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Leon
May 13, 2021

Launched: Export Compressed PDFs

  • May 13, 2021
  • 47 replies
  • 24194 views
  1. Describe the problem your experiencing and how your idea helps solve this
    When I export out PDFs and attach them to emails for review for stakeholders who either are not in Figma or just prefer to review and leave notes via PDF mockups, I always have to find a PDF compression solution that can shrink down the sizes. In addition to PDF compression, sometimes merging multiple files into a single document is something that I wish Figma gave some options for when exporting.

  2. Add as much context as possible (screenshots, Figma files, mockups, etc.)
    PDFs exported when they contain some kind of image seem to be quite large, maybe because the whole image is intact and it isn’t cropped down. Or just the quality is retained as close as possible to the Figma quality.

  3. Ask questions to bring the community into the conversation
    (e.g. Does anyone else experience this? Is anyone using a plugin or workaround to help solve this?, etc.
    I’m not aware of any community plugin that solves this. Are there any out there?

47 replies

Talha_Zahid
May 11, 2023

I tried this one and so far works like a charm

https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1233404694629290096

Sasha_Kos
June 28, 2023

None of these plugins are helping. I have a 4-page CV document; text only with 1 tiny image and I can’t get it under 4MB even with plugins and additional rounds of compressions. I need to upload it to a website that only allows files up to 2MB! No idea what to do. Tried all plugins and online tools and spent hours trying to find a solution…

lilchan
New Member
August 8, 2023

Praying for this without having to use a plugin or separate site/program. And also editable text so simple PDF edits can be done in Adobe Acrobat.

Ahmed_Abdalla
Figmate
Figmate
April 18, 2024

Hey y’all, engineer here at Figma: we just shipped an update to utilize more compression for PDF files. We now compress images using JPEG at 75% quality and compress long text streams using zlib.

Example: we had an ~89 Mb file that now exports at ~4 Mb.

Different files will have different compression results depending on their contents. Please let us know if you have any questions about this update or other PDF sizing questions.

Thank you.

Aleksey.Kravchenko
April 22, 2024

Hi, the new PDF compression settings do not allow me to export a high quality file, is there any way I can revert back to the previous export version?

Ahmed_Abdalla
Figmate
Figmate
April 23, 2024

Hey @Aleksey.Kravchenko will discuss this with the team and get back to you.

Aleksey.Kravchenko
April 23, 2024

It would be great to make compression settings for exporting files where relevant - jpg and pdf

Ahmed_Abdalla
Figmate
Figmate
April 23, 2024

We have an open task for exposing JPEG quality settings when Export.

In regards to PDF Export, I’m curious if you can share the file where you’re noticing low quality? Also, what’s your use case: are you sending things to a printer? Or something else.

Another question for my own curiosity, what motivates you exporting in JPEG vs PNG?

Aleksey.Kravchenko
April 23, 2024

Export settings for jpg is great news )
Like any geek, I love the customization feature itself, even if I will use it rarely…

Figma has become my primary tool for creating most digital products over the past few years, but occasionally print orders come up.
I have an algorithm to do these orders the same way in Figma with minimal prepress.
After the last update, I noticed that the quality of raster images when exporting to PDF was severely degraded, especially noticeable on small but detailed objects.

I realize that the selected PDF export settings will work for most users, and they reduce the weight of the file considerably. But I also think that cases like mine are also not rare and occur in designers’ work, so the ability to customize compression for exporting to PDF would be very useful and make Figma an even more versatile product.

April 25, 2024

Hi @Ahmed_Abdalla , for me at least, I’ve been using FIGMA to build showcases of Game Art for clients. A PDF with different sprites and text descriptions was the ideal output, I would get the crisp raster graphics and the text that could be easily scaled up or down.

I can’t really share any personal work, but here is a sample of how raster images exports look now:

Unfortunately the forum doesn’t allow for pdf upload.

But as you can see, since pixel art is by it’s very nature very small and uncompressed, the JPG compressor destroys it.

Exporting as SVG is not possible because it applies filtering, unfortunately. The JPG Compressor also makes these pdfs bigger than the original exports, because since the PNG were in such low resolution with a small color count, they are actually smaller than the PDF export.

Is there any way to turn off this jpeg compression, and select back to as it was before?

Thank you!