I'm having to haggle with my computer as to whether it will edit and add to my first picture.Has anyone any advice on file sizes for diffrent purposes; for example is 2.144KB to big for inkscape to handle?

2 meg is large, but not remarkably. I have found that it is more often a combination of filter effects and path effects that is the problem. if you have a lot of filter effects applied, try setting your viewing mode to no filters and either opening or importing the problem file.
if you have a lot of path effects, try converting some of these objects to paths (path menu). This might make your file larger but will open quicker....
also, are you low on memory by any chance?

Welcome to InkscapeForum!
2.144 KB is definitely not too large! Can you tell us exactly what problems you are experiencing, and when? If it is a resource issue (either low RAM or huge file, which yours is not), you can utilize Layers, and hide all the layers that you don't need at the moment.

But 2 KB is SO not large, I'm thinking you may have another issue. For example, when you say "add to" your image, are you tryng to import other images into an original? So again, if you could give us some more info, it will help us help you narrow down the exact problem.

Duh. I am so used to larger sizes that I read the '2.144 KB' as '2,144 KB'.

Thanks, I seem to have 42GB of free space according to my defragmenting window, and seem to remember the Ram as 250 something or others. Picture size: width="2500" height="2865" file size: 2.10 MB (2,211,259 bytes)


My problems are reduced, druban, with fiddlng about with the rendering in xml editor, to cut the bits down, but still prevalant when hittng on zoom selection; well slow, with an inherrant case of "once bitten twice shy" necessitating cnt/alt/del to escape.
I'm not realy getting into layers and imports, yet, as I'm not sure how to keep track of it all yet, and, as has been suggested, am probably still loosing it with my own memory regurements.
What would the edge of memory requirements be to run this application without jamming up? And would a picture of 2MB be a safe rendering size to stick to for versatility, or would most machines be equally happy with 3MB?
I apologise for any confusion over my explanation of file sizes, I once was immune to all these big numbers.

I apologise for any confusion over my explanation of file sizes, I once was immune to all these big numbers.

For all as wonderful as computers are, and as helpful as advances in technology can be, it's frustrating for a computer to be considered "old" after only 5 years!

Anyway yes, 2 MB can definitely challenge Inkscape, especially on a "slower, older" computer. I guess druban was right after all, lol. Your RAM being 250, I'm guessing it's MB, which really is pretty small for working on that size of an image. I'm not sure what the minimum requirements are for running Inkscape. I've just been looking at inkscape.org, but can't seem to find them. But you could look around, and hopefully have better luck than I did. Or maybe someone else can provide the link?

Just as a point of reference, I've been creating my webcomic on a 6 year old machine, but it had 1GB RAM (i.e. four times what you've got). During development some of our comics can reach 2.5 MB or more - though at that point I usually try to reduce the filesize using some of the techniques described in this thread.

We've started using filters more heavily in our comics and the speed of the machine was causing problems, so I've just built myself a new box. You'll probably find that upgrading your RAM will have a significant impact on the speed of not only Inkscape, but every other application, and if you're not a heavy user of filters that could well be enough for now. As a general rule of thumb, if you find that your hard drive is almost constantly being used (check for the access light, or listen for the muted clicking sound) then more RAM will definitely help (and extend the life of your hard drive).

Oh, and definitely use the "Vacuum Defs" menu option. You may find that your filesize reduces considerably just from that one step.

If you let the users here know what your system and OS is you might get a better idea of how your system compares to others for your filesize. For example, I am running windows xp sp3 with 2gb of ram. the system itself needs just about 500mb of ram to run at optimum speed. if I were running with only 250 mb then I would indeed have a great deal of trouble working with either inkscape or gimp.
if you want to have someone take a look at yor file you can upload it here.

Thanks. druban, the computer is a compaq v5000. 2.5MB gives me hope Xav, as the picture is a street scene, the people are taking up more room than the buildings, as I'm rendering them near the finish! So far peeling back to 2.13MB.
The "Vacuum Defs" sounds good, I guess that removes some of inkscapes customising tentacles from the picture programme?
I will definately try that out. And compare it to my own attempt of ripping the svg guts out of the page source.
Unfortunately the file, is also a work of art, which one day Ido hope to sell for 50MB of GB pounds