MacDraw II automatically uses all available memory (RAM) when started from the Finder. However under MultiFinder, MacDraw has only as much memory as is allocated under "Get Info" regardless of how much memory is in the computer. MacDraw II is set to use 800K of memory (RAM) with MultiFinder. If you are using a color monitor or a large gray scale monitor, MacDraw II may need more memory. Memory requirements are also affected by the complexity of a drawing.
Please remember that the System software requires a significant amount of memory and that the MacDraw II application requires an additional 300K of memory. Desk Accessories, INIT's, and the RAM cache, will also affect available memory.
The following table lists the memory required to open one new untitled document in MacDraw II with a variety of color options.
| Colors | Million | 256 | 16 | 4 | 2 |
| Monitor | - | - | - | - | - |
| Apple 13" Color | NA | 298K | 151K | 77K | 40K |
| 19" color or gray scale | NA | 1 MB | 512K | N/A | 128K |
For example, if you want to create two new documents, each capable of 256 colors, on an Apple color monitor, you would need 300K for MacDraw II plus 298K for each document for a total of 896K of memory (RAM) in addition to whatever memory your system requires.
So to open documents users can take two approaches reduce the number of colors displayed, or increase memory allocation if working under MultiFinder.
To reduce the number of colors displayed:
1. Select Control Panel from Apple Menu.
2. Scroll down and select "Monitors" icon.
3. Choose a smaller number of colors or grays to display. MacDraw II only works with 8 colors. So displaying more than 16 colors on screen will have no effect on MacDraw II.
To allocated more memory to MacDraw II under MultiFinder
1. Quit out of MacDraw II
2. From the Desktop (Finder) , click the MacDraw II icon once and choose Get Info from the File menu. The Information dialog box will appear.
3. Change 800 to 1500 (or larger as specified in table above) in the Application Memory Size (K) text entry box in the bottom right corner of the Information dialog box, then close the box.
4. Restart MacDraw II with the additional memory.
5. If user gets out of memory message, repeat steps 1 to 4 and increase the amount allocated.