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.
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:
- Open the Creative Cloud Desktop App
- Navigate to the "Beta apps" section
- 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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VincentvE commented
Sure it doesn't happen overnight like magic.
But both Intel and AMD released their first dual cores in 2005. I had a quad core in 2007... Its 2021... This shouldn't even be a topic. Adobe should have implemented multi threading ages ago. There is simply no excuse for being this late with it. -
MM commented
We need multicore support. I understand that such things don't just happen like magic. At the same time, to pay such a monthly premium (a lot of money for some us) and still experience the same lag problems on even the most beastly machines is beyond ridiculous.
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Oliver Malms commented
Just ask the guys at Serif, how to make a fast, responsive, modern design-app... Come on Adobe - it’s 2021!
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Alex commented
Adding another voice to the crowd. There is no excuse for any application being single threaded when multiple, if not dozens, is the norm nowadays. Since Adobe CC is productivity based and an income generator for many, it is likely to be run on workstation class machines and yet the way these apps utilise available resource is from the 90's. Shame on you Adobe. Use more cores. Use more GPU power. Use more RAM. We have the hardware and your software is the bottleneck.
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Anonymous commented
Why is there no comment from Adobe on this? This has been an issue for YEARS now, and is so obvious now that PC's have so many cores.
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Nikolas Karampelas commented
All in all I think the bigger problem is the subscription. If they had to ask for our money for each update like the old times, they should have something to show to us to make use pay again.
Now that the money flows no matter what, they don't care. -
Neff commented
I just hope the next Updates of Affinity will make Illustrator so obsolete, that they HAVE TO completly rebuild it from the ground.
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MDN commented
I’ve just updated Illustrator. Keen to see what has changed since the last release in October, I checked the ‘Fixed issues’ log. Half a dozen minor-ish items, three of which apply to macOs only. Of the rest:
• Incorrect URL for the Help icon in Recolor dialog
• Display of GPU out of memory error dialog when creating a new document
• Crash and stability issues
I don’t know if our in-house developer would have needed more than a day to resolve those.
And we pay £50p/m/user for this, when issues like this one, and many, many other show stopping bugs and gaps in functionality, go unresolved for YEARS?
It just looks like a very cynical cash-cow. We’ll be seriously looking at detaching ourselves from it this year. -
Ribeye Design commented
Yes agreed, this should be the only feature to focus on. We don't need any of these useless little updates to unimportant tools. Personally being on a low income, combined with witnessing all these important issues that go unresolved for years, I am changing to affinity designer this month.
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Halvor commented
@Siwel … and don't forget Quark XPress who got far too greedy and slowed their innovating (much like Adobe is doing now), which spurred the switch to Adobe InDesign. The Affinity Suite lacks only a few functions for me to move
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Siwei commented
I am shocked when I learned that Illustrator only uses one core. And I feel violated to find out it is actually true.
Adobe if you are looking, people are complaining and talking about leaving Illustrator for Affinity. That cannot be good for business.
If this is not a sign, think about Netscape and Myspace, who were the biggest in the world but lost all their market share because they failed to innovate. Luckily at this stage, the community is only asking for optimization rather than a revolutionary move. You are still in the game. However, every corruption starts somewhere in the system. When it starts to go downhill, it will be extremely hard to pull back.
As a software engineer, I can see how difficult and how much workload involved to make it work, but I also know it is NOT going to be a full rewrite of codes as the functions and features are already there. The key is the sequential computation logic needs to become more concurrent. It is not easy but not impossible neither, but time is ticking till your competitors gain your market share.
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Siwei commented
PLEASE : this should be the next update and only update. NO MORE FEATURES TILL THIS IS COMPLETE.
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ASLCreativeDirector commented
@Nikolas - the squeaky wheel gets the grease, right?
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Oskar commented
@Nikolas, yes, they introduced a new simplify tool which is completely unusable!
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Nikolas Karampelas commented
you guys talk like illustrator is getting a ton of new features or something...
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ASLCreativeDirector commented
Agreed
"PLEASE : this should be the next update and only update. NO MORE FEATURES TILL THIS IS COMPLETE."
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Eric Bryant commented
Any update on this, Adobe?
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Bradley Smith commented
PLEASE : this should be the next update and only update. NO MORE FEATURES TILL THIS IS COMPLETE.
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Jonathan Clark commented
@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.
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Anonymous commented
@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.