Minimizing File Size

[FrequentFlyer]

First time post here......

I have always felt reasonably comfortable with photoshop and when CS3 came out I decided it was time to get the whole suite as I had heard so much about Illustrator. This is much harder to learn than photoshop was, at least to me.

I was trying to build a new business card that would be uploaded to one of these online companies that offer them at a good price. They provide an Illustrator template which really only has the guides that you have to stay within. After much playing and watching several online tutorials I had it looking the way I liked. When I went to upload it said that the file has to be 5MB or less and mine is slightly more than 15MB. Is there a way to minimize the file size in Illustrator. I did not select the compatible PDF in the save options hoping that this would save me some.

My card has a few different type faces and some of these have strokes and even 3D effects to try and make them look good.

If someone was kind enough to generally point me in the right direction then I will take the time to learn. I am just finding Illustrator to be overly frustrating at this point in time. I have many more questions but I work hard at trying to find those answers before I resort to a forum for an answer.

[Lukas Engqvist]

There have been others discussing this, so a search would probably reveal some results.
If you want to deliver a file and keep size down (at the cost of editability) you can save as a PDF and uncheck illustrator editability. That way you are saving the data to image the file but not edit it. (you can if it comes to a crunch export to jpg or tiff, which some people feel is the safest way to go, but save your illustrator file for changes)
It is hard to give any other general tips without seeing the design. Illustrator editing is vector based, but files can swell as rasters (placed or generated) can be part of your design. If you have a complex series of layers rasterising an area is simmilar to merging/flattening layers in photoshop, but as in photoshop such an action would limit editability.

A business card should be able to get down to below 5MB, but if you can post a screendump we may be able to give you more specific advice.

[The Repro Kid]

...My card has a few different type faces and some of these have strokes and even 3D effects to try and make them look good...You might try Rasterizing your 3D effects for the final art. This may help to reduce the file size. Also, make sure to submit the final as a .ai file not .eps file.

[BobE]

All the above advice looks good to me. If you are comfortable with photoshop you could always export your .ai file to .psd save as an 300 dpi eps or tiff and place it back in an illustrator file if that is what the print company want, but you will have to send them both the eps/tiff and ai file. This is also a good way of checking that your ai file result is what you expect when printed. As mentioned above save all the files along the way for future back editing.