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Kayeish
New Member
July 24, 2023
Question

Large PDF exports even with compression plugins?

  • July 24, 2023
  • 39 replies
  • 7026 views

I’ve used many programs/apps and I find that Figma’s PDF exports are always so large—even after using plugins to compress them.

Example: Two page PDF document with only text, simple svgs icons, and two colours. No raster images, gradients, or effects. Super basic document.

  • Figma export 9.5MB
  • TinyImage compression 2.2MB
  • Compressify.io compression 2.2MB

I would expect this PDF to be no larger than 1MB in the first place. What is going on here?

The only possible factor I can imagine is the maybe the canvas size (1130x1600px), but I doubt it because everything in the PDF export are text/vectors. Any help?

This topic has been closed for replies.

39 replies

February 14, 2024

@titanas No, just the normal preview. In my case I export the PDF via Figma, but when I open that with “preview” (Mac app), and by scrolling up and down some slides turns completely white…

titanas
February 14, 2024

@Alberto2 yikes, sorry to hear that. It seems an issue of itself. Are you using the latest version of the app 116.15.15?

February 14, 2024

Yes, I am testing now Super PDF which is very nice and easy to use (also free 😃 ) and it seems to solve my issues!

Adam_Arling
March 26, 2024

I’m also having a hard time with this. No images, just colors and native Figma font (Roboto Mono), and each page of a 2 page document is > 5MB. Even the Compressed PDF and Image Exporter plugin at Medium size can’t get it below 2MB. Not really sure what to do either? Adobe Acrobat can only compress my 2MB file down to 1.5MB, so must be something in the encoding on Figma export?

MKitPlug
New Participant
April 4, 2024

@ Adam_Arling
You can use our PDF export MKitFPdf, in this plugin we have used our own text renderer, which writes text as TEXT into the PDF, also all Figma vectors are retained. Only effects on Figma elements and images are exported as binary objects.
You can test it under MKitFPdf -Plugin

titanas
April 9, 2024

Hi @Adam_Arling

Could you say a bit more about the size of the pages and the content on them? You said no images, no colors but what’s in there? SVGs? Multiple font weights?

Ember
May 16, 2024

i have similar problems. i store my pdf in my Google drives and i have Sedja to compress but that only takes it to 2mb, while others go down to 1mb. even making all my images and fonts to be outlines it will only do 2mb and no lower. wish it was added into Figma since loads of people are already using Figma for designing and exporting it in PDF form. i can’t even check how big my file is before i export it. not like Adobe where it shows you what size it is going to come out as a whole before you export. no “substantial” preview box.

Sevim_Artan
September 4, 2024

Hi everyone! I was trying to export my cv too, but i tried everything (changing fonts to arial, all pdf compress plugins, adobe tools etc.) then i tried somethings else and it worked! I exported my cv as 3X png format.(2x was bad resolution) Then i turned it into pdf in adobe acrobat(also my original cv has a portfolio link but the acrobat made it pdf by scanning, so i had to add a link in acrobat. It worked for a single page cv , if you have the same problem like that.

QWER AGENCY
New Participant
March 17, 2025

We regularly faced issues with exporting PDF presentations from Figma due to extremely large file sizes (often reaching 300-800 MB). To tackle this frustrating problem, we developed our own PDF compression tool at https://pdfcompressor.ru/ . It effectively reduces file sizes by optimizing images and document elements, making PDFs easier to email or upload without compromising quality.