Printed output file bloat when PDFs are embedded in the Layout page

[rlackore]

I've submitted this issue to tech support, but I'm wondering if anyone else has observed this problem. When printing a layout page using Chief Architect Save As PDF there is considerable file bloat when the page includes an embedded PDF document. 

 

A page printed without a pdf is 40kb.

 

A page printed with test.pdf is 1,152kb. The pdf is only 37kb; this is an increase of 2,780%!

 

A page printed with test.pdf obscured is 1,153kb. So even though the print engine isn't rendering the PDF, the PDF is still impacting the size of the printed output.

 

I use PDFs extensively throughout my Layouts, so this anomaly greatly affects my ability to share files via email, Dropbox, etc. Does anyone know how to prevent the bloat?

[Chrisb222]

I don't embed PDFs in Layouts, but I've read on here where people get around the bloat by converting the PDF to a JPEG.

[Ridge_Runner]

It's not just with the PDF's. If you are interested, you can search the forum for older posts about the file bloat CA's own PDF print engine does to layout files even without embedded PDFs. I have done extensive tests on my own systems and CA's PDF output file is several times larger than other print-to-PDF programs. I finally arrived at Bullzip for my layout print engine. Not as clean as CA's (the PDF pages have light "tiling" in the center that CA's doesn't) but produces much more manageable file sizes, which I need for file sharing.