Publish Online File Size

Paul Burger

Tagged: dps, InDesign, publish, Publish Online

This topic has 9 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 4 months ago by Laurel Lesser.

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- November 19, 2015 at 10:07 am #79507
  
  Paul Burger
  Member
  
  When creating files to utilize the Publish Online feature, our documents will contain media and a lot of imagery, animations, etc. Does anyone know any reference information on strategies to keep those published documents as small as possible. Our shop is very conscious about small file/fast delivery aspects. I’m aware of the resolution settings on publish, but wasn’t sure if there were in-document strategies to employ.
  
  I know Keith Gilbert would be a great resource, but I’d like to attempt to find information from Adobe or the community first as to not bombard him with questions.
- November 19, 2015 at 8:26 pm #79518
  
  Frances Simons
  Member
  
  Lol. Keith Gilbert is a genius. I would very much want to hear what he suggests. Although I’m in Canada, Keith would be my first choice-go-to-guru every time. I knew him when I was in MN.
- November 20, 2015 at 7:54 am #79542
  
  Paul Burger
  Member
  
  I just attended Denver InDesign 2015 where he did a session or two. I learned a lot from him. I’ve transitioned from the Web Design/Development world so I’m sure there are some strategies that would transfer, but just wanted some input from the Indesign folks. Thank you.
- November 20, 2015 at 9:42 am #79546
  
  David Blatner
  Keymaster
  
  That’s a great question, Paul, and one which I have not done much research on. My guess is that there aren’t many things you can do to affect file size, but perhaps some judicious use of the Object Export Options dialog box helps? Not sure.
  (Thanks for coming to The InDesign Conference!)
- November 20, 2015 at 11:34 am #79555
  
  Paul Burger
  Member
  
  David- Of course, I forgot to mention you as a great resource as well! I will employ the test, test, test mantra and just see what I can come up with. I appreciate everyone’s input.
  
  I really was impressed with the conference. Great topics, organization and location/amenities. My mind is actually very blown and reinvigorated with ideas — I just have to figure out what I want to implement first in our organization. My sole purpose was to learn about tablet/PDF/EPUB/DPS strategies and tools, but I learned so much more about Indesign that we don’t utilize and should.
  
  I hope to make it to PepCon ’16 or InDesign ’16 — or at least have some more team members attend next year. I’m thinking San Diego in June would be a huge leap forward in weather. :)
- November 20, 2015 at 12:30 pm #79556
  
  David Blatner
  Keymaster
  
  LOL… I agree that there’s much less chance of snow in San Diego in June. :-)
  
  So glad you found the conference helpful! That’s awesome.
  
  You know, something just came to mind… one HTML export feature that Diane and I didn’t cover in our session was this crazy script that Keith found:
  https://creativepro.com/undocumented-feature-export-fixed-layout-html.php
  
  We don’t know if this is what Adobe actually uses for Publish Online, but if it is, then it might help you identify performance and file sizes.
- November 23, 2015 at 7:47 am #79573
  
  Keith Gilbert
  Participant
  
  I can’t really think of any document construction strategies that would affect file size, other than
  
  1. paying attention to the image settings in the Publish Online Options dialog
  
  2. Limiting the number of fonts used in the document, keeping in mind that bold, italic, etc. are all separate fonts, and each font ends up embedded in the document
  
  As far as I know, InDesign’s Object Export Options for individual images are ignored by Publish Online, so that doesn’t help.
  
  Keep in mind that for certain animated effects and transparent effects, InDesign will rasterize regions of the page in order to reproduce these accurately, and this may affect file size in unexpected ways.
  
  I do think that for testing purposes, using the FXL HTML Export script that David linked above would be a good way to compare file sizes for Publish Online output. But bear in mind that the script doesn’t include any control over image dpi and quality settings. But it would be a good way to test to see if changing something on the page makes the resulting html larger or smaller.
- November 23, 2015 at 10:14 am #79583
  
  Anne-Marie Concepcion
  Keymaster
  
  I’d think that Diane Burns would have some insight. She’s been doing a LOT of work with Publish Online.
  
  AFAIK text is all converted to SVG in Publish Online documents, so I don’t think #of typefaces matter.
  
  AM
- November 23, 2015 at 10:29 am #79585
  
  Keith Gilbert
  Participant
  
  @AM: I just did a couple of simple tests, and you’re correct, Publish Online is converting the text to SVG. So, it isn’t using the same engine (at least not entirely) as the “secret” publish to FXL HTML that is exposed by my script. So, you are correct–the number of fonts should NOT affect Publish online file sizes.
- November 24, 2015 at 1:26 pm #79623
  
  Laurel Lesser
  Member
  
  Hi Paul!
  I am definitely NOT nearly as knowledgeable as those who have already responded here, but I wondered if it would help to mention that I always have to think to myself, “KISS” (keep it simple..) when publishing to the web.
  There have been numerous times that I have had to go back into a document I created for print purposes (with full size/resolution graphics) and re-purpose it for the web in the end. I had to link smaller file sizes/web-optimized graphics in place of the larger file sizes/print versions.
  Of course, I’m sure you have already thought of that as a best-practice scenario. Just thought I would say it anyway.
  L~
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