PDF Export File Size Issue

[Roger Ridpath]

Wondering if anyone in the community or at Adobe can answer a question about how XD is making PDF files and how to get the exported files smaller. I have a project with 21 artboards. On most of the artboards, I have a large image that I have applied a mask. When I generate a PDF of all 21 artboards the file is 142 MB. VERY LARGE. I've tried to use Acrobat Pro to reduce the file size with mostly no luck. I get a message that says images with mask applied were not reduced (or cropped to the artboard?) Can anyone explain how to get the file size smaller either using XD or Acrobat?

[Mihnea Ovidenie]

Hi,

I have some questions on this topic:

1. What version of XD are you using and on what OS?

2. How large is the image?

3. Are you using the same image in multiple places?

4. When you say you applied a mask to the image, did you perform a "Mask with shape" operation?

5. When you are using PDF, do you expect to zoom your images without losing quality since images are not zoomed like vectors? If yes, up to what level?

6. Is this an issue that was not present in previous versions of XD?

Cheers,

M.

[Roger Ridpath]

Mihnea - thank you for the response. I have relisted your questions along with my answers.

I have some questions on this topic:

1. What version of XD are you using and on what OS? XD: 0.6.28.10 Beta Mac OS 10.12.4 (16E195)

2. How large is the image? the images and some are as large as 4000x6000 pixels (notice It's more than a single image at this size)

3. Are you using the same image in multiple places? Yes - some as many as three times - so XD might be replicating exact image data in the file

4. When you say you applied a mask to the image, did you perform a "Mask with Shape" operation? YES

5. When you are using PDF, do you expect to zoom your images without losing quality since images are not zoomed like vectors? If yes, up to what level? Yes but only up to double the size before quality would drop

6. Is this an issue that was not present in previous versions of XD? I had not noticed this in XD in the past but that might be because I had not tried this exact same situation. But I believe it is a situation that I might run across again. I and a Friend of mine are finding some very interesting uses for XD that we would have used a different Adobe app for in the past.

[kevinneal01]

We are also seeing massive PDF file sizes.

Some pages are coming in at 250Mb, all 7 artboards together was 750Mb which is impossible for us to send out to clients to approve.

I have tried taking them into Acrobat and optimising, some pages drop right down to 1.5Mb yet others stay virtually the same for no obvious reason, the space audit on all of them says the space is 97 - 99 % images.

I have exported the same pages as PNG and they come out at less than 1Mb

Would be great to have an option to export low res PDF's for proofing

[Preran]

I am not sure as to why this is happening, but I can ask the support team to check and log a bug if necessary.

Those of you that are interested, please send me your Adobe ID, location, and phone number over a private message. Click my picture and use the Message button. We will get in touch with you for investigation.

Thanks,

Preran

[Mihnea Ovidenie · Accepted solution]

Hi all,

Based on your feedback, we will improve the PDF export in a future version of XD to optimize the size of exported PDF. I filed an enhancement request in our product backlog. I will let you know once this feature will be available for you to try.

Thanks again for your responses,

Kind regards,

M.

[cameronj77863246]

As of March 14th, 2018, I am experiencing the same problem. Is this a separate issue or has this issue not been resolved. If not, what is a timeline for smaller PDF exports? Thanks.

[nirmalbiswas]

Hi,

This is similar to one of the issues that we had recently. Each artboard was exporting at 20mb file size as PDF. We investigated and figured that this was due to one of the lines having 0.01 px as dash. Once we removed the dash figure to 0, the PDF was 180 kb only. Please check, this might solve your issue. 

[Roger Ridpath]

I have not found this any better at all. So my guess is not work has been done. The large file causes issues with exchanging files with clients. Since you are working on this issue I suggest that the Adobe XD team consider focusing on how users are or need to share work.

[MikeEscoMP]

Still no fixes for this problem.

I've been trying for days to reduce the PDF file size using other methods and none of them work.

I can use Acrobat Pro to optimize the file but it doesn't change the file size.
Even if I set the image quality to JPG Low, and set the resolution of images to 12ppi, the images will not be legible in the file PDF, but still no change to PDF filesize.

Stop ignoring this problem Adobe!

[Jennergy]

It's now November of 2019 and this issue still exists! HELP

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hi Jennergy,

We hope you have already upvoted this request on our UserVoice page: https://adobexd.uservoice.com/forums/353007-adobe-xd-feature-requests/suggestions/16653397-pdf-expor... If not, please submit your feedback and upvote the request to add your voice.

Thanks,

Harshika

[MikeEscoMP]

Honestly the solution to this problem is DON'T USE ADOBE XD.

Adobe clearly has no intention of fixing issues with it's products.

Figma is a much better design tool anyhow. It does export very large PDFs as well, but at least when you use Acrobat to Optimize the size it actually does it's job and compresses the file size.

[default22898241uqi9wf]

Is XD vectorizing all of the shapes and texts? Not sure but maybe this is what creating so much weight?

I did a quick workaround, even though it might not be a very "proper" one:
1. Name all boards in proper order (1, 2, 3...)
2. Export all boards in JPEG to a separate folder

3. (I am on Mac) Select all exported images --> right click --> quick actions --> create PDF
I suppose there are many ways to create a pdf from jpeg files, including Acrobat. The above way was the fastest and worked well for me.