Expert: Amy - 10/5/2009

Question
Hi Amy,

I designed a flyer for my unit and our sister unit wants to use the same flyer while having the freedom to make changes as needed.  Obviously, emailing a 117 MB file is not going to work.  I'm using CS3, is there any way to compress it to a suitable email attachment size?  They would need the original Illustrator file, not a JPG.

Thank you for any help you can offer!
-Amber

Answer
Hi Amber,

Try saving as a PDF. That will help.

1. Save As...
2. Save as type --> PDF
3. Name the file and click Save.
4. Choose Adobe PDF Preset --> High Quality Print  (at the top of the window)
5. Check the [ ] Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities box.

6. And click Save PDF button at the bottom.

As long as she has the fonts on her machine, she'll be able to make changes.

The file should be a manageable size, too. I can't promise an absolute size because that depends on the content of the flyer. If it's still too big to email, in Step 4, after choosing "High Quality Print" go to the Compression options (left menu) and change the Color Bitmap image downsampling from 300 to something smaller... and the Quality from Maximum to High. Again, depending on the content of your flyer, you might have to change the Grayscale Image compression settings, too.

Let me know if this helps!
-A