How To Reduce Your PDF File Size // Illustrator & InDesign

How To Reduce Your File Size in Illustrator & InDesign
Today lets talk about how to reduce your PDF file size in Illustrator and InDesign.
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We’ve all been guilty of it. Exporting your PDFs from Illustrator or InDesign to find that the final file is scarily huge! Let’s be honest, if you are setting up a flyer design and the is 50mb, 150mb or even 2gb…. It’s way too big! Your artwork should be below 10mb, ideally below 50mb.
So you might be wondering, why does this happen? Normally if you have set up your artwork correctly, the two main reasons you are ending up with super-sized files is either because you have extremely detailed vector artwork with a lot of anchor points, or, you haven’t compressed your imagery that’s over 300dpi.
Firstly, let’s talk about the super detailed vector elements. If you are finding your computer is massively slowing down when you’re working on your artwork you need to flatten those elements. (Only do this when you are completely happy with your design). You can do this by simply saving those specific elements as images and then replacing them into your artwork as an image. You will instantly find that your computer will speed up.
If you have super-high-resolution images you will need to compress the files when you save them as a PDF. To do this you will save your PDF as normal in either Adobe Illustrator or In Design…
File - Save As
Select the location you want the files saved to.
Make sure you select Adobe (Print) PDF from the dropdown menu
Click Save
The next window that will pop up is when you optimize your file and add your compression.
On the first window, deselect ‘Preserve Editing Capabilities’
Select ‘Optimize for Fast Web Preview’
Now on the left of the window click on ‘Compression’
On the new panel, you will have all of your compression settings
On the first set of dropdowns, for ‘Colorplan Bitmap Images’ click the Do Not Downsample dropdown.
Select ‘Average Downsample To’
Replace 150ppi to 300ppi and this will automatically change the second box to 300ppi also.
On the second dropdown (Compression), select JPEG from the dropdown menu.
And now click Save.
That’s it! Dependant on the size of your image, this may take a few seconds to save or a few minutes. Once this is done go check out your new small file sized artwork.
There we have it, that is how you compress your artwork to a size that’s easy to email as well as sending to print (As long as you have added your crop marks and bleed). Hopefully, you have found this useful, if you have any comments please just let me know!
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[@ladmandiola8868]

Great vid - Thanks! For those that just need to get to the instruction part, just jump to min marker 3:35 and go from there. Again, great vid!

[@anoopsajay4746]

Thank you so much, Good video @rob moore and thank you Lad Mandiola, i was in a hurry, you helped 😊😊😊

[@anxqbeats]

YOU CAME IN IN THE CLUTCHEST MOMENT BROOO. I LOVE YOU BROOOOO.💯🙌🙌🙌🙌

[@anxqbeats]

Got mine down from 1.5GB to 8mb✨✨

[@phoenixxuancy]

you have saved me!!! although I had been struggling half an hour b4 watching this useful video... but still feels grateful after watching ur tutorials

[@AjaySingh-cr4wc]

Rob, you can explain a difficult topics in very simple way. Great Job. Keep doing.

[@robmoore9021]

Thank you Ajay! I’m glad you enjoyed the video 😁

[@greens-n-greens]

It is really usefull, I wasn't finding any perfect tutorial for my problem about minimizing storage, then your video came up.It worked like magic. Thanks a ton mate.

[@ibraasser254]

THE BEST VIDEO IN MY LIFE

[@epictho]

You saved me Rob! I was sending 80MG files sometimes haha, I was a mess!

[@GavvyMatharu]

Im sending 110 mb

[@artqman2878]

@@GavvyMatharu Im sending 1.2GB 😅

[@IRedpunk]

for some reason my file still gets huge as hell in PDF, from 30MB (Ai) to 15MB (pdf). I really don't know how to not make my work pixelated as hell, only option is to use the "PDF/X-1a:2001" preset, but doing so makes the artwork have some weird grey lines that appear/vanish depending on the level of zoom, it's so weird and frustrating.

[@Brownmommy1000]

Thanks so much for the compression video. I was ready to LOSE IT!!!

[@m0hal0nka]

This video just saved me 51 mb from my 54 mb file. Thank you man.

[@arbaazkhan4887]

Thank You!

