topic Re: PDF publishing in Documentation

PDF publishing

Raoul — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 18:07:57 GMT

Hi,

I was wondering what are the best options to manage the PDF size in the publisher before publishing plans, façades and elevations.

I checked and there are few options. *

Is there a way to transform the vectorial plans directly in an image in pdf format ?

I am looking tio reduce the size of the PDF layouts once published, because the client can't open easily the files and complains about the file size.

Any suggestions ?

Operating system used: Windows 11

Betreff: PDF publishing

pr3 — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 20:08:50 GMT

Archicad does not offer anything useful here.

i use a tool called „PDF Sqeezer“ on Mac to bulk compress my PDFs after publishing them.

Re: PDF publishing

Lingwisyer — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 01:26:34 GMT

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishlist/Ability-to-Publish-PDF-with-quot-Print-as-Image-quot-Option/idi-p/579210

Re: PDF publishing

gaddesign — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:09:44 GMT

Hi Raoul,

Short answer: Archicad's Publisher has no built-in "flatten everything to a raster image" switch for PDF — that's exactly what those Wishlist threads are asking for, so you're not missing it.

What does work to bring published sizes down:

1. In the Organizer, select your PDF Publisher Set → Publishing Properties → PDF Options, and turn down the image compression quality / downsample settings. Embedded high-res images are usually what balloons the file, not the vector geometry itself.

2. Check the drawings placed on the layouts: shadows, image fills and large raster images in elevations are the classic size hogs. Replace them with lighter fills or reduce the image resolution before publishing.

3. Split heavy sheets (elevations, site plans) into separate smaller PDF sets rather than one giant file — most client PDF viewers choke on a single huge document rather than on total size.

4. As a last resort, post-process the published PDF with a compressor. Free tools (e.g. PDF24 on Windows, or a Ghostscript-based compressor) can rasterize the whole document to images at a chosen DPI — 150 dpi is usually perfectly readable for review and shrinks the file dramatically.

For the drawing-scale conversions on my sheets I use: https://gad.design/en/tools/scale-converter/

Re: PDF publishing

Raoul — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 06:39:45 GMT

Great ! Thank you all for these suggestions !

Yes, as an veteran ArchiCAD user I find it essential to have a tool in the Publisher to manage the size of PDF files. The work-arounds take time and while we are usually working on powerful computers, the client doesn't.

Therefore, we need something straight-forward easy usable by the client once transmitted. Opening a PDF file with lots of fills that update gradually the drawings and taking a few minutes to finalise gives ArchiCAD the image of an old dated application, while us, in front of the client, we seem very un-professional.

During a workshop in front of an important client : "Wow, it takes a long time guys ! Could we speed up the presentation please !"

So Please Graphisoft Make This Wish A Reality !

Re: PDF publishing

Lingwisyer — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 07:11:16 GMT

The addition of surface fills in elevations and sections in AC25(?) just compounded the issue a hundred fold...