Adobe Illustrator CS is impossibly slow rendering text edits. A reason or solution?

Going to need more information to figure this out. It sounds like Illustrator is either excessively swapping or has a scratch disk problem.

What kind of system is this -- Mac, PC? How many fonts do you have? How much memory in your system? How much drive space for Illustrator and the scratch disk?

Hi stevenjs,

It would sound like a memory problem but without additional data it'll be hard to pinpoint. Besides the questions asked by mjlodge, Are you running other apps in the background? Do you keep several documents open in Illustrator at the same time? Does the problem also ocurr if you switch Illustrator to Outline view? If on a PC, having both TrueType and Type1 version of the same fonts causes erratic behaviour in some Adobe apps like Photoshop and Illustrator.

Good Vibes!

Lobo

Gentlemen, thank you.

I am on a PC. I have only a small number of fonts (I can count on my fingers the number of fonts I've added beyond the default fonts). I have 512Mb RAM, 18Gb separate hard drive scratch, the drive with Illustrator on it has 40 Gb free, there may be a several apps in the background, but closing these does not help, I have not tried switching to outline view, how would I know whether I have a TrueType and Type1 version of the same font?

Thanks.

regards,

stevenjs
________________________
--Stranger in a Strange Land

Illustrator doesn't allow graphics display changes right?

if it did, turn off graphics display while you do the edits. (so the bitmap isn't showing. ) in the page and having to refresh it.

There are minimal "graphics" showing or refreshing. Just text. S L O W  S L O W  S L O W  

stevenjs

Hi steven,

To see if you have TrueType and Type1 one versions of the same font installed you either browse through the font list in Illustrator (it will display the same font twice) or look into your font management software if you use such.

Do you notice this slowness in other apps or only in Illustrator? I would also look into the Task Manager to see what kind of load Illustrator is lutting on the Memory?CPU (although your coonfigration looks fine to me) and see if there's something else sucking up the juice. Could even be a spyware problem.

Good Vibes!

Lobo

Lobo,

No duplicate fonts in the Illustrator font list. I have clean out spyware regularly and have good firewall / anti-everything protection. It is only Illustrator CS (no previous version behaved this way).

I'll check Task Manager next time, but the problem exists even if Illustrator is the only app running.

stevenjs

Thanks, bill.

Unless someone else has some light to shed, I'll probably select your response as the answer.

However, after searching "slow" throughout that interminable thread (albeit fairly informative), I can find nothing really relevant to what I am experiencing.

The two culprits mentioned, the one you describe about visual effects/formatting, and the other mentioned about "Every line updating" in the paragraph palette, are not features I am using. The paragraph palette is set to single line updating, and the rendering is just as slow with some leading or tracking adjustment as with no adjustments or styles of any kind.

regards,

stevenjs
_________________________
--Stranger in a  Strange Land

Something else you may want to check, make sure you're using the latest video drivers for your system. And try creating new blank documents with various fonts to see if you notice any difference in the performance. It's still possible this is a font problem.

Bill,

Could you tell me where I'd go in XP to update video drivers? I had a new motherboard installedl several months ago and you may be on to something there.

stevenjs

The best way to update your drivers is to go to the web site of the manufacturer. If you're using an on-board video controller that's integrted into the motherboard, go to the web site of your motherboard manufacturer, look for the support area, and then locate the driver download section and follow their instructions. You'll need to know the model number of the board. If you have a separate video adapter card, you'll need to visit that manufacturer's web site.

Something else to consider, if you're using an on-board video controller, they often do not have very good performance. If you do a lot of graphics, a decent AGP video card is a good investment.

Okay. Thanks. I don't know what I have. Assuming XP will tell me, where do I look to find out?

stevenjs
_________________________
"I am but an egg."

A quick and easy way:
Right click on your desktop, choose Properties.
Click the settings tab, then click Advanced
There should be an Adapter tab which will tell you what kind of graphics adapter you have, manufacturer, model number, etc. However this information may not always be sufficient.

The best way to find out for sure is to contact the company that built or upgraded your computer. They should be able to tell you exactly what they put in. Or you can open up the case and look for identifying information on the actual circuit boards.
Here's a web site with some references that may be helpful.
http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/reference/idhware.htm 

Well, it properties says SiS 300/305/630/540/730, for what that's worth.

And it says it's functioning normally.

They guy who installed the DFI motherboard only installed what came on the board's CD, if that, and neither the CD nor the MB manual makes any mention of SiS or its driver.

Again, I have to wonder why Illustrator alone would suffer from this slowness were it something systemic.

In any event, where would one go to find out if a driver update is available, or needed?

stevenjs
_________________________
--Stranger in a Strange Land

This indicates you're using a common SIS chipset. SIS doesn't make cards, they only make chips. But you mentioned your board was made by DFI. That means you should visit the DFI web site to download drivers for it. DFI buys chips from other companies and integrates them into their own hardware. They are the best source for device drivers.

Here's something else you can try. In control panel, go to system, click Advanced, then click the settings button under Performance. Click Adjust for Best Performance. This will turn off the fancy visual effects.
It might help.  

It's not unusual for one piece of software to have problems with a specific type of hardware. This happens all the time in the computer gaming market, where games are actually written to take advantage of specific features from particular video card models. I'm not aware of Illustrator having any such requirements, but it's not impossible. However, as I mentioned earlier, lots of other people are reporting slow text editing in Illustrator CS. It may be that Illustrator simply isn't compatible with something on your system.

I still haven't nailed down the problem, but have found a large number of registry problems and some RAM deficiency, which I've corrected, and now the Illustrator problem has at least become intermittent, and at its worst slightly less slow.

regards,

stevenjs
_________________________
"I am but an egg."
--Stranger in a Strange Land