I’ve created a repeat square that uses rasterised vector illustrations, the reason being that placing all the illustrations without rasterising into a repeat square will make the file massive (1gb +) to the point of unworkable.
When I started this project, I thought it’d be smart and more efficient if I were to vectorise these illustrations so I could easily change colours and assign PMS shades to it if need be, but what I’ve ended up creating are very large files (around 500-700mb each) that are slow to save and work with as the files use a lot of custom watercolour and bristle brushes that use transparency.
SO, using raster images for the repeat square has been working fine for me until recently, when a digital fabric printer asked me to send them an unflattened file so they can make sure the colour matches a PMS swatch!
I’m panicking and wishing I'd created these illustrations in PS.
I wonder if, without rasterising, there is anything I can do to the bristle and watercolour brush strokes that will lighten the file size???
Any help will be greatly appreciated, thank you!