When sharing or uploading your work be aware that there may be limitations on the file size that can be sent, for example 10MB is the typical limit for emailing attached files.

It is therefore good professional practice that when the artwork is finished, a reduced file size version of the file should be saved (separately to the original 'working file'), in order that it can be more easily shared.

01. Checking File Size:

On a Mac:

• In a Finder window panel, find the file, and 'control-click' (hold down the CTRL button when you click) and select Get Info.

• In the top right of the Get Info panel, you'll see its size.

• You can also highlight a file in Finder and use the keyboard shortcut Command-I to open the Get Info panel.

On a PC:

• Locate and highlight the file that you want to determine the size of.

• Right-click the file and click Properties.

• A Properties panel will pop up, and will show the size of the selected file.

02. Working Files & Reduced Size Files.

It is always recommended to keep a 'working file' version of your artwork files, and save a separate file with a reduced file size.

Some reduced file-saving options limit the ability to edit the file (should you still want to in the future), and for example turn text to image, flatten layers, and remove hidden content to decrease file information.

03. Deleting Unused Content:

When you have finalised your artwork file, you can help first decrease file size by simply deleting any unwanted items, such as hidden or non-essential layers, or any extra unused images or text in the dark grey area outside of the artboard.

In Illustrator:

• Empty text paths, unpainted objects and stray points can be removed by going to Object > Path > Clean Up > Select items to clean up.

• Remove Unused Actions from the File - go to Window > Actions > the Actions panel will open > Delete Unused Panel Items and click on Play.

• Flatten objects within your file by selecting them, go to Object > Flatten Transparency > pick the options you want to flatten and click OK.

In Photoshop:

• Crop oversized layers that hang off the canvas, type CTRL+A to select all, then click Image>Crop.

• Merge/Flatten Layers - basically, the more layers, the bigger the file size. Note that merging or flattening layers will reduce ability to make changes to the file, so only do this if you have first saved a working file version.

• Rasterise Smart Objects - when you rasterise a smart object (Layer > Rasterise > Smart Object), you remove the options attached to it, thus saving space.

• Apply Layer Masks - Right-click on a mask, then apply it to reduce the file size.

04. File Saving Options:

Ai Files:

Ai is the native file type for Illustrator, and it is great to use this for your working file as it has the full set of functions within the program. However with this often comes high file size...

Psd Files:

Psd is the native file type for Photoshop, and allows complete functionality within the program. As with Ai file types the Psd usually comes with a high file size.

PDF & Photoshop PDF Files:

PDF is a highly useful file format as it is able to be multi-page (unlike JPEG), and is able to work across applications, such as Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat, etc.

PDF/X is my 'first choice' option for reducing file size. Go to File > Save As > Under Format select Adobe PDF > Under Adobe PDF Preset (where it says Illustrator Default) select PDF/X-4: 2008.

You may want to uncheck preserve illustrator editing capabilities when saving, as this will also lower the file size. But if you do this, make sure to save it as a copy so that you still have the editable original.

Other smaller file options under Adobe PDF Preset are Press Quality and Smallest File Size, but with these there can be some loss of quality and ability to edit.

JPEGs:

JPEG is a common format for photographic images, and cannot be used for multi-page documents such as portfolios. In fact saving a multi-page document as a JPEG will convert it to single pages.

Saving a file as a JPEG it flattens the file, and turning everything (objects, text, embedded images, etc.) to a single image layer, thus resulting in a very low file size.

When saving a JPEG, you can choose the level of file compression, which determines the file size. A higher level of compression results in lower image quality, and a lower level of compression results in better image quality.

05. File Compression Websites - I Love PDF:

There are various online file compression websites that are able to shrink the size of your files, a quick search of 'compress PDF' will come up with dozens.

I Love PDF:

I Love PDF is my 'go to' website as it is free, simple to use, and has many other tools, such as converting Powerpoint to PDF and vice-versa.

Here you can compress PDFs without loss of quality. Files typically decrease to a 20% of the original size.

06. HELP!! My PDF is still too large.....!!!!

If you have tried shrinking the PDF and it is still too large, or too large to compress with I Love PDF for free, you can export the individual pages of the PDF as JPEGs in Adobe Acrobat. Go to File > Export To > Image > JPEG > Then choose where you want to save it (you may want to create a separate JPEG folder).

Converting to JPEGs flattens the layers of the files, and will be much smaller in file size. You will then need to combine the individual page files back together as a PDF in Adobe Acrobat, luckily when Acrobat converts to JPEGs it will number the files in page order, so putting them back together as a PDF is pretty easy.

This method has saved me on multiple occasions........

07. Sending your artwork - Large files (i.e. for Digital Textile Print):

With some files, such as large scale digital textile print files there may be a lower limit to how much they can be reduced.

If this ends up too big to send by email, file sharing website like WeTransfer & YouSendIt, as well as shared drives such as iCloud, Google Drive & Dropbox may be useful.

WeTransfer is especially handy, as you can send files up to 2GB at a time for free. Additionally, you and the recipient do not need an account, whereas with many others like Dropbox, Google Drive & iCloud, you do.

With WeTransfer you also get a notification when the recipient has downloaded your file, which is like a 'digital receipt', and confirms sure that the file has been received.