Help CenterWe are experiencing many people importing images that are a massive size, like 10, 20, 25 and even 35 MB. They send in a help ticket, say the studio doesn't run right, it is slow, can we fix it, etc etc. I go and open a project and it takes 30 seconds to load the first page I want to look at. Then I see, they imported 2, 3 or 4 or more of these images on one page. Which amounts to 50 MB or 100 MB or even more total, then multiply that, by the number of pages in a book and then wonder why the studio is running slow, why is it taking, 5, 10 or 30 seconds to import them, then the same thing when added to a page and or they change the page they are on, and it takes 20 or 30 seconds. Then they think this is an issue with the studio.
I think some common sense needs to be applied here.
#1. Look at your file size of what you are importing. Use Windows Explorer in Windows or Finder on a Mac.
#2. Understand how large a 25 MB image is in size, that is massive. Understand how 4 or 5 of those images, times 100 pages is and how big 10 GB of files in one project is.
#3. Resize the image you have if it is 3500 x 3000 pixels, and you are resizing once inside the studio to 350 x 300 pixels, why not resize it before importing it. That 25 MB file could become 10% of 1 MB by doing so. Even if you reduce to 700 x 600, maybe 20% of 1 MB. Microsoft has Paint, and a resize tool. Or use https://squoosh.app/, click resize. Or search on google for resize image, there are a ton of free utilities.
#4. Compress the images in something like https://squoosh.app/. Play with the quality bar, you will notice very little difference by using this, then download the image. Again, or you can search google, there are tons of options available online.
We have seen many many times people using a shape (which we have in the studio) they got from somewhere else, and it is 20 MB. This is craziness! Using the shape in the studio I would guess would be less then 1% of 1 MB. If you would like a specific shape added to the shape library that you think many will have a use for, let us know, we can consider adding it.
We have seen people use a lined paper image that is 25 MB and add to 200 pages of a project. I have to ask why??? That means your project has imported 5 GB of lined paper. We have lined paper templates. They again would take up less than 1% of 1 MB or less per page. You may say, well I don't like the 3 spacings you offer, and you liked the one you found online. You can change spacing between the lines in the "Between Lines" box by changing the number.
Last thing, to understand better, the reason that your project could be running slowly is because the images that you are uploading are MASSIVE, and this is a browser limitation which needs to download each image locally when you switch between pages. When each page has layer upon layer upon layer, this can cause a massive slow down. When you switch back and forth between the pages, these all have to load locally within chrome. This could also make your PDF much too big for Amazon. Also older computers or not fast enough computers, or computers with not enough memory, may not be able to handle this well and cause even more slowness on your side.
Interior file size limit is 650 MB, yes when your project downloads as a PDF, the size gets shrunk down in the process, but it could be rejected on KDP for being to large. As well if it is, 300 mb, 400, or 500 MB, it can take a long time to upload on KDP side and if you don't have a good connection cause a failure to upload, then you have to try again.
In closing, please understand that even in this day and age, some common sense needs to be applied here and everyone should have some concept of MB (Megabytes), how large they can be, multiplying the images added and how massive a project could get and actually not expect the studio to be able to handle everything without issue and have the unreal expectation that it should and no matter what, it all should be instant no matter what you do.
Very last closing remark, I do not mean to belittle anyone who does not understand that 25 MB is MASSIVE, but it is. I do not think a lot of people understand file sizes or what is small or big anymore and if they even look. So, I tried to put this in the simplest of terms for all to understand by using percentages in a lot of cases.
We have since added some optimization concerning images of a large file size that will reduce the size of them as they are uploaded into the studio. They could end up with the extension webp as well. It is still highly recommended that you optimize the images in a Graphics program or app like Squoosh first instead.