows "The image 'file name' could not be read. Try a copy re-saved as TIFF, JPEG or PNG from another program."

Related questions

• Where do I upload images?
• I can't delete an image
• Which image formats are supported?
• Can I upload TIFF files?
• Can a CMYK TIFF be printed as it is?

Fitting an image inside its frame

When first placed, an image fills the frame while keeping its aspect ratio, and the overflow is cropped (a PDF page is placed so the whole page fits). To move or scale only the image inside the frame, use image editing mode.

1. Double-click the image frame with the Select tool. Clicking a frame that holds an image with the Image tool also works.
2. The frame stays put and the image itself becomes selected. Drag the image to move it and use the handles to scale or rotate it. Drag inside the image with Shift held to scale it proportionally instead of moving it. While editing, the part outside the frame is shown faintly; once you finish, it is clipped and not shown.
3. Click outside the frame or press Esc to leave editing mode.

In editing mode, Backspace removes the image from the frame (Undo brings it back).

You can also type a Rotation angle in the Image section of the Attributes tab. Resizing the frame itself crops the image.

The five Fit buttons in the Image section of the Attributes tab place the image in one click. Fill frame proportionally covers the frame while keeping the aspect ratio (the overflow is cropped); Fit content proportionally fits the whole image inside it, again keeping the ratio (gaps are left over). Fit content to frame stretches the image to the frame, and Fit frame to content leaves the image where it is and resizes the frame around it. Center content only centers the image, keeping its size.

The four Crop boxes in the same section are the distances between the frame edges and the image edges. A positive value is how far the image runs past that edge of the frame; a negative value is the gap left inside it. Changing one box moves only that edge and leaves the opposite one in place, so "align the left edge to the frame" takes one number instead of a careful drag.

Related questions

• I want to move the image inside its frame
• My photo is cropped
• How do I fill the frame with the image?
• How do I crop a photo so only part of it shows?

Merging an image into a shape

Move an image frame you already placed into another shape (rectangle, ellipse, polygon, path …).

1. With the Select tool, select one shape and one image frame together.
2. Right-click › Merge Image.
3. The image goes inside the shape and the original image frame disappears. The image keeps its position, size and rotation, and anything outside the shape is clipped. PDF pages work the same way. A single Undo reverts it.

Afterwards it behaves like an image frame: double-click to enter image editing mode, and use the Image section of the Attributes tab.

Related questions

• How do I put a photo inside a circle?
• Can I use a shape as a clipping mask for an image?

Source information

The Source line in the Image section of the Attributes tab shows the pixel size, color space, file format and size of the actual image, not the placed size (for example 2400 × 1600 px · CMYK · JPEG · 2.5 MB). An RGB image and a CMYK image print differently even in the same spot, so check what you placed where color matters, such as a cover or an ad. The server reads the color space from the file header on upload; for formats it cannot read, that part is simply left out. Hover the field to read the whole line when the panel is too narrow for it.

Related questions

• How do I tell whether an image is RGB or CMYK?
• How many pixels is the original?

Resolution

The Image section of the Attributes tab shows the Resolution. It is the effective resolution (dpi) at the placed size, and when it is below the 300 dpi minimum for print the value turns red with a ⚠ mark, and a ⚠ number dpi badge appears at the top left of the frame on the canvas. The badge is on screen only and does not print. Make the image smaller or use a larger original. The same check runs when you build a PDF.

Related questions

• I see a resolution warning
• What image resolution do I need for print?

Why screen and print images differ

The screen uses a preview for fast drawing. For large images the preview is smaller than the original, so it may look soft when zoomed in — but the document links to the original, and the original is used for the PDF and for printing. A soft on-screen image is no reason to replace the original; judge by the Resolution value.

A tiff always appears as this screen image, even a small one. The on-screen colors of a CMYK tiff are converted with the color profile embedded in the file, or, if there is none, with your account's CMYK profile chosen on the web portal's Color Profiles tab. Printing uses the original CMYK values unchanged.

Related questions

• The image looks blurry on screen
• Will the image be sharp in the PDF?
• A CMYK TIFF looks different on screen

Placing a PDF

You can place one page of a PDF made elsewhere (an ad, a logo, a page from another document) into a frame. The print PDF carries the original PDF content as vectors; it is not turned into a picture.

1. Open the Media Gallery as in "Placing an image" (Choose an image from the gallery, or click inside an empty frame or shape with the Image tool).
2. Choose PDF in the Type: list, then upload a PDF file or click one you already uploaded. The Choose PDF page dialog opens.
3. Pick the page in the page previews. Double-clicking a page places it right away. The page count, the spot color names in the file and the number of fonts that are not embedded are shown with it.
4. Choose the Box. Trim is the finished size without bleed and crop marks. Crop is the area a PDF viewer shows. Files that have a trim box start with Trim selected. Media, Bleed and Art are also available, and a box the file does not define is marked "(None)" in the list and falls back to the Crop size.
5. Click Place. The page is placed so it fits entirely inside the frame, keeping its proportions.

After placing, you can change it in the Image section of the Attributes tab.

• The Source row shows the size of the placed page in pt, not pixels. A PDF is vector, so there is no Resolution warning.
• Use the Previous page and Next page buttons or the Page number field to switch pages. The position and cropping inside the frame stay the same.
• Changing the Box in the box list next to the Page number field (Trim, Crop …) changes the page size, so the page is fitted into the frame again.
• With Transparent background on (the default), the frame's Fill color shows through wherever the page paints nothing, because a PDF page carries no white paper of its own. Turn it off to put a white background the size of the page behind it, hiding the fill. The screen and the print PDF match either way.
• Moving, cropping and Fit work just as they do for images.

On screen you see a page image drawn by the server, and it is replaced by a sharper one as you zoom in. If the server cannot draw some element, only the screen differs; the print PDF still gets the original.

Among password-protected PDFs, files that only lock editing or printing permissions upload normally. Files that ask for a password to open show "PDFs that need a password to open cannot be uploaded. Remove the password and save the file again." and are not uploaded. Files that cannot be read show "The PDF file could not be read. Try a copy re-saved from another program."

The content of a placed PDF (fonts, colors, transparency, spot colors) goes into the output untouched. Missing fonts, RGB or spot colors show up as placed PDF items in the preflight when you make a PDF. Spot colors inside a placed PDF cannot be converted to process the way document swatches can, so each one adds a plate. Duplicating a document copies its placed PDF files as well.

Related questions

• How do I place a PDF ad on a page?
• Can I import a specific page from another PDF, like Place in InDesign?
• My password-protected PDF will not upload
• The frame color shows through the white margins of my placed PDF
• The placed PDF looks blurry on screen

When an image does not show

If a frame shows no image but an error marker, the file may have been deleted from the gallery or does not belong to this document. Choose it again with Choose an image from the gallery. If a frame with a missing file remains, building a PDF lists them with "N frames are missing their image files"; if you continue, that spot comes out empty.

Related questions

• The image area is empty
• Images are missing from my PDF