Hi Larry Yes that's true. I am also using IAN symbols as well as creating my own symbols. That doesn't seem to have any bearing on pdf size. Should it? Maybe I'm missing something, Thanks Jan~n ... View more

Hi Mylenium. I'm not asking for a solution that's different from one "good enough for the rest of the world". I am coming from a place of ignorance about what the rest of the world normally does and that's why I'm asking for help. I don't fully understand your answer. Are you talking about the illustrator file or the InDesign file when you say "Flatten the file manually, then export a PNG or PDF (which essentially makes it a JPEG in a PDF wrapper)"? Also, because of the type of artwork it is, it does need to be very sharp to see the detail. This is the type of illustration I'm doing: http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/wetlandinfo/site/ScienceAndResearch/ConceptualModels/Conceptintromore/Lacustrine/NonFloodplainRockLake.html only my pictures are even more detailed. The InDesign file will have several of these illustrations as well as text and photographs - in all about 12 A4 pages. The pdf that gets made from the InDesign file will eventually be viewed on the website and also downloadable for desktop printing as a booklet. I need it to be as small as possible while still retaining a crisp look to the illustrations. Thanks Jan~n ... View more

Hi Scott Thanks for taking an interest. The artboard is A4 size but the artwork doesn't fill it. It takes up a third to a half of the area. It has no raster elements and it was all done in Illustrator, nothing imported from CAD etc. It is a very detailed illustration with many repeated elements and many layers - a sort of "Where's Wally" illustration if that helps you visualise it. I have quite a few of these and I just did an experiment on another one that's 33Mb. This time I did uncheck the illustrator editing capability and managed to get it down to 11Mb which is much better (thank you). I'd prefer if it was even smaller however. Is there any point in my making some of the artwork (repeating elements) into symbols? I could do that but I've been told it doesn't help with the pdf size. And I have another question. This artwork has to be placed in Adobe InDesign and that InDesign file has to be pdfed as well. So should I place the illustrator file as .ai or as a pdf and if the answer is as a .ai then is there a way of minimising the file size from InDesign? I will of course compress all InDesign raster elements to the max. Thanks again. Jan ... View more

Thanks Sanjay. That was the first thing I tried. It hardly made any difference. It reduced a file of 29Mb down to 27Mb. So that's not the answer in this case. The artwork is very detailed and has many small repeated elements. I feel that has something to do with the problem, if that helps. I have the feeling that pdf for is good for reducing the size of raster illustrations but it doesn't seem to have much impact on vector illustrations. ... View more