Long-standing regression: Adobe Bridge generates excessively large PDF contact sheets — still unresolved in 2026

I am a professional architectural photographer with over 25 years of experience, and Adobe Bridge has been an essential part of my photographic workflow for many years.

I am reporting a long-standing issue with the Adobe Bridge Output module that has a significant impact on my daily work: PDF contact sheets are generated with disproportionately large file sizes, even when relatively low resolution and image quality settings are selected.

This is particularly frustrating because earlier versions of Adobe Bridge were capable of producing significantly smaller PDFs using comparable settings.

Evidence of the regression

This issue has already been documented by other Adobe users.

One published comparison demonstrates that the same 30 JPEG images, arranged across two A4 pages at 150 ppi and image quality 8, produced:

• Adobe Bridge 2022: 386 KB

• Adobe Bridge 2023: 4,529 KB

That represents an increase of approximately 1,073% in file size without a corresponding change in the output requirements.

These are results reported by another user, not measurements from my own system.

Other photographers have continued reporting similar problems in subsequent versions, including reports in 2026.

Impact on professional workflows

As an architectural photographer, I regularly need to produce PDF contact sheets for client image selection, presentations and project reviews.

These documents should be compact, easy to share by email and visually suitable for reviewing photographs.

Instead, Adobe Bridge produces unnecessarily large PDFs, forcing photographers to use additional software to compress the output or revert to older versions of Bridge.

Neither is an acceptable long-term solution for a professional application distributed through a paid Creative Cloud subscription.

Expected behaviour

Adobe Bridge should:

1. Generate efficiently compressed PDF contact sheets appropriate to the selected image resolution and quality.

2. Produce reasonably consistent file sizes when exporting the same images with identical settings.

3. Respect the selected resolution and image quality without unexpectedly increasing file sizes.

4. Offer predictable, professional-quality PDF output without requiring additional compression software.

Requested action

I would appreciate a technical response from the Adobe Bridge engineering team addressing the following:

• Has the PDF file-size regression been formally identified and reproduced?

• Is there an existing bug-tracking reference for this issue?

• Is a correction currently planned?

• Why have users continued to report this problem for several years without a reliable solution?

• Can Adobe provide a verified workaround that does not require downgrading to an older version?

Adobe Bridge is an important professional tool, and the ability to create efficiently compressed PDF contact sheets should be a fundamental, reliable feature.

I would appreciate a substantive technical update rather than another generic troubleshooting recommendation.

Thank you.

Joas Souza
Architectural & Aerial Photographer
https://joasphotographer.com