I’m trying to export a single page in Figma into a PDF. Unfortunately it reaches file sizes between 320 MB and 370 MB depending on the export setting, making it useless as PDF readers struggle to even load it. Are there any common pitfalls to avoid? I don’t know any way to diagnose the issue so I’d maybe know which elements to remove.
Question
Insane PDF file size
This is a common issue. I recommend exporting the frame as a JPG first, then converting it to a PDF using Adobe or an online tool.
Exporting directly to PDF in Figma often results in large file sizes—it’s not really optimized for PDF exports. Figma is better suited for design work than for creating PDFs.
Unfortunately that would turn all text on the document into an image as well, but I need the text to remain as text.
So the best idea I got so far is basically turning my document into two documents, one for the background design and one for the text. Then I could export the backgrounds into an image and put it back into Figma.
I take it these PDFs will be printed? For print, we use InDesign.
That unfortunately requires sharing your data with some random online provider. How much compression would it yield? I’m guessing it won’t reduce the file size from 370 MB to <20 MB, which I need unfortunately.
You can try to download and use desktop app for compressing pdf, for example pdf24.org
Or try to export pdf from Figma with a plugins like Compressed PDF and Image Exporter
Do you have Adobe? If so, use Acrobat to reduce the file size.
If not, use a compressor like here. Upload the exported JPGs/PNGs and then reimport them into your Figma frames.
Tried that, unfortunately the compression is not nearly enough if Figma produces such absurdly unusable sizes. I’m now 10+ hours deep into attempts to fix this and I find it truly absurd that there are 5 years old threads talking about the same issue and it’s still not fixed. In my case the PDF export feature is literally bait that got me to waste 50+ hours on designing in Figma for the first time while the final product is not usable so far.
?
Afraid PDF’s are a natural export for Figma, they shouldn’t even offer it.
You can always share the file with me privately and I can help.
You can use ilovepdf.com to compress the file and reduce its size from 370mb to less than 10 mb, also you can use different plugins to export Figma to PDF such as TinyImage compressor - which will export it in a reduced size of about 80%-90% less.
To my surprise ilovepdf actually did reduce the file size by an insane amount. Unfortunately it did not fix the issues that occur while loading the file. Somehow a 7 MB file still takes 20+ seconds to load on a high end machine and whenever you zoom or scroll it needs to reload parts of it. So it still remains unusable unfortunately.
I also facing the similar issue, Actually I need to save Figma page into the Excel because later I need to upload it into the SharePoint to perform SharePoint Migration using the reliable software.
We have developed a service that efficiently compresses PDF presentations exported from Figma. This is particularly relevant because PDFs exported from Figma can be quite large, making them difficult to share and use.
Our service, available at https://pdfcompressor.ru/, allows you to reduce the size of PDF files without significant loss of quality. This is achieved by optimizing images and other elements within the document.
For Figma users facing the issue of large PDF files upon export, our service will be a useful tool. It enables quick and easy compression of presentations, making them more convenient for email transmission or uploading to websites.
We recommend trying our service and evaluating its benefits for your projects.
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