How to Avoid Scaling Problems in Illustrator

Most of the time scaling objects in Illustrator is a quick and easy process. But there are a few quirks that can trip you up, especially when you’re scaling down objects or symbols with very small vector paths. Here are two issues to watch out for.

Issue # 1: Symbols and Scaling Strokes and Effects

Using symbols in Illustrator is a great way to simplify the process of making complex art. Just be aware that scaled symbol instances behave differently depending on whether the preference for Scale Stroke and Effects is turned on or off. It’s off by default. You can find this setting in General preferences.

With Scale Stroke and Effects turned off you can scale symbol instances to almost any size without problems. But if it’s turned on, the entire instance will disappear if you scale it down to the point where objects become too small for Illustrator to calculate their position and shape, as explained here. In this example, there are lots of tiny objects in the snowflake symbol. When an instance of this particular symbol is scaled below 45% with Scale Strokes and Effects turned on, the instance disappears. You can still select it and see it in the Layers panel, but it won’t appear unless you scale it

back up. This seems to be mostly an onscreen problem. If you print the file, place it in InDesign or export it to other formats using Export As or Save for Web, the symbol does appear. But it doesn’t if you use the Export for Screens feature. With the preference for scaling strokes and effects turned off, you can scale down symbol instances much more without incurring any problems. Notice that the Scale dialog box has its own setting for Scale Strokes and Effects, but it doesn’t affect whether the symbol disappears or not. If you’re distributing the file or handing it off to a colleague for further work, you might also consider expanding strokes and effects that you suspect might be problematic. Also, saving symbols as Static and not Dynamic seems to help. And in any case, be sure to test how your symbols behave when they’re scaled before handing them off.

Issue # 2:  Objects too small error

You also might encounter an error message when you try to scale an object down too far. This can happen with vector textures or brushes that contain tiny paths. It can also happen with an image that has been run through Image Trace. To fix it, the first thing to try is a quick clean-up using Select > Object > Stray Points to select and delete any single points. Then, you need to select and delete all paths that are so small in area that they will cause the scaling error at smaller sizes. One way to do this is to create a simple square at 1×1 px, select it, then run the Select Equal Size script with a fudge factor of 2 pts.  This will select all paths up to 2 pixels, which you can then delete. Special thanks to Kat Kremser for her research and contributions to this post.