Why is Keynote presentations 3x the size of PowerPoint?

Question

Why is Keynote presentations 3x the size of PowerPoint?

Why does a Keynote file build a much larger file then a corresponding Microsoft PointPoint presentation? We are a manufacturer of Smartphone accessories and we would prefer to continue to use Keynote but it is becoming increasingly clear we have to move to MS. In our tests Keynote files are consistently up to 3 x the size. With multiple images in a 1-2 pages Keynote presentation they tend to "blow up" to at least 1 mb, which makes it virtually impossible to create a 40-50 page presentation and send via e-mail. Nobody likes to receive a file over 10 or 15 mb, even in a time when file sharing solutions are abundant.

To settle once and for all if it is correct that Keynote builds much larger presentations we took 13 images and created one of our standard 2-page product presentations (with each image optimized in Photoshop prior).

- We proceeded to build out the presentations in the two programs; inserting one image at a time and measuring the size of the file generated by "save" after each image was inserted.

- As you can see in our screen shot from the Google Sheet adding a total of 274K of images made the PowerPoint file 374K large while the identical Keynote was 961K, roughly 2.5x larger.

- The PPT file used up only 100K for the 2 slide pages (as the images totaled 274K).

- The Keynote obviously used over 300K for each blank page (in addition to the actual size of the 274K images).

Since there are many smart graphic professionals in this Forum we also uploaded all files used in this test to Dropbox, just in case you want re-create our exercise. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/an0cr4r27to3db4/AAA4j5S2qy0QuHJDiOHAlYcoa?dl=0

Summary: Does anyone have any tips or advice how to avoid the above results or do we simply have to move to PowerPoint going forward?

Posted on Oct 21, 2015 3:45 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Dick Powell

Level 1

51 points

Oct 26, 2015 6:49 AM in response to SwedelostinAmerica

Well, I'm not one of the experts on these forums, but I suspect it's because of the dreaded 'versioning' that Apple adopted a few years ago to save us from ourselves (in the process ignoring 20 years of embedded human behaviour which persuades us to regularly Save or Save As). Keynote keeps track of everything you do on a document so that it can reverse to any point. While you only added a few pictures to a small presentation, i'm guessing that the extra size is caused by Keynote remembering versions.

Versioning leads to file bloat - just try doing the same thing with movies! I have long lobbied Apple for a 'Delete History' option under the Duplicate/Save As command or Advanced menu . . . because, even if we value the versioning safety net, once a presentation is complete we never need to go back in time to some earlier iteration of it. A Delete History option would reduce the file size to something more manageable.

In the meantime, you can save some space by choosing File/Advanced/Reduce File Size - so far as I can tell, this just downsizes images to suit the presentation, but it helps.

Hopefully, Gary Scotland will say something sensible here about what's really going on!

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Answer 2

Feb 4, 2016 9:11 AM in response to Dick Powell

To ensure accuracy in our original test dated September 2015 we opened a new Keynote file and a new PowerPoint file so there is no "versioning" or "remembered version" issues involved.

I think at this point we can safely conclude that Keynote files are 3-5x larger then the identical PPT file. Therefore Keynote is not a good choice for any presentations over 10-15 pages if the ultimate distribution method is e-mail. We still create the original files in Keynote but before distribution we copy and paste each page onto a PPT file so the file size is manageable to send as e-mail attachment.

Any suggestion or input would be welcome...

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Answer 3

Guy Burns

Level 2

367 points

Oct 12, 2016 9:48 AM in response to SwedelostinAmerica

I was going to ask a similar question on this forum, but it looks like my question has been answered. Keynote generates excessive file sizes.

An Example

My example comes from my partner: she made a 250-image presentation, with about 600 seconds of transitions (mostly dissolves), some text here and there, and no video or fancy Builds. The file occupies 6.2 GB.

Now, I know that 1920 x 1080 images at the highest jpeg quality, come in under 3 MB. So, 250 of those should occupy less than 750 MB.

I assume that Keynote does not store the actual moving image for dissolves. i.e. that it generates transitions on the fly. However, even if it did store the actual moving images for dissolves, then at the highest-quality Blu-ray rate of 40 Mbps (5MB/s), that would equate to only 600 x 5MB = 3GB.

So, it appears the answer to the bloat is, partly, that Keynote stores versions.

Conclusion

6.2 GB for what should be a 200-300 MB file. Ridiculous. What an utter waste of time, energy and disk space!

Is there a way to reduce the file size – to remove the versions – by Save or Duplicate or some other means?

Is there a Mac alternative to Keynote? If there is, my partner will be moving to it.

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Answer 4

Guy Burns

Level 2

367 points

Oct 12, 2016 10:10 AM in response to Guy Burns

I don't use Keynote, so I don't know much about its capabilities – but would it be possible to export to a certain format (losing the versions on the way), and then import the exported file, thus ending up with a clean file?

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Answer 5

Oct 13, 2016 12:00 PM in response to Guy Burns

Use packaged files: File > Advanced > Change File Type > Package

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