Reduce INDD file Size

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
September 28, 2025
5 replies
653 views

The way IndDesign works, increases the file size each saving time. File become unbearable and difficult to process, even in fast computers... It would be nice to have a chance to reduce the file size without recurring to the 'save as' method, that, sometimes doensn't work either.

Feature request

Correct answer Sergio Venturini

I remade the whole file. I would state that I think you are right. Placing images solved the whole thing, but also, It would be great to state that having placed low size files with huge resolution (that was my mistake) somehow made InDesign process the files in a way the indd file got giga sized. Then, the way InDesign manages old versions embeded in the same project file, made impossible to correct this in future versions, even deleting the images and placing them instead.

Thank you all, @Willi Adelberger @Mike Witherell @rob day @Eugene Tyson @tonks_the_auror the problem has been solved.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Sergio,

In my experience, the biggest factor in file-bloat is the mistake of File > Place -ing graphics without first opening them in Photoshop, adjusting the size/and/ppi to match the expected use size on the page in InDesign. In other words, a lot of images default to 72ppi. They benefit when you re-size them to the designed physical size, but also set the ppi to (usually) 300 ppi (common for printing). Doing this first, and then import/Place into InDesign allows InDesign to create much smaller image previews for the linked file. This directly affects file bloat.

Many say it is better to leave the original scan alone and do not down-sample it, and I agree with that. But you can still freely change the Image > Image Size ppi to something higher like 300 instead of 72ppi. This doesn't resample the image, allowing you to keep the original pixels. There is no image degradation; yet InDesign experiences less file bloat.

The other commenters have already also mentioned doing a Save-As from time to time. They have also mentioned doing an export to .IDML and re-opening the .IDML to a new, cleaner, InDesign file. File > Placing; not drag-n-dropping; not embedding; all those are good practices, too.

Mike Witherell

Willi Adelberger

Community Expert

I think it is insane to open any file in Photoshop before placing it in InDesign as you will destroy many parts of the content. Let any file be original linked.

Mike Witherell

Community Expert

Really? What are you seeing getting destroyed?

Mike Witherell

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @Sergio Venturini , The 3.7 GB file size you mentioned in your other thread is not normal even if you were embedding the 3 or 4 images. In addition to the thread @leo.r linked to with the script cleaner, there’s this, which goes into more depth on the bug:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/my-whole-hypenation-disappeared/m-p/15524052#M636861

rob day

Community Expert

Sorry here is the metadata link:

https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/file-size-is-too-big/td-p/9370587#10084949

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Eugene Tyson

Community Expert

I work on files with 300mb+ and never have much slow down, might switch Display Performance down to lowest, or middle, maybe that could help you, if you're only working on the text, there's no need to display the images.

And I work with files with the images always embedded, never have an issue with this workflow.

When I switch to overprint preview or high quality preview - then I get a bit of slow down.

Just some tips to get you going when file sizes are unavoidable.