[@federicotamayo969]

Dudeeeeee i had a 5 GB file it reduced to 38 MB!!! youre the best bro thankyou!!

[@ercanimer4864]

I expect a shout from inside, "Rob, do you have a moment" 😂 congrats! Facing 30 and getting married is two big bites. I hope everything on trail right now.

[@ROLLWITHLIZ]

Congratulations 🎊🍾 on your wedding thanks for helping us with your knowledge

[@mikaelaonthego]

Life saver!

[@SugahMagg]

Yes! Been looking for a video like this that explains it so easily. A million thanks!

[@angelolivas6260]

Went from 209MB to 3MB, saved my day, thank u mate.

[@anescheikh]

You're the Best Rob, thanks a lot it worked perfectly

[@saadayasser5539]

Thank you so much .. your video is great and helped me finally to upload my files quickly.. It reduced my file from 105mo to 5,59mo. Thanks again

[@joanaformiga3844]

thank you so much for the explanation!! I had been struggling to find a way to export my cv without being so heavy!

[@karteltech1]

wow this worked like a charm. from 300mb to 1mb, you got a new subscriber.

[@yenneyy1597]

Genius just helped me compress a 1GB pdf to a 16330KB file Better than compressing 5 times, and still get the same 1GB number ughh Thank you Rob!

[@graphicagirls4334]

Finally I find the solution, thank you so much for saving my life.

[@skwhorse]

Thank you!!!! This helped me so much. Just starting my graphic design journey and you are going to be a wonderful resource.

[@leeputmanart]

Amazing, 100mb down to 6.9mb without sacrificing picture quality! Thanks a bunch

[@MrNalinox]

thank you very much. It was better than my best expectations

[@Itstechnicole]

This worked tremendously! Thank you so much and congrats on the new nuptials! 💜

[@devanshishah416]

Worked great for me, saved my day and so much time from struggling to compress the pdfs online... Uff ! Thankyou so much Rob :D

[@artescape1700]

This worked so good! thank you very much.

[@fahadkhan-ye2oh]

thnx bro , its like u take me out from a deep diggy hole , thnx again buddy

[@adamsatchwell4146]

300mb file reduced to 10mb... Thank god. Cheers for the help Rob

[@christianamitropoulou454]

OMG!!!! You are the best! Thank you soo much! you have helped me a lot!!!

[@baskindarkness8457]

thanks a lot for this video Rob!

[@theghazalanisi]

Thank you! This was great!

[@business_max]

Thanks mate! From 300MB to 10MB

[@MarkReategui]

Am I missing something, or are black and white bitmap images exporting at the same resolution as grayscale images? When going to a high quality offset printer 300dpi is usually fine for grayscale but I need 1200dpi for detailed bitmap lineart. Seems like a bug.

[@camilaroque1566]

THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU'RE A LIFE SAVIOR!!!!

[@cjjasenski2971]

Awesome! Thanks for the video...it worked!

[@thomascerra8505]

Rob you're a star. Really helpful video

[@WolffLandim]

I don't get it, my regular size went from 2,1mb to 857,9mb with those settings

[@mohibali2905]

Thanks for the video it was really helpful.

[@jotibaagastya3330]

You have saved my life , tons of thank you from India

[@nevena6751]

Nice! The size changed from 300MB to 30!

[@richardlyth9167]

THANK YOU, lifesaver!

[@jklogisticsjklogistics9864]

Awesome video.. thank you sir.. congrats on jumping the broom 🍺

[@Tanbin93]

It is really useful, Thank you so much.

[@valentinomarshal9496]

Hello Rob, I have created a document with a few links in illustrator, I exported it to pdf and viewed it in a pdf reader, the links are active, but when I added this pdf to my web page in Wordpress the links are flat and not active, what can I do to export pdf with active links for the website, please advise, thanks

[@sabiknows6815]

i wanna cry! thankssssss, i thought i should just say that i can't do it and forget about the job

[@imalicej]

Thank you so much for this!

[@isaacotasowie926]

Really helped me a lot Rob, thank you.

[@huyle9182]

man !!!! you are a life saver !!!!!

[@abeeraldubyan669]

THIS WORKED !! THANKS

[@pranavmahesheari3143]

Really Helpfull !

