Extreme File Sizes with Linked Raster Images

Last week, I ran into what seems to be massive file bloat when I am saving files with linked raster images that’s making my files completely unusable. These are stable, well-tested files that weren’t a problem previously. It’s happened with other files recently, but this time I did some testing.

This particular workflow that I’ve been using for years is for wallpaper, where panels are 25” wide at variable heights. I keep a library of prepped pattern tiles that get imported into the Illustrator file and tiled to fill the height and width of the full panel count. These are a mix of vector and raster at various sizes.

Depending on material, there are two layouts - overlap (panels overlap the previous by 0.75”) and buttseam (panels meet at the edges). Initial setup for overlap has one artboard for each panel where they lay over each other to pull bleed and overlap from the neighboring panel. Buttseam has 2 panels per artboard which are right next to each other so that bleed comes from the neighboring panels. They’re saved to pdf with a specific preset.

These pdfs are then imported into InDesign templates. This step:

1) Gives the panels registration dots for cutting that match a premade library of die files.

2) Cuts off the excess length of the crop marks from Illustrator.

3) Places the overlap setup in a 2-up format for the printers.

For this job, InDesign refused to import my PDF from Illustrator. It was then that I saw my PDF was a whopping 3.38 GB in Finder. An older job file from May of 2025 that’s from Illustrator version 29.5 is 192 MB - same linked jpg, same panel height, same panel count as the current job. So, I ran a test in Illustrator 2025 (now 29.8 after updates), and it was also 3.38 GB. Then I tried Illustrator 2024 (28.7) and got 189 MB.

I also tested this with a vector pattern for which I found an older file from the same timeframe, and the new file was exactly the same size as older one. So, this just seems to be the raster files, and I’m seeing this drastic rise in file size between my 29.5 and 29.8 versions. Did something change in the way files are saved in the updates to 2025 that’s carrying through to 2026?

Notes:

Raster files all use the same linked jpg: 75” x 47.28” at 150ppi; 89.4mb in Finder

All of the tests were saved with the same pdf preset.

All of the files were created on the same machine - iMac (2020) on Sequoia 15.7.4