InQuestion: Relinking to Different Image Formats

Q. Our book, with hundreds of graphics, is almost done, and we just found out that the print shop doesn’t want images in the PNG format. That’s all we have!

I was able to create an action in Photoshop to batch process converting the PNG files into TIFF images. But is there a way to replace hundreds of PNG files with their TIFF versions?

A. I’ve been tripped up by that one myself in the past, when I worked with freelancers who saved graphics in PNG format when my publisher’s print shop wanted TIFF images. (Although from what I can gather, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using PNG images for print work.)

Start by putting all the converted images in the same folder as the originals. Next, select all the images in the Links panel that you want to change. Then choose Relink File Extension. A dialog box appears which explains just what I’ve written here. Type in the extension of the new file, (in your case, TIFF). Then click OK.

Whoops! You may get an error message saying that InDesign couldn’t find any files with the extension that you specified. That’s happened to me when the batch processed files I got from Photoshop were “tif” images, but I typed in “tiff” (note the double f) in the Relink File Extension dialog box. So be careful with files, such as TIFF and JPEG, that can have different extensions.