Best practice for managing file sizes

[Atownsend]

We get a ton of 3rd party art from our contract customers these days. Sometimes the files end up as massive files for whatever reason. I’m talkin 200+mb files that have to be sent via we transfer and subsequently glitch / slow down AI or PS. We’re no slouch on RAM here, but it is an annoyance because the large files have to be sent through different channels than our regulars orders, which I want to eliminate.

We run adobe software and ask our contract customers to provide files on our AI CTS template. Vector isn’t usually a problem, but sometimes we get a large file with a distressed tiff layer that is massive. And sometimes others can be inexplicably large for seemingly no reason.

Anything raster or sim process, we ask for DCS 2 files, which are linked to our AI / template file containing reg marks, PMS colors / job info and any vector elements. These can also be quite large, and I’m kind of scratching my head as to why, as they’re almost always at 300DPI, When we do seps in house I feel like they aren’t ever as large.

Maybe there isn’t a 100% solution for this, but does anyone have some best practices to keep the file sizes to a minimum? I’d like to be able to better communicate standards to the multitude of artists that we work with.

[ebscreen]

Same boat, super annoying. 300 mb file for some text. Cool.

I don't know that I would try and manage it with your clients, it's not the kind of thing that they will listen to mostly.
People tend to associate file size with art quality which is rarely the case. You don't need 32 bit color for what we do.
You just don't.

We would send 400mb masterpiece PSD files to Ben Woods (RIP!, that dude was truly genius) and he'd send back 20mb
files with no layers and just channels. We're quite literally outputting binary so it makes no sense to have more than that.

Lastly, we are probably partially at blame here. For years we've been demanding high-res art from clients.
Now that they deliver it's too high haha.

[DonR]

I also have the same problem.  Some files we get are much bigger for no apparent reason.

[Frog]

I noticed that there was a time that it seemed that everyone and their mothers had a bootleg copy of Photoshop 6 or so, never Illustrator, and every damn file, even the most basic text was an overly large raster version on a canvas way bigger than the actual physical size of the image. The flip side, was the files they provided that needed to be raster, were always done at the default 72dpi! Sheesh!

[Sbrem]

Well, if going to halftones in PS, there is the old rule of double your line count for the resolution of the output file. So a 60 line halftone could be reduced to 120 to 150 ppi and still look fine... this is for screening of course. I have a question for Don, as I'm one of the folks who sometimes has to use a file sharing service to send him a file. If we have an image that is say, 12" x 12" @ 300 ppi, how much could we reduce the resolution and still have a nice print at the 12" x 12"? As a long time contract printer, who has received a lot of less than optimal files, I want to send files to my vendors that are easy for them to work with...

Steve

[Atownsend]

Got another big one in. Looks like theres some kind of fake halftone overlay that they embedded in illustrator.

I think im just going to have to pick these big files apart one by one and release some guidelines. We have really good contract customers who will do what we say for the most part. We were lucky and trained most of them on how to send us orders properly so they get cleared. These guys are one of our biggest now... which makes me wish I had demanded an equity position in their company from the jump LOL. Live and learn I guess.

It wouldn't be so much of a problem if we didn't go to what we call "digital workorders". We're databasing all of our workorder submissions and I'm paying for said storage. So big files in could storage kind of suck. I'd like to make it through at least a year, without having to delete anything or pay for a step amount of data storage so I can better track out production metrics.