simple illy file with 5 signs is 38mg!!!

[gabagoo]

I am going slightly crazy with a file. It was origianlly set up in cs5 and from what I can tell should be 5 very simple vectored signs. mostly type with a litlle bit of a redraw.

I cant open it in anything I have so I took it to my designer and he has cs4. he got it open although it acted very strange and when i asked him to zoom into one section the lines were staircasing like a bitmap, yet we could not find any bitmaps and we gave up
I then emailed it to my son who has cs5 in a brand new sony laptop and he said it crashed twice and he gave up.

I emailed the client and told him to save it down to cs2 and also as an eps file. I also explained that the file is acting very strange and crashed my sons computer. He did save it down although he put some comment in his reply about me not upgrading...what a dick...in any case he now sends me a zip file and I extract it and try again to open it in Flexi. It takes about 4 minutes to open and insides of letters are missing and there is mask after mask on this thing and I cant seem to break it apart without losing info, so I decide to open it in cs2 and again a snails pace it opens and I decide to export 1 sign out of the 5 and again slow and very uncooperative.

I thought maybe I will email it to my son again and I click on the file and see that it is 38meg. Now what the hell is going on here and how can 5 so simple vector based signs be so large and so impossible to deal with. I think this guy redrew them on top of bitmaps and has left them in the background or something crazy like that. I have spent well over an hour to deal with something that should never have given me a problem in the first place

I give up...

 

[Malkin]

maybe not related, but when saving .eps from Illy, turn the "Preview" setting to OFF. It will reduce the file size greatly, most especially files with a large print size.

 

[Baz]

A couple of things i would try is:

- Create a new Illustrator window ... Place the file in and have the "link" checkbox unchecked.

- Last resort for me is to open it in Photoshop at a high resolution and save a .jpeg of it.

Hope you get it working.

 

[petesign]

Either that, or he has drop shadows, 3d extrude and bevel, or other effects on some of his work in there. Or he has done clipping masks on some bitmaps.

 

[Si Allen]

Of course it is time to upgrade ... to a smarter class of customers!


:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

 

[gabagoo]

Of course it is time to upgrade ... to a smarter class of customers!


:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

indeed lol

 

[ForgeInc]

I dunno...honestly if you get much art directly from customers I would upgrade too. I mean, cs2? If I gave art to someone who only had cs2 I would be a little reluctant too....

 

[gabagoo]

I dunno...honestly if you get much art directly from customers I would upgrade too. I mean, cs2? If I gave art to someone who only had cs2 I would be a little reluctant too....

dude, I dont print from cs 2 3 or 12 .... You mean everytime adobe decides to upgrade their software I have to go out and buy a new rip program? not happening.

Theres no reason why DESIGNERS should not learn how to make files properly if others need to access them.
Did I not mention that even my sons laptop less than 2 weeks old and equipped with cs5 crashed not once but twice while trying to open this file? What good would me having the program do in this instance.

 

[GAC05]

May be some options that are being set in CS5 at export.
I had a eps file sent to me with a similar problem.
It was 118megs and would not open in my up to date Illustrator CS5 (pc version).
I had the designer (who said it was done in CS5) re-save the file to a lower version and it came back at only 38megs and opened fine.
It contained a large background bitmap and just a few vector objects for an 8x12ft billboard. No effects at all.

wayne k
guam usa

 

[signswi]

All print vendors should have the latest edition of Adobe CS, period. And any other software they support for incoming files. Cost of business.

 

[HulkSmash]

dude, I dont print from cs 2 3 or 12 .... You mean everytime adobe decides to upgrade their software I have to go out and buy a new rip program? not happening.

Theres no reason why DESIGNERS should not learn how to make files properly if others need to access them.
Did I not mention that even my sons laptop less than 2 weeks old and equipped with cs5 crashed not once but twice while trying to open this file? What good would me having the program do in this instance.

Forge i have to agree with him. I do have cs5, but as a designer they should know always save as an EPS version 8 with fonts outlined. It opens in ANY version. Just my opinion.

 

[Custom_Grafx]

38mb shouldn't take that long to open...

What are you computer specs?

If it's a simple graphic, that's too big for sure though...

There are a few things that make files bigger than they need to be in illy;

1) generating a PDF compatible .ai file. This actually embeds a PDF file within the ai file, significantly increasing the size of your file. The only downside that I'm aware of if you uncheck this option at save, is that you won't be able to open the .ai file in adobe acrobat... there are also issues with placing the file into indesign etc... but for the most part... a waste of mb

2) What Malkin said - if it's an eps.

3) Raster effects settings. If this is at 300dpi, and the art has dropshadows or other effects which utilise rasters... watch out! especially if the signs are big.

4) Unused brushes, swatches, patterns etc

5) There could be 'hidden' layers or objects

That's all I can think of for now... but in any case, your client sounds like a bit of a douche... good luck