Keeping pictures in order with the Links panel in Layout

A layout with fifty pictures is also a document with fifty files it depends on. Photos get retouched, folders get renamed, a USB stick goes back to its owner. The Links panel in Layout by Zaweba keeps track of every placed file and tells you, before it becomes a printing problem, which ones have changed or gone missing.

Reading the status of each link

Each placed picture has a line in the panel. Its status says whether it is fine, missing or modified. Missing means Layout can't find the file where it was. Modified means the file has changed since it was placed, for example after retouching.

Neither has to stop you working. They become a problem at export, where a missing file means low quality or nothing at all, and a modified one means the old version prints. Live preflight counts these problems in the status bar, so you know before you reach the export dialog.

Relink, update, embed and go to link

Relink points a picture at a file. Use it when the folder has moved, or when you want to swap one photo for another in the same frame. The frame and its fitting stay as they were, and only the picture changes.

Update reads a modified file again, so the retouched version of a photo replaces the old one on the page.

Embed stores the picture inside the document. Unembed turns it back into a linked picture. Embedding suits small graphics that never change; most photos are better linked.

Go to link takes you straight to the page and frame where a picture is used. On a long document, that is much quicker than paging through looking for it.

Effective ppi versus actual ppi

The panel shows two resolutions for each picture. Actual ppi is the resolution of the file itself. Effective ppi is the resolution after it has been scaled on the page. A photo with plenty of pixels shown at a small size has a higher effective ppi; the same photo blown up across a spread has a lower one.

Effective ppi is the number that matters for print quality. A picture with a healthy actual resolution can still print soft if it has been enlarged too much. Check effective ppi on any picture you have scaled up, especially full bleed openers and cover images.

The panel also shows each picture's colour space and size. Colour space tells you at a glance which pictures are RGB and which are CMYK or greyscale, which matters for some print workflows, and size helps spot the unexpectedly huge file that is slowing the document down.

A routine for healthy links

Keep pictures in one folder beside the document, set up at the start. Place from there, not from email attachments or downloads.

Check the panel before each proof. Clear missing and modified warnings as they appear rather than letting them build up.

Use the effective ppi column to catch soft pictures early, while there's still time to ask the photographer for a larger file.

Before sending the job out, use the package command, which collects the document, its linked pictures and fonts into one folder with a report, so the print shop gets everything it needs.

Mistakes people make with links

Renaming the pictures folder halfway through a job is the classic one. Every link goes missing at once. If you must rename, relink the folder straight after.

Updating a modified link without looking can bring in a version that wasn't meant to be final. Check what changed first.

Judging quality by eye on screen rather than by effective ppi leads to soft prints. Trust the number.

Embedding everything to avoid missing links makes documents large and slow, and makes later retouching harder. Link by default, and package at the end.