images look SO pixelated when I export to PDF

[anagallardoc]

Im having toruble exporting a PDF from illustrator.
For years and years i've exported my PDFs selecting "Smallest file size" > "compression" > "image quality > MAXIMUM" this is how i get -light weight, high quality-
Today i did the same thing and the images look SO pixelated...  i can't figure out what's happening...

When i select "smallest file size", a warning icon appears that states "To view you icon in actual size, use acrobat 1.6 or later. For other versions, the artwork is scaled and appears 10 times smaller"
Acrobat and Illustrator are up to date...  can someone help me?????

[Ton Frederiks]

The warning means that you are using a large canvas document, that allows you to create documents that are 10 times the size than was previously possible.

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/large-sized-canvas-troubleshooting.html#save-as-pdf

What happens whe you copy and paste your artwork in a smaller dimensions document?

[Mike_Gondek]

Sounds like you have a very large artworkbounding box or canvase size, and if you made a PDF it would be large in file size and that preset has a safety net to scale it 10x smaller.

Try the Adobe PDF preset called