Scott...HELP!

[burndog]

I have designed a 12 page booklet in Illustrator and am trying to create a multipage PDF. The problem is that the pdf comes out at 18mb. I must be doing something wrong, but do not know what.

To start with I created 12 pdfs with compression of 100dpi for images above 150 with low compression. This gave me files on average of about 150-300 kb. Then when I lay them all out on my multi-page setup ( with page tiling, etc ) and save a multipage pdf, I get a pdf file that is 18mb.

I'm guessing this is not the way to do it...any ideas. I have to get this one done quite quickly for a deadline, and I'm stumped.

PS I have kept my text as text, as when converting to outlines first, gave really large individual files ( the 12 seperate single page pdf files )

[Dave]

This may help ....

http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=329648&sliceId=1

[Scott]

18 mb sound fairly standard in some cases. What kind of items are on the page? Any transparency used? What version of Acrobat are you saving the PDF to?

[burndog]

There is transparency on each page. I'm pretty sure I made raster effects at 72ppi (originally at 300), and I think I even tried to flatten the transparency. I have tried so many things that I am having a tough time remembering.

Now something that may be making a difference. Originally I have 2 pages per original document...page 8 besides page 2...front cover and back cover, etc. Now I have eliminated as many of the elements as I could when making the small individual pages that worked out to 200-300kb.

The thing I do not understand that is that I am placing 12 pdf files totalling about 3MB, and I end up with an 18MB file...any suggestions?


Dave...I will check out that link right as soon as I get a minute.

I just skimmed the link of Daves...now with my document with all 12 pdf designs I made my artboard 34" by 33" ( 4 designs wide by 3 high ). Do you think it would perhaps make a difference if I laid them out all side by side. When I did the 4 by 3 it gave me my twelve artboards, each containing a number of the page the design would be assigned to . I doubt it should make a difference, but then I have little experience in making multi-page pdfs.:huh:

[Scott]

It shouldn't matter how the pages are spread out. The only thing I can think of is that there's flattening occurring which is creating a lot of raster elements that tend to bloat PDF file sizes from AI.

In general, saving to Acrobat 5 or higher will result in better handling of transparency. If you're saving to Acrobat 4 or lower, that may be where file size is exploding.


Do you have Acrobat Pro? If you open the 18mb PDF in Acrobat Pro and choose either File > Reduce File Size.. or Document > Reduce File Size (Depending upon your version) And choose Acrobat 5 format (it doesn't matter if you've created the PDF with Acrobat 4 setting)... does that make a dramatic difference in the size?

[burndog]

We do have Acrobat Pro, I will try this...thanks!

[burndog]

Whoa! that is much better...down to 5.5MB. I did however get a dialogue box that said...

CONVERSION WARNINGS
The PDF contained image masks that were not downsampled.

I'm not sure what they mean by image masks. I have used several psd files that had transparent backgrounds, would Illustrator automatically make an image mask when I placed these psd files?

If I could somehow squeek the pdf file down just a bit more somehow it would be awesome, as this file is meant to be emailed, and there are still many people who can not accept attachments over 5MB.

Can you think of anything else I could do??? ( not asking for too much am I:))

I've got it...Yippee! Thanks so much for your help again Scott. In acrobat pro, under file, I chose "create pdf...from multiple files" then chose my 10 little 300kb pdf files, and when it was done, used your suggestion of "reduce file size". It is now sitting at a slim and trim 2 mb.

My day has been made...thanks again Scott!D)

[Dave]

.... you could always compress the file further with Winrar or something similar for reducing email file sizes.

General Info - an email attachment such as an image or pdf file gets increased in total file size by around 40%, so a 4Mb file would actually be 5.6Mb with the email overhead and would fail to be received by someone with a 5Mb limit.

:shrug:

[burndog]

thanks Dave, but at 2mb, this is sitting pretty right now, and besides I believe that people opening the file would then need software to decompress it, but I will certainly keep it in mind for the future. Interesting about how emailed attachments are a bit larger. I have noticed this in the past but thought the size shown was rounded up or something.

[Dave]

It's because the file is converted to 8 bit code or something like that, e.g an image file becomes a huge string of non-printable text.

You're right about having/not having compression software, also some e-mail hosts don't allow certain file extensions but a pdf is pretty much okay.

[Scott]

You generally don't need to worry about that Image Mask warning Bernie. It just means Acrobat couldn't down-sample the masks. Which is fine. This appears with Acrobat 5 format or higher because v5 supports transparency, which generally means there's an image and a mask.

MIME types are added when emailing and things may be rounded to 8k blocks rather than 4k blocks. So a small variation when emailing is normal. Also be aware, some mail servers see PDFs as "executable" files. Generally poorly maintained mail servers. It's a good idea to never have any "automated" service to send PDF emails. You'll get blacklisted fast. It's best to auto-email a link to download the PDF rather than sending the PDF directly.

[burndog]

I don't do any automated mail outs, but I will keep that in mind. At work, around Christmas we send an end of the year type greeting out. I will remember not to do it in pdf.

Well, thanks to all of your help I am now much more proficient at making tiny multi-page pdfs. It is getting much more predictable, which I like. In the past I never had to worry about small proofs, as most files would be burned to CD or a proof would have been printed, or maybe uploaded to a ftp site. If I ever got stuck with a file over 5mb and had to email it I would simply create a jpeg of it to keep the size down to email.

Thanks guys!