[@hebakhan6581]

Thankyou sooo much boy 💓 more power to you

[@Eric_Cartman_30]

Thank you so much man. it worked. Thanks mate

[@AlainaBot]

A million thanks. THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@simozahrani]

Very helpful!

[@joyj9276]

You have saved me alot...thank you

[@sanketyadav2485]

Finally got the perfect working guidance Sir! Thank youuuu so muchhhhhh💯🔥

[@mothibenyanecharles5336]

Awesome video. 👌🏾

[@n1c1a5]

Thank you ! Great video :)

[@Marlene-mf9bx]

You are the best! Thanks a lot!

[@shortyylu]

I have a pdf which are A4 or letter . I need to put it to 200% & save it to have it permanently stay & then I need to piece it all together & change it into an A0 file. It’s sewing patterns that you print and tape it all together. I want to order a full size from a printing store.

[@LAMLife]

thank u so much for this. was so frustrated on saving my design n now u helped alot God Bless

[@danalamolinara2953]

This was short, sweet, and a life saver. Thank you sir

[@Tyzen-The-Comedy-Hypnotist]

Great video! I got my file size from 80mb to 576kb. Like, I wish I knew this 10 years ago. Thanks! All I was missing was that drop down box from "zip" to "JPEG".

[@hat42via]

This is exactly what I needed, thank you so much! I'm subscribing for sure.

[@carlaorozco2426]

Thank you so much!! This definitely saved me from sending a 300mb pdf file, just reduced it to 25mb!!! Thank you thank you thank you 🙌🏻

[@AverageGamerGuy977]

THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU ARE JUST AMAZING THANKS AGAIN!!!!

[@jihad_n_a]

thank dude, this is what i need

[@vahidzarei2111]

Perfect so helpful

[@lucasboreal2991]

wow! Thank you, my life can keep move on! God blesses you!

[@dikshantmajmundar7145]

thnx man lots of love from india

[@remodesigns4570]

thanks bro! you save the day.

[@chorizojoe8282]

Thank you so much! You were very helpful.

[@_stevemarcel]

This was so helpful, I got from 701mb to 2mb 😭🥳. Thank you very much!👏🏾👏🏾

[@isabelhansemann9223]

Seriously a life saver and so easy toounderstand! Thank you so much!

[@frecklesandco]

Brilliant just what I needed thanks! 👍

[@nextmahamud1193]

Thank you so so much man, You just save my time. We want more content like it, So helpful. Thanks again❤️❤️

[@loulizandrade-badoles9098]

Liked and subscribed! Thank you for this tutorial, it really helped me.

[@kevinpaz1055]

How can I reduce it to 4mb without losing anything at all.

[@MohamedAli-rg4js]

Thank you very much my file it was 60MB NOW 6MB

[@juilerobertson]

Brilliant!

[@土金木水火]

Very informative!!! Thank you for saving my life 🥳

[@jeannasuzanne2541]

YES! thank you!!!!

[@YuliaKovalenko]

You're a life saver! Thank you so much!

[@Kim_pin]

Awesome!!!

[@yashvibhatt9165]

Really helpful

[@PaolaMoralesg]

You literally saved my life! THANK YOU THANK YOU

[@TheDeathCrafter]

Have you ever heard you sound a bit like Mike Russell from the popular Audition tutorials 😃

[@Artistram3d1]

Great video, thank you so much! New Subscriber, Cheers!

[@МарияЕршова-и1р]

Really helpful! Thank you!

[@marianburah142]

This was so helpful. Thanks

[@RGul-om6hl]

Omg, thank you so so much. My assignment was in danger. This is my first video on your chanel, but ım sure not the last one 🍀

[@vythaoduongnguyen]

That's so helpful! Thank you so much.

[@victoriagrasiano617]

great video !

[@jodifauzanhaffizh3460]

thank you sir, your vid so helpfull

[@evesammy6038]

ITS REALLY WORKED LOL THANK YOU DUDE

[@aliaalkhadar6327]

Thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@wwmarketing5745]

You just took my file from 35mb to 2mb. My printer will be so happy she doesn't have to keep downloading insane files 😂