PDF File size Export issues

[Orsila]

Hi all.

I have been struggling the last few times to export my pdf's from Illustrator to an email size.

I need my files to be below 10 MB and it's just not exporting to that size.

I have ensured the following is done:

1.  Outlines of text is created

2. Rasterized my images. I even rasterized the whole document down to 72 ppi. 

3. Ensure all my images are linked and not embedded.

4. The document is compressed to 72 ppi when saved to PDF. 

5. I even changed my document preferences to 72 ppi. 

One day it is easy, the next day it's a struggle.

What am I doing wrong?

[Ton Frederiks]

Did you also uncheck the "Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities" option when saving? (only do this on a copy).

[Orsila]

Upon saving I have unchecked everything to see if that might help. 

[Monika Gause]

Are there a lot of images?

They will always be embedded in a PDF. 

If the PDF is meant for printing, then 72 ppi might not give you the expected quality

[Orsila]

There are about 10 images, some shapes and then just text. its only 3 pages in total. 

The document is to be sent via email only, so 72 ppi will be perfect as it will be viewed on clients screens and not printed. 

[Monika Gause]

How large are those images?

[Orsila]

Each image is between 1.5mb to 2mb.

[Monika Gause]

On your harddisk?

So in Illustrator they fill the page?

It might just not work to get your PDF unter 10 MB. Did you already reduce the image quality in the PDF export dialog box? stronger compression?

[Orsila]

I played around now and managed to get it to 8mb still with high-quality images etc. 

Thank you so much for the assistance, but taking a break and having patience paid off now. 

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

You can also try Acrobat to reduce the filesize.

File > Save as Other > Reduced Size PDF...

[Orsila]

Let me try and see what that does.