The file size is 218mb In any case I gave up and used Preview Cheers Geoff Sent from my iPhone ... View more

Well, the InDesign method worked in theory, but failed after a few pages due to the size of the images. It beach-balled continuously. So I completed the project manully using Preview. Oh well. Thanks for all your suggestions ... View more

Thank you, the InDesign place method works. I found the Place Options, and am just placing the single artboard layer that I need each time. It does pin the file name, but I can deal with that ... View more

Thanks. I had already trued "export as" but it doesn't have a final dimension option, only pixels-per-inch.   I think I am going to fall back on plan B, which is to re-open the PDFs in preview and resave them to the desired dimensions. A waste of time but straightforward ... View more

Thanks. "Scale Content with Artboard option is turned on in the preferences" where is that? I've looked and searched online but can't find it.   Also, I'd prefer a solution where I don't have to copy the artwork. It is likely to change after review by the printers, which means I have to repeat that operation. I'd rather multiple views onto the same artwork, each view scaled. ... View more

Thanks for your advice. I have solved my saving problem by doing two things: (Most important) Choosing "save As" and unselecting "PDF compatible" Replacing the embedded image by a linked image It now saves in 20 seconds, down from 20 minutes 🙂 Cheers Geoff ... View more

I am sorry, but I do not understand what you mean by that expression. Let me describe my file. This is a map for a historical board game. The bottom-most layer is an imported jpeg image, a scan of a historical map. The base map layer is never printed or exported. Above that are about 30 layers, the majority of which are lines, patterns, and simple polygons. I use swatches extensively. A small number of layers have a small amount of text. One of those text layers is below some transparent layers, but the majority of the text layers are not. What is really weird is that the file opens in about 20 seconds, but takes 15+ minutes to save even though if I make no changes I just ran some timings. Saving as a CC illustrator file (*.ai) the progress bar reached the right hand-end after 7 minutes. It just finished after 16 minutes, although obviously the progress bar did not move move after 7 minutes. The only message the dialog displayed is "Saving Illustrator file" so I can't give you much information. I then timed "Save as" for a PDF, with only "Embed Page Thumbnails" selected. Acrobat 6, because it is the default - I could easily change that. That took 63 seconds. I deleted all the text layers and saved as an ai again (using a copy of my file). This tie it took 10 minutes for the progress bar to reach the end, and then the save actually ended at 19 minutes. So deleting the text has no real effect I have not been able to reproduce the converting text to outlines event. Perhaps that was a one-off conversion, although when I look at my backups the file size has not changed significantly.  I'll try going to a backup copy of the file tomorrow night. The "export for web" file was produced using that dialog by that name, and contains virtually every layer apart from the base map. tl;dr It would be very helpful if Adobe had a tool that showed me how much storage (and CPU time for storing) was being used by each layer or type of graphic element. That would enable me to work out why my file is slow to save – it is not the text. I used to write vector graphics editors for a living so I know that my file should not be that complex, I am doing something wrong according to the way AI wants me to work. But it does not give me enough information to work out what is wrong. Cheers Geoff ... View more

I use Adobe Illustrator CC 2018 22.1, I always keep it up to date Macbook Pro, retina display, 16GB RAM MacOS 10.13.6 It now takes 20 minutes to save the file, and it is over 2GB. Therefore I save infrequently, which is more dangerous. By comparison an "export for screens" JPEG is about 100MB. It would be nice to have a utility that told me what was taking so much time and space  – it could be the fonts (because it displays that disturbing message), or it could be something I am doing wrong with swatches (I suspect I am being inefficient with them). I will conduct an experiment tonight - remove all text from the file and see if anything changes. Cheers Geoff ... View more

I also have the same issue and it seriously affects my productivity. Some of my text is in white, not black. Is that what is causing them to be "colored fonts"? Cheers Geoff ... View more

Mac: 10.12.5 (16F73) CC: 2017.1 release, 12.1.0.56 Build I can't move the files off dropbox  because then all the inter-file cross-references will break. Cross references use absolute file paths, not relative paths, which is very inconvenient. The files are effectively pinned in pace (I suspect it is possible to write a script to correct them, but I haven't looked deeply into that). Is there such a script? By using the cross-reference pane I was able to find and repair some of them. Even if I can fix them all that way and that fixes the crashing problem, it is still the case that InDesign should not crash when it encounters a dangling cross-reference - it should give a good message and then stop trying to update them. Cheers Geoff ... View more