I am working on a document where I import bitmap that appears in multiple times in the same document. I know that embeded bitmap takes more space, but I want to know if cloning the bitmaps, instead of duplicating it, makes sure that only 1 copy of the bitmap will be contained within the file.

Once the file is exported as PDF, is it still the case? Does it keep one or multiple copies of the same bitmap? Is there an option to make sure the bitmaps does not get duplicated in the PDF.

I have just tried to do this with a simple test with multiple cones of the same image.

When you clone an embedded image, the file will only contain the one copy of the image:
Image file-size: ~0.5Mb
SVG filesize: 1 Image embedded: ~0.95Mb
SVG: With 10 clones of image: ~0.96Mb

PDF with one image: 0.7Mb
PDF with 10 clones (moved only): 7Mb
PDF with 10 clones (scaled/rotated and skewed): 7Mb

-So it looks like it is including copies in the PDF ;-( Not sure if there is an option to change that.

Tom