Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities no longer working since last 2 updates!

[Luke38678566vzli]

Usually when unticking this box when saving a pdf, the file size would greatly be reduced. A 1gb file down to 200mb ish.  Or a 50mb file down to 5mb meaning its easy to send to customer by email. This is no longer the case, it make zero difference to the size.

I'm having to use Illustrator 2024 to do this as the last update to 2025 stopped it working and 2026 doesnt work either.

Luke

[Doug A Roberts]

What do you see when opening the exported PDF in Illustrator? Is your layer structure still there, or is it comprised of clip groups?

[Luke38678566vzli]

Hi,

Compramised like it should be. Random groupings and other things.  All the layers are gone too. 

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Luke38678566vzli,

Thanks for reaching out. Could you share a link to a sample AI and PDF file along with screenshots of the export settings used after uploading it to a file-sharing service, so I can check it further with the team?

Looking forward to hearing from you.
Anubhav

[Luke38678566vzli]

Sorry for late reply, was away from work. Here are a couple of files.  These have 6 copies each, I would do around 100-120 for a batch.  The more copies the bigger the gap in file size.

Luke

[Luke38678566vzli]

12up

[Doug A Roberts]

Can you share a file with Illustrator content enabled to compare?

What PDF settings are you using?

[Luke38678566vzli]

Our files are quite private, ill see if i can make one, but as you see from this image, it does do something but not as much as before.  Then when i create a batch with 150 of this file its the same as a normal pdf on 2024.

[Monika Gause]

If "Save in background" is still turned on in the preferences, try and turn it off.

[Luke38678566vzli]

Ok just tried this on a batch and it seems to work! I'm going to try on other files just to make sure.  Thank you!!

[Luke38678566vzli]

Unfortunatly this hasn't worked, still getting 1.5gb files instead of 250mb.

[Luke38678566vzli]

The problem seems to be the way illustrator is handling images(JPG) 

Illustrator 2026 normal save 2.25GB!! vs 2024 1.08GB

Illustrator 2026 no edit save 1.18GB!! vs 2024 no edit 8.1MB!!!!!!!!! thats over 1GB difference.

For vectors only

Illustrator 2026 normal save 1.06 GB vs 2024 811 MB So slightly larger files

Illustrator 2026 no edit save 274 MB vs 2024 no edit 271 MB! So no real difference to npreserves editing unticked

[Ton Frederiks]

Maybe you should create a PDF Preset that has the edit option turned off.

You can do that in Edit > Adobe PDF Presets...

Select one you would like to use, click the New (+ sign) and turn off Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities

Save it under an easy to recognize name.

When exporting, use that preset.

[Luke38678566vzli]

How would that change the outcome? It just creates a shortcut, which I do for when i compress files which isn't an option here.

With the experiment above it is clear Adobe have changed something when handling JPGS.  The standard file is almost double the size of what it used to be.  Thats crazy. The none preserve editing capabilities is silly, 1.18 gigabites compared to 8.1 megabites! Thats not even on the same planet.

[Ton Frederiks]

It looks like you are embedding the images in your Illustrator file. If they are linked, make sure the Include Linked Files option when saving the .ai file is unchecked.

[Luke38678566vzli]

always have embedded images when making these files for our printer.  I have changed nothing in the way i do things apart from the illustrator version.  The last 2 update for 2025 and 2026 are not handling images the same way as they used to.

[Ton Frederiks]

Looking at your examples, is that what they contain, repeating elements?

If so, you can dramatically reduce the filesize by making such an element into a Static Symbol and use that Static Symbol for the repeat.

[Luke38678566vzli]

..They are a repeat of .jpgs (not sure these can be symbols, vectors yes) and vector ontop. Sent to a large format printer. I used to get files go from over 1gb to 150mb before the updates, so it wasnt a problem. It seems the jpgs are the issue, Illustrator isnt reducing the size of these like it used to.  All the files need to be in the pdf for the rip software.

[Ton Frederiks]

Yes, images, vectors they can all be symbols. Important is that they are Static symbols.

They will only be defined once and referred to as many times as needed.

Static symbols keep their behaviour in a PDF as a Form XObject that can be reused many times.

[Luke38678566vzli]

Cool, but it's easier and more productive for me to load up Illustrator 2024 than to go down this roote.  It would be nice if Adobe just undid this mess they made it put it back to how it was.  Hoping an update will fix this!

[Ton Frederiks]

You can also give it a try in 2024, it will certainly reduce the filesize.

[Luke38678566vzli]

Heres an image of the results