I have an Illustrator file that is pretty big 2.5gb to be exact. There are a lot of complex bristle brushes to make a chalkboard effect for the background and there are also text and illustrations using the brush as the strokes.
It's for a big print file that will be 7' wide by 5' tall. Illustrator is advising me to rasterize the bristle brushes before saving, but I'm worried if I do the final outcome will look pixelated when printing. My artboard is the exact dimensions as what the final print size will be. My client told me they were thinking of printing on a foam board through FedEx.
So my questions are:
Should I rasterize the brush paths before printing?
Can I make the artwork smaller to decrease the file size and the print company can blow it up to the right dimensions before printing?
What should I export the artwork as (pdf, tiff, ai, etc)
This is my first big print project through Illustrator so any information and help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!