Expert: Amy - 10/1/2007

Question
Any suggestions for getting CS3 (or CS2)to open a file that contains a large(400mb) linked cmyk Tiff? So far "Not enough memory to load the TIFF file" appears then AI fails to even open the file. AI 10 opens this file with all links without any problems; XP pro, 2 gis ram. Error appears under XP pro on machine with max ram, 3.25 gigs and plenty of scratch disk space.

Answer
Hi Charles.

Try something like this:

Make a copy of the linked tiff file.
Open (in PhotoShop) the copy of the tiff that is actually linked to the AI file.
Change the contents of that tiff to something simple but keep the image size/canvas size the same. Just reduce the size of the contents to something like a solid block of color.
Save it.

Open the AI document. Hopefully, the file will open this time. Select the dummy tiff file and replace the original over it.

If the same problem happens again, you may need to open that original tiff and save it as something new... something probably went bonkers in the tiff.

Let me know if this worked.
Amy