Participant

Answered

Saving Illustrator as PDF without the hidden layers

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
May 31, 2016
3 replies
20636 views

We have roughly 55cards that all have the exact same text. The titles and backgrounds differ among the cards. So I've made just one AI with the different backgrounds and all the text as one copy in a layer on top.

Now I can just hide each background layer and save as PDF. But even unchecking preserve editing capabilities, the file sizes let me know that it is still including the images and backgrounds for all the hidden layers. Doing a quick test and deleting all the hidden layers brings the file sizes done considerably.

I was under the impression that saving as a PDF without editing capabilities only saved what was needed for that particular PDF. It seems I was wrong. Do I just have to keep deleting the hidden layers for each copy?

problem

Correct answer Mike_Gondek10189183

Make separate layers for you copy versions, then hide the layer(s) you do not want to go into PDF, and use this settings. Though this says print layers, apples to making of PDFs also..

You also need to turn off Illustrator editing capabilities in the save dialog when making your pdf.

Mike_Gondek10189183

Correct answer

Community Expert

Make separate layers for you copy versions, then hide the layer(s) you do not want to go into PDF, and use this settings. Though this says print layers, apples to making of PDFs also..

You also need to turn off Illustrator editing capabilities in the save dialog when making your pdf.

D

danh88250178

Participant

This didn't work for me. I had a 19MB file with the print visible layers only. I then deleted the hidden layer, and the file dropped to 70KB.

The only thing that worked when saving a copy with the hidden layer, oddly, was to choose compatibility = Acrobat 8, with no standard.

Choosing PDF-X-4:2010 led to a 600KB file, and choosing PDF-X-1a:2001 led to a 19MB file again. In every case, all option checkboxes were unchecked.

Suffice it to say, the export is buggy. The standard has nothing to do with simply leaving the hidden layer out of the exported file. When the hidden layer takes 19MB after being excluded, it's not working.

On top of this, when printing the 19MB pdf with acrobat the hidden layer does not print, but when printing with Chrome, it does. I'll blame the buggy PDF rendering of Chrome for that, but on the other hand, you could say there's a "broken" layer in there if Illustrator says it wasn't included, but somehow something was.

T

travis_2860

Participant

Acrobat 8 option worked for me! Literally nothing else did, this is easy to save into a preset too, so this is the easiest solution I've discovered. Thanks!

D

d0nut247

Inspiring

just use the PDF/X1-a:2001 setting and it will nuke all the dead stuff and shrink the file by leaving those hidden bits out.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

It still leaves some stuff in.

If I save a file with 3 layers, 2 hidden I get 1,3 mb when saved as PDF/X-1a:2001.

If I delete the hidden layers and save the file as PDF/X-1a:2001 the file becomes 596 KB.

D

d0nut247

Inspiring

would using a custom flattener preset make a difference, like the pass4press 'job options' settings.?

Just because If I were doing it, I'd want to try and get it done without the extra step through acrobat if i could.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

You can do that in Acrobat.

Save the file with the hidden layers in Illustrator with "Create Acrobat Layers from Top-Level Layers" checked.

In Acrobat:

Save as other... > Optimized PDF and in the Discard User Data check > Discard hidden Layer content and flatten visible layers.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded