Bob the document is a 2 page A4 brochure with a small number of jpg and ai links, I have been grappling with another problem so making various changes and at one point I did link to a PDF file, so maybe this was the issue. I’ve just reprinted the output pdf and the unwanted bleed is now gone.. really strange, but thank you so much for thinking about this.

The other issue I refer to is that one linked ai file is a 2MB illustration with a large number of overlapping transparent shapes. When I export to PDF 1.5 using smallest file size preset it produces a 1.5MB file which is much larger than I would like. Also when I print the PDF file the flattener runs which I would like to avoid (as customer’s may print and it seems unfinished/clunky)

If I convert this vector graphic to uncompressed tiff and link the 6MB tiff the PDF file size is reduced to ~300kb.

I’ve tried exporting to PDF 1.3 and using flattener presets (standard and custom) however the resulting PDF file size (with original 2MB vector) is ~30MB.

Is there any way to produce the flattened 300k PDF from the print/vector version, without creating a second InDesign file using the tiff?

any thoughts appreciated.