InDesign file size is enormous

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
April 11, 2025
3 replies
429 views

I've got a really basic indesign file that I'm using to present visual concepts.

It contains links to, not embedded, PSD and other INDD files.

For some daft reason, this has resulted the file size becoming 2.67gb.

When I use Save As to try and mitigate this, it roughly halves the file size. but that's still ridiculously large for a file that's just displaying links to other files.

This feels like a very old bug that has never been resolved judging by other posts from users over the years.

Has a solution ever been found?

Bug

rob day

Community Expert

Here’s the metadata scipt from @Dave Creamer of IDEAS link—I moved it to Dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/8qx0xhghw9vmpdooiojxt/AFf99mh2-teh8xn-JdkTtaU?rlkey=gkle0nou69ccakxzdj6qs0cew&dl=0

Dave Creamer of IDEAS

Community Expert

To answer your question, no--I do not believe it has been fixed. It doesn't happen to everyone or even all the time to the same person, so problems like that can be hard to track down.

Try saving as IDML. Also, make sure your images are not grossly oversized and scalled down in InDesign (check out the effective resolution for the PSD files.)

Here is a link to one of the many posts for the metadate problem:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/huge-pdf-file-after-exporting-from-project-with-psd-file/td-p/11916602

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

D

defaultrjaomfiv0pg5Author

Participating Frequently

Saving as an IDML has reduce the file size to 459KBs. Though trying to open it from there has crashed InDesign.

The PSDs are quite small, low rest photos with graphics for mocking up onto surfaces.

INDD linked files are larger in terms of scale as the final outputs will be exported for large scale print. But these are of course scaled down on the INDD presentation deck I've created that's got this enormously bloated file size.