Affinity Publisher resulting file sizes - HUGE

[Leslie A]

StrixCZ posted a similar question a year ago, but got no response. So, here I go. 

The file sizes created by Affinity 1.10.8 are ridiculous, and will most likely prevent me from saying goodbye to Adobe Cloud! I've spent hours trying to figure out why an InDesign document is 3.7 MB (with a 17 x 11 PSD placed for the image) and the exact document created from scratch in Publisher is 14.6 MB (using a jpeg NOT the PSD file.

The PDFs created by Publisher are also incredibly HUGE. I first imported the IDML; Publisher file created was 30.5 MB. Then, I imported the PDF created using InDesign, that file is 27.4 MB. I am glad I have not upgraded to Affinity suite 2.0, as it looks like ther is no way I can use Publisher with my workflow. All CMYK. I publish a 12" x 24" calendar, and the PDF created by Publisher is 221 MB, yet the PDF created by InDesign is 60 MB!

So unhappy about this, but those file sizes make it impossible to use the Affinity suite for the amount of work I do - I also create a digital magazine, and the .AFPUB files are much much larger than my .INDD files.

[MikeTO]

Hi Leslie. I don't find the file sizes too large and mine are very small. I have two large and complex books of several hundred pages each, both with several hundred photos. The afpub files are 4MB and 10MB. The 10MB file has very high-resolution TIFF images that I haven't optimized yet and it's 150,000 words yet it's only 10MB.

If you're finding your afpub files are too large then I recommend checking that you haven't accidentally embedded some images - open the Resource Manager and sort by Placement. You can also check your document's image policy setting in Document Setup. Also, ensure you haven't accidentally turned on File > Save History With Document which will bloat files.

The size of the PDFs will depend entirely on your settings and it's hard to compare ID and AfPub without seeing screenshots of your PDF export settings from both apps to ensure you're comparing apples to apples. I wouldn't be surprised if Publisher's PDFs aren't as small as Adobe - they haven't had as many years to optimize them - but you'd have to share the settings to make that comparison.

[Pšenda]

13 hours ago, MikeTO said:

I wouldn't be surprised if Publisher's PDFs aren't as small as Adobe - they haven't had as many years to optimize them

As far as I know, Affinity uses the PDFlib library.