Editing File Management Procedures (section)

====Illustrator Workflow====
[[File:Ppi.png|frame|300px|right|Check your PPI and never use artwork that won't meet production standards]]
File size quickly becomes bloated in Illustrator with multiple artboards and multiple linked files to high-res artwork. The rule of thumb is that if your Illustrator file sizes grows over 100 Mb, it is too large. Every designer has a responsibility to optimize their working files so that they can be easily opened by another. Here are some general rules for achieving workable files:

<blockquote>'''Do not''' embed artwork or screenshots. Ensure that all photos are linked assets and that they are optimally sized for the desired resolution. Ensure that all linked files are in the Art folder before finalizing your assignment.</blockquote>

<blockquote>'''Do not''' link to photos at a PPI higher than necessary. For digital projects, resize linked photos to the desired resolution, rather than link to high-res artwork. Illustrator attempts to save all of the image data to a preview, so linking to 10 100Mb files will create an Illustrator file that grows to 1 terabyte in storage size, which can’t be easily opened across network. If a project grows so large as to require more than 10 linked files across multiple artboards, consider splitting the artboards into separate files.</blockquote>

<blockquote>'''Do not''' copy and paste repeated items across multiple artboards. Use symbols and linked files for shared assets. In web projects, in particular, there are many shared page assets that are repeated across the site, such as logos and headers. Breaking your files down to common assets that are placed into the layout file will create less work when making updates.</blockquote>

Delete unused artboards and scratch work. It is common when creating new concepts to paste inspirations and screenshots outside the work area as a reference. During initial concepts, this is fine, but future versions of the file should eliminate anything that isn’t essential to the design. By v2, there should be no extraneous elements scattered around the primary artboards.

If file size becomes problematic, consider saving Illustrator files with PDF compatibility turned off. These files will not preview in Finder, but will eliminate all of the image data from saving with the file.