How to FIX LAG in Adobe Illustrator

Are you experiencing lag with Photoshop CC? Here are some tricks to fix that asap because we all know designers hate crashes and delays. You can speed up Photoshop with these simple tricks.

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[JeremyMuradesign]

Hope you enjoyed the new setup guys, smash that like button if you liked this tutorial!

[SomogyiCosmin]

I know that I have looked for tutorials about this thing in the past and then I gave up. Yesterday I couldn't stand Illustrator's performance anymore even though I have a very good computer and I found you. Thank you very much for your help! It really worked for me!

[mistertamura]

I've come to the conclusion that there are no people who don't have issues with illustrator — be it the overall performance, or the shitty reliability. The weird thing is that Illustrator used to be like a Kalashnikov in terms of stability. I can't say what happened or when, but it's kind of pathetic how little is being done to fix the issues.

[CursedKitten]

For anyone here who doesn't want to buy that extension to reduce vector points: select object > simplify in illustrator, it works pretty good.

[Gokulbalram]

On top of this, If you're dealing with a very image heavy file, illustrator can end up chugging, especially when zooming, and panning, making things super frustrating. In such a situation, you can switch into outline mode (CTRL + Y), and pan over to whatever you need, or edit whatever vector, or text you have to. (Although be warned that outline mode also displays any objects outside of a clipping mask, which can make the whole setup look crowded)

Illustrator also has a tendency to slow itself down with certain UI elements. For example:
1. If you're working with a file that has a ton of vectors, especially repetitive patterns of some sort, or just incredibly intricate vectors, and you need to select the whole thing, you will notice illustrator grind to a halt. To avoid this, you can CTRL+H to hide edges (the blue lines and dots that outline the vector shapes and edges).
2. If you have a ginormous number of objects that use gradients, absolutely avoid selecting all of them and trying to change their gradients all at once (this causes illustrator to draw the UI element for the gradient on each of these, causing Ai to crash), instead, change gradient on only one object, and use eyedropper tool to copy it to the others.

These tips are fairly niche, but hopefully it helps somebody out there.

[alexchocron]

First two steps can be done simply by going to the Actions panel found in Window tab.
There's an action called "Delete Unused Panel Items", and once you click on the play button, it'll take care of deleting all brushes, symbols and swatches

[slapitman]

I have been an illustrator user since version 1. I can honestly say that in terms of performance this latest version is the worst. Hidden tools load very slowly despite great onboard RAM, links on networks disappear. Generally the program is now so overloaded with features its beyond an illustrator/designers tool its just cumbersome and slow. Truly over adobe and their latest software offerings.

[motoing]

This worked beautifully for me. I thought the days of fast and responsive AI has passed. Thank goodness good performance is back! Thank you.

[JuanCastro-dxjk]

For me was the animated zoom on my M1 Pro, that fixed it right away, thanks

[Sindig]

If I turn off my GPU (on a brand new Dell XPS), my selection lag improves but it then lags on zooming in and out (non animated). So I get to choose which lag I like best. Thanks, Adobe.

[phoenixxcreative]

dope video! this helps a lot with day to day projects. subscribed!

[zeinabkebari]

wow, thanks a lot, I checked on the CPU Performance and it worked surprisingly!

[alexanderveselak]

The fact that I'm on a brand new M2max mb pro with 32bg and a 1tb ssd and we're talking about stuff like turning off save in background and deleting extra files just to get AI to be useable is... laughable.

Mac pages handles all the text wrap adjustments and all of this stuff like butter, albeit without quite the same level of power. But honestly, this version of illustrator is just a mess.

[daviddipasquale]

A freaking threadripper with a 3090 and 64GB of RAM and I still gotta do this crap.... Unbelievable...

[laperraquehabla]

This video saved my sanity! Thank you 🎉❤🎉❤🎉

[andrewcreativecrew]

Thanks. Refresh these tips every update(s) if you can.

[SmartaPaul]

Thank you Jeremy - this has helped me alot

[olbluehair]

I'm coming from Ai10.03 to the Ai2023 and I am finding all of these videos very helpful. I esp. need to get the Ai lag toned down! I usually use a LOT of layers and 1 of them has a lot of live text, which is often a problem. Today (my first time actually "playing around" with Ai2023 was horrible due to just the lagging going on. I will implement many of these ideas tomorrow. Thanks Much for the video! Cheers!

[michaelyolch]

Dude...SELECT > OBJECT > STRAY POINTS. Works instantly. Thanks for the other tips! :)

[crackshotscreenprinting]

artwork I am working on is two colors, very simple shapes, and I am using the Shape builder tool to remove shapes and each shape I have to wait a really long time to delete them. I don't have many custom graphic styles, but I do have a few fonts, but there are no fonts in my illustration.