# SPJ format: tabs

**URL:** <http://forum.squareline.io/t/spj-format-tabs/5575>\
**Category:** Feature requests\
**Created:** [February 18, 2025, 6:57pm UTC](http://forum.squareline.io/t/spj-format-tabs/5575 "2025-02-18T18:57:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Richard](http://forum.squareline.io/user_avatar/forum.squareline.io/richard/32/1129_2.png) [@Richard](http://forum.squareline.io/u/Richard)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 6:57pm UTC](http://forum.squareline.io/t/spj-format-tabs/5575/1 "2025-02-18T18:57:07Z")

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Today our git repository host warned that our SPJ file is halfway to the maximum file they’ll store(100MB). It’s a bummer, because git has been handling the large number of small patches to the SPJ file quite well. Of our 50MB SPJ file, about 30MB is spaces, and replacing 4 space with a tab reduces the SPJ file size roughly in half.

I’d like to suggest considering tabs for SPJ indentation. Sadly, this will make a single giant conflicting commit when the project is converted.

We’re also going to look at setting up git-lfs to hold our SquareLine project.

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**Author:** ![SquareLine\_Support](http://forum.squareline.io/user_avatar/forum.squareline.io/squareline_support/32/47_2.png) [@SquareLine\_Support](http://forum.squareline.io/u/SquareLine_Support)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 7:24am UTC](http://forum.squareline.io/t/spj-format-tabs/5575/2 "2025-02-25T07:24:47Z")

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Hi,

In preferences, turn off the ‘Format .spj and .ecomp files’ checkbox, and this way the spj file will be a continuous text. This way the file will be smaller and the project loading will be faster.

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**Author:** ![Richard](http://forum.squareline.io/user_avatar/forum.squareline.io/richard/32/1129_2.png) [@Richard](http://forum.squareline.io/u/Richard)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2025, 8:29pm UTC](http://forum.squareline.io/t/spj-format-tabs/5575/3 "2025-02-25T20:29:05Z")

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Without ‘Format .spj and .ecomp files’, everything is one one line, which makes it very, very difficult to merge changes from multiple developers or branches.

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**Author:** ![abuislam](http://forum.squareline.io/user_avatar/forum.squareline.io/abuislam/32/1727_2.png) [@abuislam](http://forum.squareline.io/u/abuislam)\
**Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 11:05am UTC](http://forum.squareline.io/t/spj-format-tabs/5575/4 "2025-03-11T11:05:44Z")

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Switching to tabs sounds like a practical way to reduce file size, though the conversion might be tricky. Git LFS could also help manage large files without affecting repo performance.