Expert: Amy - 10/20/2008

Question
I have Illustrator CS3 on an Intel Mac. I have a ~9 M file that takes ~20 minutes to save. I have another similar file that is slightly larger that takes 2 minutes to save. Both files have a lot of layers (~130), custom brushes, swatches and symbols, and make use of transparency. I've tried Adobe's advice and switched off compression and that brought the save time down to 18 min.

Any suggestions as to how I can get this file to save in a reasonable tome would be appreciated.

thanks,

Al.

Answer
Hi Al,

You've done the Adobe "PDF compatibility off" when saving? That's where I'd start.

Then I'd look at any imported graphics. I do recall an instance where re-importing placed graphics solved a similar problem I was having.

After that, I'd think too many paths. If I didn't want to fool with Pathfinder, I'd run a slight simplify on the paths.
Object>Path>Simplify set at 99.5 percent to reduce the number of anchor points.

The only other thing I can think of is to copy everything into a new file. Not easy, I know. There's probably some slight corruption somewhere in the file that's going to end up causing you a lot of grief.

I also read that there's a problem similar to yours on Mac that has to do with the printer driver that's selected before save. I wonder if it's worth deleting the driver (that's what the reported fix is) ... you could try just choosing another printer driver. The problem was reported with an HP driver.

Of course, there's also the #1 troubleshooting step of deleting AI preferences, which you probably know how to do and might want to try, too. It doesn't sound like the answer in this case but it's always worth trying!

-Amy