26MB is totally printable.

However, if you still really want to get it smaller, go into Photoshop and make all your images the proper size, then reinsert them. Illustrator is using memory to resize your images, and you want to do that work for it. Also, if you've got any fancy effects applied to type ('feathering' for instance, or any such filter), you may consider doing this bit in photoshop as well and bringing it in as a jpg. Other than that, you might try saving it as a .pdf with 'Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities' turned off. Obviously, you still want to keep your illustrator file with full capabilities, but if you're trying to transport the file to a printer, then the pdf might be the way to go.

i agree with rationalist 26MB should be printable as long as the plotter isn't ancient...

to reduce the file size try this...

save the file as an EPS...
process the EPS file with Acrobat Distiller...

this will convert the EPS into a new PDF... this usually works for me and gets +30MB files down to under 3MB...

thanks guys, going straight to pdf [an unchecking that option, never noticed that before] got me down to 14mb.

i always get so scared making pdfs, i know they print fine, but the lineweights always look so bad on the computer....not like they do in illus.

thanks.

the reason pdf lineweights look bad is the way they project on your monitor, nothing else. I've found that they look great, at every other scale. For instance, if it looks like crap at 50%, it looks great at 75% and 33%.

A neat trick I use to get super small file sizes is not to save .ai files as .pdf, but to PRINT them to pdf.

urban you stole my thunder. It works with a host of other files as well. Printing to pdf seems to do the trick.

otherwise.

buy more memory for your printer. Its cheap and saves you in the long run. By the way most printers even the cheapest of the lot have about 32mb but you'll need a 1/3 more to process the print