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7
78651218
Participant
March 11, 2026
Question

Saving PDF's from Illustrator are suddenly massive in size

  • March 11, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 68 views

I frequently save large, high resolution PDF imposition pages from Illustrator for digital printing. These pages contain multiple linked PDF files. Using a PDF preset, these pages have zero image compression and they do maintain Illustrator editing capabilities. These pages have typically ranged in size from about 1MG to maybe up to 20MG and I have saved tens of thousands of these files over the years. Up until late 2025, this method worked flawlessly, however with one of the newer Illustrator updates, now when I save a PDF using the same standard preset that’s worked for many many years, the size in 10X larger than they would normally have been. Something changed in the latest version(s) of Illustrator. As a workaround, I have to reopen the same page(s) in Acrobat and simply re-save it, which then shrinks it back to the size it would normally be. I never had to do this until late 2025.

This is not an issue with maintaining Illustrator editing capabilities, or removing artwork compression. Illustrator is adding in additional data when saving the PDF that it apparently didn’t do before.

 

Assistance is appreciated.

      2 replies

      Abhishek Rao
      Community Manager
      Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      March 13, 2026

      Hi ​@78651218,

       

      Thanks for sharing the details. Could you please confirm the exact version of Illustrator where you’re noticing this change? When you mention the issue started around late 2025 updates, I just want to confirm if you are referring to Illustrator 2026 (version 30.x) or another specific version.

      It would also help if you could share a sample Illustrator file where this behavior occurs. We can test it by saving the PDF from Illustrator and then re-saving it in Acrobat to compare the file sizes and investigate further.

      Please upload the file to a cloud service such as Google Drive or Dropbox and share the link here. If the file is confidential, you can also send it to me via direct message on the community.

       

      Looking forward to your update.

      Abhishek

      7
      78651218Author
      Participant
      March 27, 2026

      Here’s the PDF preset, attached in zip format.

       

      Illustrator version 30.2.1

      Mac OS 15.7.4

       

      This issue happens with any Illustrator file, especially with a linked raster image.

       

      Thank you.

      Harshika Verma
      Community Manager
      Harshika VermaCommunity Manager
      Community Manager
      March 27, 2026

      Thank you for sharing the details. We are checking the issue with the product team and will get back to you with any update or if we need any further information.

       

      Thank you so much for your collaboration. We will try our best to investigate the issue. 
       

      Thanks,

      Harshika

      Monika Gause
      Community Expert
      Monika GauseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 11, 2026

      What happens when you uncheck “Save in background” in the preferences and then save as again?

      7
      78651218Author
      Participant
      March 11, 2026

      “Save in background” was never checked in the preset.

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