System Requirements

Before installing MAPublisher, please ensure that these minimum system requirements are met (recommended requirements are mentioned as necessary):

Windows

• Adobe Illustrator 2023 (27.x) / 2024 (28.x) (64-bit)
• 1 GHz or faster (multi-core processor recommended)
• Windows 10 and Windows 11 (64-bit)
• 4 GB RAM (8 GB RAM or higher recommended)
• 1 GB of available hard-disk space
• Display resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels

  Please note that MAPublisher 11.4 was tested on Adobe Illustrator 27.9 and Adobe Illustrator 28.0. 

Adobe Illustrator 2023 (64-bit) is deprecated in MAPublisher 11.4.

Adobe Illustrator 32-bit is no longer supported.

Mac

• Adobe Illustrator 2023 (27.x) / 2024 (28.x)
• Multi-core Intel or Apple Silicon processor
• macOS 13.0 /14.0
• 4 GB RAM minimum (8 GB RAM or higher recommended)
• 1 GB of available hard-disk space
• Display resolution of 1280 by 800 pixels

Adobe Illustrator 2023 is deprecated in MAPublisher 11.4. Update Adobe Illustrator to continue using the latest MAPublisher release.

macOS Monterey (12.x) is no longer supported.

Additional Notes

Not all foreign language versions of Adobe Illustrator may be supported. Contact support@avenza.com for more information.

Installing MAPublisher on a system that does not meet the minimum requirements may produce unexpected results or errors. These issues may not be supported by Avenza Technical Support.

Memory Recommendations

Occasional Users

A minimum of 4 GB RAM is required. A graphics or GIS user who uses MAPublisher with medium-sized data sets with up to 20 layers, minimal text labels, and some low-resolution or small coverage raster images.

Power Users

The recommended memory for a power user is 8 GB RAM or more. A professional cartographer who uses MAPublisher daily and works with large urban data sets (including large transportation layers) with 20 or more layers, raster-based air photographs, large numbers of text labels, complex fill patterns, etc.

Memory Usage

Users often ask us why so much RAM is needed to operate MAPublisher. First of all, Adobe Illustrator requires a significant amount of RAM itself in order to run smoothly. Secondly, map data sets are often large which increases the need for RAM even further. Map data sets contain both vector and attribute data which must be stored in memory. Since we are adding a database to Adobe Illustrator this increases the file size, which increases the RAM requirements. MAPublisher builds a mini-GIS application inside Adobe Illustrator so that it can geocode information and attach data to objects. This also has some overhead.

GIS users also often ask why so much more memory is needed with MAPublisher than is with GIS software. The graphics environment software of Adobe Illustrator loads the entire file into memory rather than just reading it from disk, thus more RAM memory is required.

When you are importing a large number of files into Adobe Illustrator using MAPublisher, you’ll notice that the amount of available memory will decrease rapidly and your computer loses speed. This is due to memory management. MAPublisher reserves a fairly large amount of memory for each import action, which is not properly returned when the import is done or even when it is canceled. The solution is simple: save your file, close it, and open it again. It’s not even necessary to close Adobe Illustrator itself. By closing the file, the reserved memory is properly returned.

Memory Saving Tips

• Since a percentage of the memory is taken for attribute storage, remove any redundant or otherwise unnecessary attribute fields from the MAP Attributes table of a layer.
• Many sources of street data include paths/vectors that are segmented based on street addressing information. You can use the MAPublisher Join Lines function to join these into single linear features based on a selected attribute field. Reducing the number of objects (and data records) in the map file will free up memory.
• Many GIS data files are large and when a series of such files are imported, you may find that the import function starts to run more slowly. This is because scratch and memory allocations are being used up. The best solution is to periodically save your work, quit Adobe Illustrator, and then restart. This will free up the available scratch memory.
• Reduce the minimum number of Undo commands (since they all reside in memory).
• Use polyline or pre-joined linear feature datasets where available.
• In your GIS application, strip out the attributes you won’t be using for queries or labeling before importing the data into Adobe Illustrator.
• You can set a primary and secondary scratch disk under the Adobe Illustrator preferences option in order to draw additional storage from a partitioned or multi-drive environment.
• Turn off the layer preview icon that appears to the left of each layer name in the Adobe Illustrator layers panel. This can be done by clicking the options menu in the layers panel and then selecting small panel rows in the panel option dialog box.