I have a user that is concerned that, for a particular job, the file size of the PDF output has increased, from an average of around 200k to 800k. I don’t have any explanation why, and the PDFs all look normal, open fine, etc.
These are output via Separation in the Output Preset. My only theory is that the 800k files were “split” from a much larger original data set/content set and that the various PDF internals (the look up tables, etc.) are repeated in the smaller, split files and that’s why the files are bigger.
Are there any settings that control resolution or file size of PDFs? I couldn’t find anything in the Output Preset dialogs.
The first to check, of course, would be art assets, especially variable art assets used in these templates. Make sure that none of those have changed.
Beyond that, what else is different here? Is this the same data? Same version of Connect? Same processing in the workflow?
There are some newer features in the PDF options for the Output Preset that may help improve this or even account for the change your’e seeing. Check the Optimize tab and take a look at optimizing for fast web view or optimizing the images there.
Optimize for fast web view is not meant for this. It’s only useful for (very) large PDF’s where you want to be able to start reading before the whole document has downloaded. So it’s best to ignore that option.
The other options suggested by AlbertsN make sense.
The other options to optimize PDF’s (new in 2020.2) can affect the size significantly. But there are also other options for PDF output that affect size. For instance, PDF/A, and embed all fonts. These will not make your PDF look any different (although PDF/A does cause Adobe Reader to show a banner).
I don’t expect our output PDF’s to retain large structures from the input or intermediate files that are not needed in that file. We aim the output driver to optimize that.