Why My Spreadsheet File is So Big
Today I noticed that a spreadsheet I use had a file size significantly higher than I’d expect: 2 worksheets, maybe 100 rows, but somehow 31.2 MB. (I’m using LibreOffice.)
Fortunately, it didn’t take long for me to find the problem: embedded fonts.
Solution
- Open the file in LibreOffice Calc.
- File > Properties….
- Go to the Font tab.
- Uncheck the various settings for embedding fonts in the document.
- Save the file and watch the file size decrease.
How I Got Here
I installed 7-Zip and listed the contents of the spreadsheet file (7zz l $FILENAME). I noticed font files. I inferred that LibreOffice had embedded the font files in the spreadsheet file. I searched the web and learned how to stop doing that.
What’s odd is that I don’t remember embedding fonts in this document, so maybe I did it by accident. I also couldn’t find any kind of sticky preference in LibreOffice that would embed fonts in new documents by default. This means that I have no idea how this happened; I presume that information is lost to time.