Quality issues with conversion

[stewaran@gmail.com]

I'm currently working for someone who is upgrading from using Pagemaker
6.5 (in Classic) to IDCS2 (in 10.4.3) and has quite a few files to
convert. The thing is the files are fairly graphic intensive (lots of
high quality pictures and maps and the like), and when they are
converted the quality suffers tremendously. Is there anything I can do
about this, or will I have to install pagemaker 6.5 so he can run it
in Classic and retain the quality? I've read a few posts that vaguely
reference possible quality issues, but nothing explicitly. He already
bought the CS2 suite and does a lot with photoshop, and sometimes
creates pamphlets using pagemaker. He's also a stickler for quality
(uses no less then 8 megapixel pics). Open to any suggestions,
including having to bite the bullet and having both installed.

[gdog05@gmail.com]

stew,

I'm not aware of any quality problems with files imported into ID. The
preview image might change, but ID will link to the exact same images
that the Pagemaker document did. It always outputs at exactly the same
quality as well. If there are any problems there, our shop sure isn't
aware, and if we were, we'd be freaking out. Basically links are links.
Whatever is in that link will go out. I believe ID does read the image
preview and/or header differently than Pagemaker, but that's a simple
issue of changing the preview quality. If the image header is not
coming in with the quality you'd like, I'd suggest doing a Photoshop
bath to re-save them all (InDesign loves .psd file. You will too). I
hope that helps.

G-Dog

[gdog05@gmail.com]

stew,

I'm not aware of any quality problems with files imported into ID. The
preview image might change, but ID will link to the exact same images
that the Pagemaker document did. It always outputs at exactly the same
quality as well. If there are any problems there, our shop sure isn't
aware, and if we were, we'd be freaking out. Basically links are links.
Whatever is in that link will go out. I believe ID does read the image
preview and/or header differently than Pagemaker, but that's a simple
issue of changing the preview quality. If the image header is not
coming in with the quality you'd like, I'd suggest doing a Photoshop
bath to re-save them all (InDesign loves .psd file. You will too). I
hope that helps.

G-Dog

[mkahny@gmail.com]

Sounds to me like the Pagemaker files had graphics embedded, (bad
practice to begin with). If you no longer have the graphics that were
embedded it will take some work to get them to work in Indesign. You
should be able to export the embedded files out of Pagemaker but just
as it sounds you will need to have Pagemaker installed to do the
exporting of the graphics. We have a 4 person graphics department and
we have 1 G4 workstation with System 9 still installed so we can run
Pagemaker native and tweak certain PM files that don't convert as
expected to ID. I would image you will need to do the same for some
time if you have a number of PM files (as we do) that require changes
and you don't wish to convert to ID if the changes are minor and the
conversion doesn't go smooth.