Publisher: slow saves

[VectorCat]

I am working with a 60-page layout populated mostly by images and very little text. The images average 3mb in file size.

Whenever I save, it takes about 5 seconds for the progress bar to appear, then another 10-15 seconds for the actual saving to take place. This is true whether I am "in" Publisher, or "in" Photo making changes, which I save before I "return" to Publisher.

Given my document's parameters, above, does this save time seem right?

I'm working on an 8-core Xeon, 2009 2.26 Ghz "nehalem" Mac Pro with 16 gigs of RAM

[stokerg]

Hi VectorCat,

Are the images embedded or linked? 

If embedded then i'd say this is to be expected, as each of those images are being saved so will take a little bit of time.  You can check this via the Resource manager on the Document menu.

[VectorCat]

No, they’re all Linked.

thank you 

[carl123]

What is the size of the Publisher file once you have saved it?

[VectorCat]

In the neighborhood of 200mb..maybe 220 or so.

[carl123]

That's way too big for a file with "very little text" and linked images

Are these linked images AFPhoto files?

If not what format are they?

[stokerg]

@VectorCat Any chance of uploading a sample file here to the Forums or our Dropbox link here?

[VectorCat]

It’s actually up to 520.7mb

I’ve worked on far more complex files which were smaller, but in other layout software.

[VectorCat]

11 hours ago, stokerg said:

@VectorCat Any chance of uploading a sample file here to the Forums or our Dropbox link here?

Could you clarify “sample file” please? I’m working with proprietary materials. 

[VectorCat]

11 hours ago, carl123 said:

That's way too big for a file with "very little text" and linked images

Are these linked images AFPhoto files?

If not what format are they?

Yes. Very little text. Each page has a page number, and 10 or fewer pages have a one-sentence note to me to remind me to change something about that page.

 

[stokerg]

5 hours ago, VectorCat said:

Could you clarify “sample file” please? I’m working with proprietary materials. 

The .afpub file that's 200MB would be great, i should be able to find out why it's so large  

[VectorCat]

The file is now 1.31GB. I have the same number of pages, even less text and the same number of images. I have made adjustments to the images. Is that responsible for the ridiculous file size?

[stokerg]

9 minutes ago, VectorCat said:

I have made adjustments to the images. Is that responsible for the ridiculous file size?

If they are linked, i wouldn't expect them to cause an increase of that size.  Can you upload the .afpub file as without it, i can't really give any answer to what's happening as i can't replicate the issue with files i've setup here.

[VectorCat]

So, upload the .afpub alone..or along with all of the images?

[thomaso]

8 hours ago, stokerg said:

i can't really give any answer to what's happening as i can't replicate the issue with files i've setup here.

Sorry if I jump in.

Just in case of interest for size investigation:  v408_2 inner bleed.afpub
Afpub with 33 MB but almost no content (1 master w. pg-numbers / 3 pages w. 7 rectangles)

[VectorCat]

Very informative. 

Could it be that Publisher has to create a “space” for all of the interoperability which is to come, and once the artist really gets busy, that space fills up with what Affinity products require to keep that environment operating..applications talking to one another, enabling non-destructive editing, etc?

could save history also be a factor?

[thomaso]

What you describe sounds more like use of RAM, not saved document file size. History might be a reason, but probably not the one we select in menu File > Save History...
In my .afpub "Save History..." has not been active but it formerly contained 90 pages, which all got deleted unless 3 and then Saved As... I assume there is another kind of history in that .afpub which it can't get rid of. – Even another "Save As..." did not reduce it's file size, whereas for the 90 pages 'mother document' with Save As the size shrunk even below the 33 MB of the 3-pgs afpub.

The massive increase of your file size within 1 day sounds (520 MB > 1.3 GB) as if you have worked, tried, altered a lot. Did you? Or did you just add content?
How much ca. % did your file size reduce when you used "Save As..." with a new file name?

[VectorCat]

when I saw the massive increase in file size, I’d already added my content, and was merely adjusting size and position of the images, doing a little “surgery” in Photo persona. 

[Granddaddy]

There is a discussion of large afpub file sizes at 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/90388-publisher-pdf-file-size-and-export-time-questions/

I wonder if @stokerg and @Callum should exchange information on this issue.

[Callum]

11 hours ago, Granddaddy said:

There is a discussion of large afpub file sizes at 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/90388-publisher-pdf-file-size-and-export-time-questions/

I wonder if @stokerg and @Callum should exchange information on this issue.

We sit next to each other I can assure you we exchange information almost constantly!

[stokerg]

On 7/2/2019 at 11:04 PM, VectorCat said:

So, upload the .afpub alone

Just the afpub file would be great  

[Granddaddy]

@stokerg posted at

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/91904-file-size-again/&do=findComment&comment=487498

Quote

"All i can really do is link you do this post which has comments from the Dev team who wrote the Affinity file format and explain how it works."

The referenced post is at

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/3649-file-size-changes/

Although it explained how files can grow as they are saved and then streamlined, it did not explain to me why AFPub files are so large when compared to the small amount of text they might contain.