Preserve layers but remove extra artboards in PDF

[Mr. Sun-shine]

I'm creating a series of packaging labels in a single illustrator file for a client with artboards for each label.

Once the art is finished, the multiple (9) page PDF document is far too large for the client to handle.

I'd like to be able to export each label/artboard into it's own PDF while:

1) preserving layers (dieline MUST be on it's own layer)

2) removing all of the other artboards and art (as saving as X-4:2010 does)

I've tried exporting as a print ready PDF and extracting the pages in Acrobat, but the other artboards are preserved in every exported file - each resulting PDF file is still huge.

I've also gone through the motions of deleting all the artboards and art for all but the label I want -  then saving individual files this way - for each and every artboard. This is really time consuming though.

This comes up a lot, so any tricks would help.

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

Save As > in Options, Select "Save each artboard to a separate file"

Or

In Acrobat: Extract all pages as separate files

[Mr. Sun-shine]

Saving as individual AI files is the way to go with this. It's not the route I would have looked for, so thanks for that answer!

As for Extracting pages in Acrobat as separate files, this does not work as the extra artboards are still preserved in the individual exported files - thus the pages are still very large.