Preferred image file format for InDesign CS4

[Dave-Designer]

From a prepress perspective, is there a preferred file format (TIF, EPS, JPG) for raster images using InDesign CS4? I am a designer for a large retailer creating your typical Sunday newspaper inserts. I am trying to establish a consistent file-saving protocol for our production workflow, but would like some opinions on what would be best, or if it even matters. We switched from Quark to InDesign about 2 yrs ago and have a lot of legacy assets in EPS. We started having problems with InDesign CS3 dropping clipping paths, so we started saving them as TIFs. In addition, 90% of our images are vendor supplied JPGs. We rarely place native Photoshop files since most images are flattened, and we don't do any color management other than saving files with SWOP profiles.

For the record, due to "office politics", it's just too difficult to get a straight answer from my printer's prepress department, so I'm resorting to this post. And, as a designer who used to work prepress in a major printing operation, I totally respect your side of the business and take pride in creating clean, error-free digital files!
Thanks for the input.

[CHM]

If you wanna have all possibilities in the whole CS suit its always the best to save and link files in their native format.
This means if you wanna link a Illustrator file save it as Illustrator .ai and link it in Indesign.
The same for Photoshop files, save the Photoshop file as a native .psd file and link it in Indesign.

[Magnus]

TIF would be my pick!

We've had some really strange problems with EPS-files in Indesign CS2-CS4. Images that flips, gets lowres randomly, paths jumping around. And colormanagement doesn't work (if you one day would start using it).

[Lukas Engqvist]

EPS has serious limitations, and since they can contain RGB, CMYK, managed unmanaged but all work flattened usually without control I would say the risk outweights the benifit.
IF you use EPS you must also prevent transparency and effcts from being used or your manual will need to include colour management and information about flattening (dropshadows, blur etc)
Native files are so much easier if you need to fix, ofcourse you are probably intending not to have to fix? I would look at the GWG.org documents on making adds and use that as an internal format, if native PSD and AI are not an option.

[Shawn]

I'll second the recommendation for native .psd or .ai files. It's the best way to deal with transparency since it allows you to control the flattening settings on your end. I've also had good results with TIFFs for raster files.

Shawn

[claude72]

TIFF for all "standard" images, PSD for more complex needs.

Photoshop EPS was a very interesting image format in the old times of the 80 MB hard-drives (and 44 MB SyQuest cartridge), and had one (little) interest with XPress untill Quark releases XPress 6 in 2003... now, it is an outdated obsolete format...


I also agree for .AI files in InDesign...
... but Illustrator EPS files are still interesting in InDesign, as they are sometimes easier to place in the image-box.



And some people also use PDF as an image file format, for both raster and vectors images!
(IMHO, PDF is more an exchange format than a work-format... but it works! so, why not!!!)

[Lukas Engqvist]

With illustrations do you tell customers embed ICC or work with safe CMYK (colour managed in Application but no embeded/converted CMYK data)?

[JLRobertson]

Photoshop EPSs saved with vector information are invaluable for customer .psd files that have typeset elements in them.

[Tech]

For what's worth, I agree with Claude72's suggestions. As for EPS file, legacy versions can cause some problems but in general, it's nothing difficult to fix.

My priorities would be as follow:
1) Native files (.ai or .psd) whenever possible. If art files started in Illustrator then save them as .ai and same rule for images that are created or modified in Photoshop, especially complex files.
2) .tif for basic/flattened images
3) Photoshop PDF for file exchange

BTW, "office politics" is stupid because at it's worst, it wastes human resources on unnecessary work flows. It often creates busy work and some people get to keep their jobs but accomplishes nothing worthy to be proud of. If nothing else, the busy work can dumb down everyone involve in the process.

[Dov Isaacs]

If you wanna have all possibilities in the whole CS suit its always the best to save and link files in their native format.
This means if you wanna link a Illustrator file save it as Illustrator .ai and link it in Indesign.
The same for Photoshop files, save the Photoshop file as a native .psd file and link it in Indesign.

This is not really correct!

For example, for Photoshop files, PSD files placed into InDesign do not retain text as text. To maintain the highest quality of text and vector from Photoshop (assuming you don't do something stupid like flattening that stuff to raster), you should save a copy of the Photoshop image as PDF (not distilling PostScript to produce PDF).

- Dov