Scale percentages are not consistent for images.
When placing a file without changing the scale, the links panel should display 100%.
It does that for Linked Tiff (and PSD) files, but displays a scale percentage (that depends on the resolution) for JPEG and PNG files.
When images are Embedded, a scale percentage is shown, where a resolution of 72 ppi is shown as 100% and smaller percentages for higher resolutions.
When images are just placed 100% should be shown, they are not scaled and their size reflects their resolution.
Currently (Illustrator 28.7.1) it will show 100% for a Linked Tiff file with a resolution of 144 ppi, but when embedded, the same file shows 50%
See this User Forum dicussion: https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/placed-image-scaling-is-wrong/m-p/14865963#M420645
Ton
shared this idea
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Illustrator is correct by saying the image now has 300ppi — this is the 'effective resolution' of it, the 'real pixel density' this particular piece of raster now has, and it matches the original resolution the image had when you placed in on canvas. If you scale it further — you’d get it grow larger, because the pixel density increases.
As for the PSDs which stay scaled differently — I’d like to see that, if possible, when it happens for you. It should work the same way, but who knows?
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Camryn
commented
Thanks Egor, that makes sense, but it's not adding up to me... The links panel shouldn't say the image has 300 ppi if it's actually assuming the image has 72 ppi. Also, there are some .psd's that I embed that remain scaled at 100% instead of going down to 24%. Do you know why this happens with some .psd's and not others?
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This is actually an intended behaviour, although not as evident as it might look.
See, Illustrator has an internal 'base' resolution for raster images, which is historically is 72ppi. When you embed an image, Ai no longer knows about its original resolution (because this is something what a linked file can have, not an embedded piece of a raster), but have to display it anyway, scaled to the size you used. So it assumes it has 72 and rescales it.
If a linked file does not have a resolution values stored in it at all (there is no punishment for it), Ai uses 72ppi also — as many other applications do. So when you put an image which is 120×120px into a document with 'pixels' units in Illustrator, it gets put as 120×120 exactly because 'undefined 72' matches with Ai's 'internal 72'.
72 / 300 equals 0.24 exactly — here you have your 24% of the scale.
Does it make sense for you? Please reply back. -
Camryn
commented
1. Windows 11 Pro
2. Illustrator v 26.5
3. When I place a linked image at 100% scale, the links panel shows it scaled at 100% which I would expect. When I go to embed that same image, the links panel shows that it's scaled at 24%. The image itself doesn't visually shrink, but the links panel changes the information for some reason.
4. I expect the links panel to show 100% scale when the image gets embedded. I don't understand how it's scaled at 100% when linked, but 24% when embedded, when all of the file information is the same as when linked.
