Some Illustrator brushes are running slowly. Why?

RetroSupply Illustrator brushes are created to perform efficiently while maintaining as much detail as possible. However, adding texture and shading in Illustrator can use a lot of memory and can slow down your computer.

We suggest the following best practices:

  • Work with one artboard at a time and avoid duplicating your work over and over in a single Illustrator file. It is best practice to apply brush strokes to one illustration on one artboard per Illustrator file. In other words, if you have four illustrations you are working on, it is best to create one file per illustration instead of making all four illustrations in one file.
  • Be economical with your strokes. Only use a handful at a time until you know how much your computer can handle.
  • Apply your brush strokes in different layers, if possible. This way, you can switch off the layers you aren’t working on to reduce processing and save time.
  • Do not expand your strokes. This will bloat your file size and make the file lag, therefore making it more challenging to work with.
  • To prevent Illustrator from burning out, strip down your shapes and strokes to only the necessary points. Use the pen brush instead of the brush tool to have more control over points. Or, use the blob brush + option over an existing brush stroke to reduce the number of points.
  • Close all unnecessary programs while working in Illustrator. Internet browsers take up more CPU than Illustrator.

You can read more about how to improve Illustrator performance here.

Need brushes? Check out our selection of high-quality Illustrator brush products.