Reducing AI file size, without converting to another file type CS6

Forum|Forum|12 years ago
September 12, 2013
2 replies
25118 views

I designed artwork for a large banner (84" x 32") so my AI artboard is that large. As you can imagine, with all the text and graphics I used, this file size is 22.8 MB. I need to email this art to the printer, but the file size is too large to email. How do i go about reducing the file size in AI so it still maintains large format print resolution? Will saving to a PDF lose the print quality? I'm at a dead end... help!

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M

mec_os

Inspiring

pdf's are fine for printing, just read over the compression settings.

but i'd recommend you subscribe to some online storage service like drop box, and just email them a download link.

A

AInewbie2013Author

Participant

That is a good idea. I have a dropbox account i could use.

What PDF compression settings do you recommend in this case?

M

mec_os

Inspiring

for pdf settings, you'll have to experiment a bit. for starting out, i'd try the illustrator default and uncheck all the options in the General section. so basically if your file is layer and vector heavy it might reduce it a bit without sacrificing quality.

if your file is image heavy, you might have to go to the next step and go to the compression section and downsample your images. because this is a banner, you don't need very high resolution. you could possible downsample to 100dpi and be ok. but start out at 200dpi and chose a compression of your chosing. check the output file and make sure the quality is to your liking.