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Make Illustrator multi threaded on CPU

Illustrator performance is awful, its slow and lumbering at all but the most basic operations. It is bound to only a single cpu thread which is ridiculous now in an age of multi core and multi thread CPU's and it has been this way for many years. It cannot handle background tasks and is completely out of parity in function and performance with other Adobe software such as photoshop and inDesign.

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Started (Available In Beta)  ·  AdminAvinash Singh Kotwal (Principal Product Manager, Adobe Illustrator) responded  · 

Adobe Illustrator's Multithreading Journey Begins!

 

Dear Illustrator Community,


I'm thrilled to announce that we've embarked on an exciting journey to bring multithreading capabilities to Adobe Illustrator. This significant undertaking will enhance performance and responsiveness across various aspects of the application.


While this is a complex process that will take some time to fully implement, I wanted to share our progress so far.


Our Approach

We've strategically begun by focusing on the most computationally intensive operations—those that typically take more time and block the main thread, resulting in slower response times while you work. By moving these operations to separate threads, we aim to significantly improve your overall experience with Illustrator.


It's important to note that you may see more noticeable impact in some areas than others initially. However, we want to assure you that this is just the beginning, and we will continue this journey to bring improvements across the entire application.


What We've Accomplished So Far


We've already moved a few areas to multiple threads:

- Periodic document back-up

- Snapping guide generation

- Rasterization (currently for JPEG, PNG, and TIFF formats)

- Thumbnail generation for layers

- Linked/Embedded image (jpg, png, tiff) handling


What to Expect

These improvements will lead to more responsive and faster performance in several key areas:


- Placing multiple images

- Embedding linked images

- Object > Rasterize

- Export to PNG format

- Document opening with heavy linked images

- Simultaneous placement and drag-and-drop of multiple linked/embedded images (JPEG, PNG, and TIFF files)


We're committed to enhancing your Illustrator experience, and this is just the beginning. While the full implementation will take time, we're excited about the improvements already in place and those yet to come.


Stay tuned for more updates as we continue this journey. Your patience and support are greatly appreciated as we work to make Illustrator faster and more efficient than ever before.


Try It Now in Beta!

We're excited to announce that these multithreading improvements are available for you to try right now in our Beta builds. You can access these builds through the Creative Cloud Desktop App:

  1. Open the Creative Cloud Desktop App
  2. Navigate to the "Beta apps" section
  3. Look for the Illustrator Beta and download it to experience these performance enhancements firsthand


We encourage you to try out the Beta version and share your feedback with us.


Thank you for being part of our community!


Best regards,

Adobe Illustrator Team

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  • Bradley Smith commented  ·   ·  Report

    PLEASE : this should be the next update and only update. NO MORE FEATURES TILL THIS IS COMPLETE.

  • Jonathan Clark commented  ·   ·  Report

    @Luis and @Anonymous I also purchased all three Serif/Affinity apps during their half off sale. I cut my personal Adobe subscription. I still use Adobe at work but have found there are some high complexity vector files that cannot handle and that Affinity Designer handles with ease. I will say though that the biggest leg up Adobe Illustrator has over Designer is the shape builder tool. For logos and character illustrations it is a huge time saver... but when it comes to uber complex vector files like large Open Street vector maps, Designer thrives while Adobe derps. With that said, I enjoy both sets of software. They both have their strengths and weaknesses... and one costs far less.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    @Luis I actually took steps toward what you mentioned and purchased all 3 of the Serif/Affinity apps during the holiday bundle offer and got them less than paying Adobe for 2 months of service. It's not a direct replacement but will be soon.

  • Luis Encuentra commented  ·   ·  Report

    Adobe is slept about Illustrator performance improvements... Time to stop paying and move to Affinity.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    @Will Carvalho. exact information? did not provide such information for adobe illustrator 2021? Shouldn't it introduce it as innovation?

  • Will Carvalho commented  ·   ·  Report

    Absolutely Essential in 2020!

