Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 1/6/2009

Question
Hi Kevin, I seriously have this problem making my PDF file from illustrator to
even smaller. Ok, I've done a 44 pages magazine in illustrator with lots of text
and images. And now I need to convert it to a "real small" PDF file for email and
put it online for clients to download. My target file size is 2mb, is that possible?
What should I do?? I've tried so many ways but still can't help!

Answer
Hi Jayvee,

You can attempt to make this 2 mb total but with the page count, you will be sacrificing all semblance of quality (ie. lo-res images, blurry text). The best option for web and e-mail usage is to use the PDF preset "smallest file size". But before you do that, make sure you document raster effects settings (under effects menu) is set to 72 dpi.

Honestly, this is a project more fitted for InDesign, but not everyone has access to it. InDesign would compress the document more effectively than Illustrator.

Also, with Illustrator you will have to assemble the individual pages in Acrobat to make a complete document. Im assuming you have not tried to create all 44 pages in one document somehow.

Thanks

Kevin