In design file too large. Need to reduce size without losing quality

Forum|Forum|22 hours ago
February 8, 2026
5 replies
40 views

Hello! So I have designed a 71 page, 36 spread that contains all pdf images linked downloaded from Photoshop at 300 dpi. This is a portfolio so it contains mostly photos but I am having problems exporting this file at 20 mg currently the smallest I can go without ruining the quality is adobe print pdf at 150 compression( kept it at high) for both color and grey scale and the file is about 41 mg. I played around with the settings in adobe acrobat specifically the pdf compressor and got it down to 20.1 but the quality of the photos were rly blurry. I compressed the pdf and optimised scan pages which got to the range of 20. However the standard of quality is not where it needs to be. This portfolio is to view both digital and printed but I save another version for printing so I will use that one bc have high resolution photos etc. But how do I get my digital portfolio down to 20 mg. I thought about changing all my photos to tiff or psd bc I read make it smaller but honestly I am rly confused . Also currently all my pdf images are below 100 mb linked ( and total file right now is 26.1 mb indd

Thank you( sry if not detailed enough it my first post and noob at indesign)

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @Student question , With AcrobatPro you can audit the space usage of a PDF via Save As Other…>Optimize PDF. Check the space usage and make sure you don’t have unneeded document overhead (ie, excess metadata)

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

The print PDF is fine at export the images at 300 color/300 grayscale/1200 monochrome. (Although even that may be overkill depending on the printing press specs.)

For downloadable PDFs, 150-200 ppi is all you should need. Try converting all your color to RGB for the online version. (You won’t see much color change if your files are CMYK.)

Since the PDF is still too large, you just have too much content in a single PDF. Your choices are:

Live with the large PDF (40 mg is that large by today’s standards unless your audience is in an area not services by high-speed internet. Less that 0.2% of the USA still use modems.)
Break the file into logical sections as separate PDFs.

David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)

BobLevine

Community Expert

Beyond what Scott and Leo have said, when exporting your PDF from InDesign make sure you DON’T have “Preserve InDesign Editing Capabilities” enabled.

leo.r

Community Expert

pdf images linked downloaded from Photoshop
I thought about changing all my photos to tiff or psd

A side note:

There’s nothing inherently wrong in keeping images as PDF in your particular case, but it’s not a conventional way of saving images.

Normally, for high-quality output, you’d indeed save images as PSD or TIFF. (As a student, I’m sure you’ll learn more about it soon.) Regardless, it’s unlikely to affect the final PDF size in your case, so don’t spend time resaving them.

Other than that, as @Scott Falkner already implied, a 72-page PDF with hi-res images can easily reach 20+ MB in size.

Scott Falkner

Community Expert

What is the size of the spreads? How much of each page is image?

You are likely trying to fit ten gallows on water in a five gallon jug. At a certain size an image has be use a certain amount of storage. Lots of images at large sizes will require a lot of storage.

Is there a reason you need to keep the size down? What is important: size or quality? One has to be sacrificed for the other.

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