    Please get Illustrator 2021 to take advantage of Multi Thread CPU's. It should use all CPU and RAM that you set in preferences, just like Photoshop or Premiere.

    Using a Mac Mini 2018 I7 with 64GB of Ram, Catalina, and a 2015 iMac I7 32GB of Ram, Mojave, and only Illustrator does not take advantage of it all.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    5K imac ai cc 2020 Overprint mode very very sloow, help Adobe help.

  • whstlblwr commented  ·   ·  Report

    "between Intel and AMD the challenge is who produces processors with fewer nanometers and more cores .... who 10 cores, who 12, who 16 cores .... "

    technology advancements are fuelled by competition in the marketplace, the problem with illustrator is the only real competition they face is piracy, so we have a application with 12 different adobe background binaries running before you even open illustrator! If adobe put as much time into rewriting illustrator for multithreading as they do into battling against adobezii.com with EVERY SINGLE REVISION.. then it would have been completed years ago!

    Pirates gonna pirate, is it really worth all that effort to have the latest version uncrackable for that two or so weeks before it is cracked again? Maybe if they earned the $79/month they're asking for, more people would choose to pay it.

  • Sandra Lockwood commented  ·   ·  Report

    Support for multiple cores is essential for illustrator. There isn’t any point in having a fast multi core machine if the software can’t use it. The downside is after using Affinity designer - which is a great piece of software I still have to supply my clients with illustrator files which it can’t produce. EPS or SVG don’t translate very well to be usable. I’m hoping that Adobe will take the multi core issue seriously and when they have to create a re-write for Mac silicon build this in as standard. I won’t hold my breath though.

  • Nikolas Karampelas commented  ·   ·  Report

    I have switched to affinity designer too, it just works. Especially with heavy files.
    The problem is the rest of the industry doesn't seem to follow and I still need illustrator to open downloaded stock graphics...

  • Andy commented  ·   ·  Report

    SO the comment re: affinity, I'm giving it a try. Something is different, could it be multi-threading with upto 96% cpu usage? Anyway, it's much, much more usable on complex files. The toast will have to wait.
    Early days as its a learning curve and I have to look at compatability to ensure that illustrator users can import files without loss, but looking promising.

    And all for a little over 1 months adobe subscription.

  • VincentvE commented  ·   ·  Report

    Who knows, after 3.5 years of asking for artboard rotation in Illustrator (the top request for quite some time) they've finally changed the status to "started" on it a few days ago.

    So there is hope one day we'll get Illustrator to look beyond one core.

  • Eric Bryant commented  ·   ·  Report

    Maybe there is some good news in store at Adobe Max

  • Ken commented  ·   ·  Report

    I would move to Affinity in a heartbeat. I just need the industry to move along with me.
    Im tired of the performance hits year after year. You need a NASA server farm to run Illustrator and funny thing is, you couldn't even cause only 1 CPU core.

  • nicky commented  ·   ·  Report

    between Intel and AMD the challenge is who produces processors with fewer nanometers and more cores .... who 10 cores, who 12, who 16 cores ....
    what good is it if Illustrator uses only 1core?

    I think if they don't wake up in adobe, the move to Affinity is just around the corner.

  • Nikolas Karampelas commented  ·   ·  Report

    This thread is still going and illustrator still only see 1 core? Superb... Even TV sets and smart fridges now have multicore SoCs, yet illustrator still can't utilize more than 1 core...

    Since the last time I wrote here I have moved from a 6 core to an 8core system, everything is running faster except illustrator...

    Unbelievable.

  • Paulo Dias commented  ·   ·  Report

    Adobe seams to have a whole lot of review to do on this subject.

  • Oskar commented  ·   ·  Report

    Agree with Andy. Here we have recently got a Playstation at the office to use while waiting for Illustrator to use up one of all CPU cores. Pretty fun actually.

  • Andy commented  ·   ·  Report

    The good side is:
    It's possible to make coffee and toast during an edit, whilst illustrator lumbers on maxing out at 12.46% of my CPU

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Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests: Performance, Enhancements

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