Placed PDF files in Illustrator 30.3 size issue

Forum|Forum|21 hours ago
May 8, 2026
3 respuestas
36 visualizaciones

Created many small files and saved them to PDF. When I attempted to place (link) these PDF files into a single template for final film output, several were the wrong size. Some of the originals were actually revisions of existing files, and the originals were the correct size. Did not use the options when placing. All jobs consisted of a single art board with no off-artboard items. The art board did not contain bleeds. Given the cost of image setter film, this was a costly mistake.

During one of the place operations, I selected multiple PDF files to be placed, one of the placed image appeared extremely small, less than 2 x 2, when in reality it should have been letter size. Deleted it and they tried again, and it was the proper size.

Harshika Verma

Community Manager

Hi @JamesSommer,

Thank you for reaching out, and I’m sorry to hear that you are experiencing an issue with the size of PDF files after placing them in Illustrator. We will do our best to help you resolve this.

Could you please record and share a short video of your workflow for a better understanding of the issue?

Additionally, please share the following details:

Your operating system
The version of Illustrator installed on your machine
Whether you are dragging the image into a defined frame or placing it directly

Once we have these details, we’ll be happy to investigate this further and assist you accordingly.

Thanks,
Harshika

J

JamesSommerAutor

Participant

Illustrator 30.3, Windows 10.

Had a number of letter-size PDF files that I had created. All single color designs and some were based on previous designs which used the same style and format. For film output I created a multi art board file with six empty letter-sized art boards, 3 across and 2 down. Using the place command, linked, no options, I copied the six designs and then pasted into the new document.My intention was to output by ignoring art boards so that my final film size would be approximately 22 x 25.5. Have been using this method for years with no issues. During the place operation one of the placed images was noticeable smaller. I deleted this image and did a single place and the size was good. After output one of the six designs was 3 mm smaller than expected and it was based on another design in the file which did output properly. Checking the six art board file I could see that this one design was 3mm smaller which I did not catch initially. Opened the offending PDF in Acrobat and the size was listed correctly, letter size. There were no raster effects in the files, strictly line art which one would see on a cosmetic bottle for example. Have been unable to duplicate the issue.

Abhishek Rao

Community Manager

Hi @JamesSommer,

Thanks for sharing the additional details. I understand how concerning this is. I tried reproducing the issue on Illustrator 30.3 running on Windows 11 using a similar multi-artboard linked PDF placement workflow, but I was unable to replicate the scaling problem on my end.

Could you please try updating to Illustrator 30.4 and then test the workflow again to see if the issue still occurs? If the problem persists, please also try manually resetting Illustrator preferences by following the steps shown in this video and let us know if that helps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfO7Ixi28oM&t=24s

Please share your observations after testing so we can continue investigating this further if needed.

Best,
Abhishek