How to shrink pdf export?

Ask the community
1

Hello everyone !

I’ve created frames that I’d like to share easily in an easy to open way.

I thought of exporting the frames to pdf but it makes for such a heavy file that Figma loads for minutes and minutes and then freezes. The process never completes.

How do you efficiently export your frames to share them easily in a beautiful document ? pdf ? If yes, then how to you make sure the export is fast and efficient ?

2

If you don’t care about keeping objects in PDF as vector, you can export all frames as JPEG and then combine them into one PDF with other apps or online tools.

3 Likes
3

The main problem is there’s no font embedding in figma pdf export so all typography is converted to vector paths.

I figured out a way to decrease the size dramatically by using adobe acrobat and adobe distiller:

  1. Open pdf in Acrobat and save as PostScript filetype (.ps)

  2. Open Distiller and select “smallest filesize” in the drop down. This will optimize the vector paths amd reduce pixel-image quality

  3. Drag the PostScript file into Distiller and a new smaller sized pdf will be generated

Would be awsome if figma could support font-embedding!

9 Likes
4

Hey that’s a good idea. I just tried and it’s great !

1 Like
5

Thank you. I might try that. What’s the favored way in the industry of sharing a few frames in a very easy to open way ? Am I weird in wanting to use pdf ?

6

Using figma you can also use the sharing function (no editing rights) and share the link to the project.

Pdf is not a bad idea because it keeps the vectors compared to a jpg/png so the quality and filesize is better.
Also some clients prefer an attached file they can use offline and share within the company

1 Like
7

I keep seeing people saying Figma converts text to outlines…
This never happened in my artwork. I have dozens of exported PDFs, some editorial work too, and text is always embedded and selectable.

Also, I just tend to compress the PDF using sites like iLovePDF to quickly compress what i export.

6 Likes
8

@Bruno_Figueiredo Try opening it up in an editor (Illustrator, Figma, Sketch…). It does outline the text. Having it selectable (not in Preview, but Acrobat) is not related to that, but OCR, etc.

5 Likes
9

Isnt there anyway I can compress the pdf within Figma instead of exporting it into another application and compressing it?

1 Like
10

You can use TinyImage plugin: https://figma.fun/mFWeyW

5 Likes
11

It’s megaexpensive for what it does!

3 Likes
12

Great idea, thanks!

13

So true. The plugin cost is the same as cost of figma for a month. Its exorbitant. They should think of carving out only the PDF creation and compression for a much smaller amount.

2 Likes
14

You can use the PDF Insider tool to shrink PDF files…

1 Like
15

Hey friends! Not sure if anyone else is having this problem still but I recommend you use the TinyImage Compressor plugin to export PDFs from Figma. It has a nice PDF export feature that turned a 20mb file into a very manageable 300kb :smile: hope that helps!

4 Likes
16

This did amazing!! Thank you for the suggestion :nerd_face:

1 Like
17

This is desperately needed for creating presentation decks.

The plugin is not the solution. It’s expensive and rendering without embedded fonts is clunky.

9 Likes
18

This topic was automatically closed after 4 days. New replies are no longer allowed.