can't open the illustration. There is not enough room for the window; increase document area and try

[spacecadet1968-4OftIO]

Hi,

I'm in CS4 and trying to open an eps file and get the message:

Can't open the illustration. There is not enough room for the window; increase document area and try again.

The file won't even open, and I've never had this message before. Does anyone know how to fix or deal with this?

Thanks,

Michael

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

I never have seen this error either.

What platform and version?

[spacecadet1968-4OftIO]

AI CS4 on a Mac G5 OS 10.5.8 dual 2GHz

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

First try this and se if it works

1. Quit Illustrator.
2.Go to User/username/Library/Preferences/ Adobe illustrator CS4 Settings and trash the settings folder, the whole folder not just the contents of the folder..
3. Start Illustrator. Illustrator creates a new preferences file.

If that does not work then create a new user account and log into that user account and see if the same thing happens.

[Randall_A__Gordon]

For me, the problem was being created by something that, in retrospect, makes complete sense, but is also rediculous!

The main application window was sized too small. That's it, that's all. I've been keeping the files I have open in windows detached from the main window and had apparently sized it too small vertically—I was attempting to save some wasted space so I could see windows below Ai.

I was able to faithfully recreate the issue by sizing the window as small vertically as is allowed, attempting to open a file and getting the error; then immediately increasing the window's size and attempting to open again—this time successfully!

[OisinDesmond]

Such a simple solution, I can't believe I didn't think of it myself...

[marquizzo1]

This is tacky. Yes, I know that there are a few workarounds (deleting settings, or sticking only to Ctrl+O dialog window), but they're all a very sloppy solution by Adobe. They're touting that with "Illustrator CS6, we reworked all panels and dialogues from the ground-up", yet this problem keeps plaguing us all the way back from before CS4. When is Adobe going to take this issue seriously? It's been years!

[pantalones]

This happened to me, too. Tried resizing the window and it didn't work. Incredibly disappointing that this could happen. Why could I work on the file before, save it close it, then not be able to re-open it. I have lost a lot of work on this file. Could somebody please help?

[Silkrooster]

Just by reading the other posts, since i don't have a Mac, would it be possible the screen resolution is set too low. I am trying to think of a situation where the document window needs to be larger than the apps window.

But when loading an eps file, the document should be zoomed out enough for it to fit within the apps window size. I can not think of a situation where the document would be zoomed out so far that it would hit the limits of illustrator. Though I suppose it could be possible.

[Silkrooster]

another thought came to me, the document window could also hit the maximum document size, but you should have received an error when creating the file, not when loading it back in.

Maybe it is exactly just what Wade has said, the preference file has been corrupted.

[phelps_phan]

I had this problem also, I realized that the window size literally was too small. I just dragged the window to the window size of my screen. then it worked!

[KhongAi156]

thank you, i was tried with drag and drop and then it worked

[allih33996350]

Just drag it to the top part to its normal place and click the green expand button. the window will expand to the normal illustrator interface.

[Monika Gause]

Resize the application window. Just grab its lower right corner and drag.

[James_Strickland]

How do you increase the application window on a Mac? All you have is the document window, and the document can't open up.

[Larry G. Schneider]

Try turning off the Application Frame and the Application Bar from the Window menu and then try opening the file.

[coenbpp]

I just get this problem recently, and my solution is.

1. open a new file

2. change to full screen mode

3. command O to open the file with problem.

4. solved! yay!

[emellyl66937008]

Thank you so much it really helped!!

[jgr1128]

I'll add an update to this problem using a Windows 7 Toshiba laptop running CS6 - I began to recieve the same message and Illustrator would resize itself to 1"h x 5"w box in the upper left of my screen.  Illustrator itself would be hidden behind the error dialogue box.

This would happen when I'd select an Illustrator file in Windows Explorer.  The first workaround was to maximize Illustrator and open the file through the Illustrator File>Open dialogue.  This always worked.

The final fix was to manually resized illustrator to about 1/3 screen size and try to open the file again in Windows Explorer.  Finally the files would open from Windows Explorer.  Keep reading.

However, each time I opened a file Illustrator would do a little hula dance and resize a good bit smaller than what I'd manually set it to.  It took about 4 resizes and 4 opening of files  = each time resizing the illustrator window larger until it actually occupied the whole screen.  It's working normally now.

[jjshinobi]

This error happened to me on Adobe Illustrator CS6 when I had 4 projects opened and I tried to open an SVG file. I saved all my work. Exited out. Double clicked on the SVG file and it opened.

I'm running a Dell Laptop with Windows 8 Pro 64-bit, i3 U330 (1.20GHz), 2GB RAM so it might have been a memory / CPU issue.

[Guillaume-Mur-WIZTIVI]

Thanks, I was fighting illCs6 (windows7) with the exact same problem as all of you, and jgr1128 solution solved it.

Crazy though, if at one point you close illustrator while the main frame too small (usually due to some crash/inexpected quit/...), it will remember it and reopen at the same size.

Open some files while fullscreen, then close illustrator, do that a few times and it will finally remember you want it fullscreen

Finally I can open smartobjects from photoshop and files from the explorer without ctrl-O or other stupid workaround breaking the workflow

Thanks again jgr1128

[brentil]

jgr1128's issue is what our graphic artist started having this last week with IL in CS6 fully patched (it actualy just patched itself then this started happening) on Win 7 64bit.  The main window would resize itself every time to be about 1x5 and would give this error every time.  Opening the file from the Open menu or dragging the file to the files tab worked but anytime they double clicked a file it would give this error.  Manually resizing the window and closing it fixed the issue.

[rebeccatelrock]

I has this issue, I thought it was a problem with a legacy version of illustrator and thats why the document wouldn't open. But infact it was a very simple bug within illustrator, the document window was not attached to the illustrator main window, it was minimised. I think if you try opening a blank document and dragging it up and attach it back to the illustrator window and then try opening the illsurator document you couldn't open before. It should work and you dont get the problem of the document not auto sizing when you try and open a new document.

Please adobe staff fix this error, if the document is not attached to the application window the document window should still auto re-size. This is a very irritating error.

[Gohunter]

Thanks, your suggestion worked.

This is really weird problem

[rebeccatelrock]

To update on this issue, it appears that I can only open an illustrator file using the file>open, route. But I am able to open files when the document window is not maxamised in the application window.

This is such a weird bug