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A
asee23455
Participating Frequently
March 31, 2013
Answered

Embedded images result in enormous filesize

  • March 31, 2013
  • 4 replies
  • 39512 views

I'm using Illustrator to crop and arrange a number of raster images. However, I'm starting to have file management problems, because the Illustrator files quickly balloon in size.

Example: I got public domain jpg image of a deer off the Wikimedia Commons. This jpg image is 0.35MB. I opened up a new Illustrator document, placed and embedded the image, and saved the document (with the 'pdf compatible box' unchecked). The resulting Illustrator file is 7.7MB in size, over 20 times the size of the embedded jpg image.

I've looked around these fora, but other than the 'pdf compatible box', I couldn't find any good solutions. Could anyone suggest a workaround? Or is there some other option or preference that I could tweak? I need to use embedded images rather than links, but the files are getting out of control (>100MB).

The screen capture at the end of this post shows the situation. In the top folder in the screencapture, the image file is highlighted, so you can see the filesize. In the lower folder in the screencapture, the Illustrator file is highlighted, so you can see it's filesize. Then you can see the open Illustrator document on the right.

(edit: the forum software is no longer allowing me to add images, so I've put the screencapture on Google Drive here:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0Hoxcl5zTEtX0d3MlFQWnhSWEU/edit?usp=sharing)

The .ai file with the embedded image is here:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0Hoxcl5zTEtMGhiOVRnMnhSVGM/edit?usp=sharing

I'm using Illustrator CS6 64-bit, v16.0.3 on Windows 8-64.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,

Tim

    Correct answer zippidi

    I don't know if you ever got a reasonable answer from these so called know-it-all f@ck wits but the solution I found was quite simple.

    Cropped your image down in Photoshop to the size that it will be displayed on your Illustrator page at the appropriate PPI.

    I was having the same issue and wondered why embedding 7 images resulted in an increase in size of 150mb even though each image size on the page was only 30mm x 30mm.

    As an experiment, I cropped them down to this size in PS and it worked.

    4 replies

    Q
    Qualtry24584829br5v
    Participant
    June 16, 2022

    This is an old thread but the problem still exists. Using linked files is probably the safest solution though not always the most convenient. To simplify the process just use the package feature. It will automatically place your illustrator file, linked images, & fonts in a subfolder. Make sure you don't have PDF compatibily checked when saving your file. So long as the structure of that subfolder is maintained you shouldn't run into problems with links.

    There is an option not mentioned here that might be better for those who want embedded images & a single file. Instead of saving your document as an illustrator file, save it as a PDF. You will be presented with a dialog box that contains various settings for the PDF you're about to save. On the general tab make sure to check "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities". On the compression tab use one of the jpeg options for color & greyscale bitmap images. This is the key to keeping the embedded images at a reasonable size. It may also be helpful to use downsampling to further decrease file size. For example, if you're sending a the file to a print shop that only prints at 300 dpi, there is no sense in embedding 600 dpi images. The down side to this solution is imaged degradation. Each time you open and save the document using this method the images will be recompressed. Over time that may become an issue.

     
    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Monika GauseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    June 16, 2022
    quoteThere is an option not mentioned here that might be better for those who want embedded images & a single file. Instead of saving your document as an illustrator file, save it as a PDF. You will be presented with a dialog box that contains various settings for the PDF you're about to save. On the general tab make sure to check "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities".

    By @Qualtry24584829br5v

     

    The images will only be embedded in the PDF part of the file. When you open it in Illustrator, the placed files will not be there. You can extract them from the PDF, but that will require extra work and the knowledge of how to do it. And you will have the same problem over and over again after every edit.

    Z
    zippidiCorrect answer
    Inspiring
    November 22, 2016

    I don't know if you ever got a reasonable answer from these so called know-it-all f@ck wits but the solution I found was quite simple.

    Cropped your image down in Photoshop to the size that it will be displayed on your Illustrator page at the appropriate PPI.

    I was having the same issue and wondered why embedding 7 images resulted in an increase in size of 150mb even though each image size on the page was only 30mm x 30mm.

    As an experiment, I cropped them down to this size in PS and it worked.

      corys53234175
      corys53234175
      Participant
      December 1, 2023

      This is the best solution here, thanks!

      Steve Fairbairn
      Steve Fairbairn
      Inspiring
      April 1, 2013

      This behaviour is entirely normal. The pixel information becomes part of the Illustrator file and is therefore in Illustrator format.

      To see the real uncompressed size of your JPEG files, try saving them in other formats, for example uncompressed tiff.

      You will see that the Illie files are not really bloated, it’s just that the JPEG compression has been removed from the images, which is why you should keep your images linked for as long as possible.

      Why do you think you need to embed the images?

      A
      asee23455Author
      Participating Frequently
      April 1, 2013

      Hmm. That's a good point. One that I hadn't considered. I opened up that jpg, then used Office Picture Manager to export the file in various other formats. The png is 4.8MB while the bmp is 5.6MB, and the tiff is 6.7. All of those are still smaller than the 7.7MB of the .ai file, though only by 10-30% rather than 2000%. So compression does explain most of the ai filesize. Perhaps that last 1.0MB is just Illustrator overhead?

      But you know, when I save the .ai file, there is a checkbox for "use compressed", and I left that checked. So it seems that whatever compression Illustrator is using, it can't be doing much for images.

      Jacob Bugge
      Community Expert
      Jacob BuggeCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 31, 2013

      Tim,

      When you File>Place the image, you may tick Link.

      With this, Illy uses the image as an external file that only appears in the document, and the AI filesize remains low.

      A
      asee23455Author
      Participating Frequently
      March 31, 2013

      True, but I really want the images embedded, not linked.

      Jacob Bugge
      Community Expert
      Jacob BuggeCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 31, 2013

      Tim,

      One reason for bloating filesize is that when you start messing with JPEGs you lose the compression, so it is a bit like trying to fly with liquid helium still in the tank without letting it inflate the balloon.

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