Having trouble rasterizing a big AI file

[jayws84]

Hello,

I've made a piece of artwork in Illustrator that contains a decent amount of lines and paths, and a lot of layered effects and different blending modes. The file is around 118 mb in size at this moment, and I'm it's slightly above 200x112 cm in size. I've worked in 72 dpi this far to make it possible to work with at all. But not that I'm finished and need to make a print-ready PDF, I want to switch to 300 dpi. This results in my pc working for a very long time until Illustrator finally seems to freeze completely. Last time I tried, I had it running for about an hour until finally getting a message that some object could not be rasterized due to lack of memory. I clicked "OK" and it continued the process, seemingly getting nowhere until I finally gave up and closed the app.

I've managed to test-print a small A4 version of the piece at home, but had to check the "print as image" option for the PDF file. When I first tried printing it normally, Acrobat took forever to "simplify" the image (going from 47% to 58% in around half an hour). I didn't have time to let it run at the time. And this was with the 72 dpi version of the AI file, first mounted in InDesign and then exported to a PDF. I'm counting on the printer I'm going to send it to to have slightly better hardware than I do, but I still need to be able to rasterize the artwork in 300 dpi before that.

I'm not sitting on a massively powerful PC, but with an Intel i5 6500, 8 GB of RAM and a GTX 970 gpu I feel like I should be able to get things done even if they take a bit of time.

I'm sort of at a loss here. I'm thinking I might try importing the vector information into Photoshop and re-work the raster effects there instead, but I'm not sure wether this will be a huge waste of time before ending with a similar problem or if PS will be able to handle it better.

I'm thankful for any sort of help and input on the matter.

[JonathanArias]

why not created a document on indesign at the size you want. place the .ai file. and export?

you can turn high performance mode off on your indesign for things to move faster

[jayws84]

That is not really the issue, though. I did exactly that when making a small test print the other day. But the AI file I place in InDesign still has raster effects at 72 dpi. So I want to finish it up in 300 dpi before placing and exporting. Am I wrong in thinking I need to do it this way?

[marliton]

If you need a PDF for print, in Illustrator, just create the PDF with a PDF/X preset and send that PDF.

[jayws84]

Alright, seems like I've confused myself in all this. The raster setting in Illustrator is for preview purposes only and as long as I set the PDF preset to print at 300 dpi I'm all good. Correct?

[marliton]

The "Document raster effects settings" define the quality of the raster based effects, like Drop shadows.

[jayws84]

Yes, and I use a lot of those (inner and outer flow, radial and gaussian blur, as well as several gradients and transparency). That's what I mean, I want all these effects to be high enough resolution for printing. I've had that setting set to 72 dpi as I've worked.

[marliton]

Just define 300ppi in the "Document raster effects settings" and create the PDF. That's all.

[jayws84]

That's what I'm trying to do. That's when Illustrator starts rasterizing for a really long time before it freezes.

[marliton]

Try with 150ppi. Save, and then, up to 300ppi.

Another solution is: scale the .ai file to 400% and import that file to InDesign or Photoshop, then scale to 25% and create the PDF.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

With the RAM limitations I doubt either solution will work.

The issue is as soon as the OP tries to change resolution from 72, AI locks up.

Only solution is to either simplify the artwork or send the file to another computer with more RAM that can process the image properly.

You have to remember 8 GB of RAM is total, you have to include other apps or OS utilizing that RAM which means AI really has less.

[jayws84 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for reading and understanding my predicament. I managed to borrow a powerful laptop at work with 16gb of ram and it's much easier to work with. However, I did get one error message when switching to 300 dpi, saying there's not enough memory to rasterize an object. After clicking "ok" it continued and was finally done. I double checked and the raster setting is at 300 dpi now. I don't know what object might have been an issue and I will try to see if something isn't high enough resolution still.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

No - you would still need to convert your document raster effects settings to 300 or you will end up with a hi res PDF with low res raster effects.

[jayws84]

Oh, then I understood it correctly from the start and I've still got the same problem. Guess I'll have to try and simplify the artwork as best I can. The question remains, it there a point in switching over to Photoshop in this case?

And yes, I'm aware 8gb is the bare minimum but that's all I have at the moment. I recently bought 8 more seem to either have gotten a faulty stick, or my mobo just doesn't like it.

[marliton]

Hi. Have you tried to create the PDF without rasterizing the vector information?

[John Mensinger]

Have you tried to create the PDF without rasterizing . . . ?

Right. Why are you rasterizing?

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

8GB of RAM is the bare minimum for Illustrator.

If you have a complex image with a lot of raster effects you may need some assistance converting them all back to hi res (300).

[DaNewbie]

I had this issue just now and was looking for a solution in the community, but couldn't find anything. I am now copying and pasting each element into a new file that I can make 300ppi in the document raster settings. I then export that element as a single asset and place it back into the design as a 300ppi PNG. It looks good on screen and isn't taking forever to load the blur. I hope it works for exporting 300ppi print-ready PDF. I will let you know when I'm done.