Using multiple artboards

Artboard overview

Artboards represent the regions that can contain printable artwork. You resize and set the orientation for your artwork by choosing settings in the Artboard Options dialog box. (In Illustrator CS3 and earlier, you use the Document Setup dialog box to change the document size and orientation.)

You can use artboards as crop areas for printing or placement purposes—they work the same way as crop areas work in Illustrator CS3. Multiple artboards are useful for creating a variety of things such as multiple page PDFs, printed pages with different sizes or different elements, independent elements for websites, video storyboards, or individual items for animation in Adobe Flash or After Effects.

Note: If you created crop areas in a Illustrator CS3 document, the crop areas will be converted to artboards in CS4. You may be prompted to specify how you want the crop areas to convert.

You can have 1 to 100 artboards per document depending on size. You can specify the number of artboards for a document when you first create it, and you can add and remove artboards at any time while working in a document. You can create artboards in different sizes, resize them by using the Artboard tool , and position them anywhere on the screen—even overlapping one another.

To see a video on using multiple artboards, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4016_ai.

Viewing artboards and the canvas

You can view the page boundaries in relation to an artboard by showing print tiling (View > Show Print Tiling). When print tiling is on, the printable and nonprintable areas are represented by a series of solid and dotted lines between the outermost edge of the window and the printable area of the page.

Each artboard is bounded by solid lines and represents the maximum printable area. To hide the artboard boundaries, choose View > Hide Artboards. The canvas is the area outside the artboard that extends to the edge of the 220 inch square window. The canvas represents a space on which you can create, edit, and store elements of artwork before moving them onto an artboard. Objects placed onto the canvas are visible on‑screen, but they do not print.

To center an artboard and zoom it to fit the screen, click the artboard number in the status bar, located at the bottom of the application window.

View full size graphic

Illustration window

A.: Printable area (determined by the specified printer)
B.: Canvas
C.: Artboard

Printing and exporting artboards

All artboards in a document share the same media type format, such as Print. You can print each artboard individually, tiled, or combined into one page. If you save a multiple-artboard Illustrator document to a previous version of Illustrator, such as CS3, you can choose to save each artboard as a separate file, along with a master file that includes all artboards merged.

You can preview artboards from the print dialog before printing them. The print settings you choose are applied to all of the artboards you selected to print.

By default all artwork is cropped to an artboard and all artboards print as individual pages. Use the Range option in the Print dialog box to print specific pages, select Ignore Artboards and specify placement options to combine all art onto a single page or tile the artwork as desired.

Artboard options

You open the Artboard Options dialog box by double-clicking the Artboard tool , or clicking the Artboard tool and then clicking Artboard Options button in the Control panel.

Preset: Specifies artboard dimensions. These presets set the ruler Pixel Aspect Ratio appropriately for the specified output.
Width and Height: Specifies the size of the artboard.
Orientation: Specifies portrait or landscape page orientation.
Constrain Proportions: Keeps the aspect ratio of the artboard intact if you manually resize it.
X: and Y: Position: Specifies the position of the artboard according to Illustrator’s workspace rulers. To view these rulers, choose View > Show Rulers.
Show Center Mark: Displays a point in the center of the artboard.
Show Cross Hairs: Displays cross lines through the center of each side of the artboard.
Show Video Safe Areas: Displays guides that represent the areas that fall inside the viewable area of video. You want to keep all text and art that must be viewable to users inside the video safe areas.
Ruler Pixel Aspect Ratio: Specifies the pixel aspect ratio used for the artboard rulers.
Fade Region Outside Artboard: Displays the area outside of the artboard a darker shade than the area inside the artboard when the Artboard tool is active.
Update While Dragging: Keeps the area outside of the artboard darker as you drag to resize the artboard. If this is not selected, the outside area displays in the same color as inside the artboard while resizing.
Artboards: Indicates how many artboards exist.

Create an artboard

Do any of the following:
- To create a custom artboard, select the Artboard tool , and drag in the workspace to define the shape, size, and location.
- To use a preset artboard, double-click the Artboard tool, select a preset in the Artboard Options dialog box, and click OK. Drag the artboard to position it where you want.
- To create an artboard within an active artboard, hold down Shift and drag using the Artboard tool.
- To duplicate an existing artboard, select the Artboard tool, click to select the artboard you want to duplicate, and click the New Artboard button in the Control panel ; then click where you want to place the duplicated artboard. To create multiple duplicates, Alt-click as many times as you want. Or, using the Artboard tool, Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) the artboard you want to duplicate.
- To duplicate an artboard with the contents, select the Artboard tool, click to select the Move/Copy Artwork With Artboard icon on the Control panel , press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS), and then drag.
If you want the artwork to contain a bleed, make sure that there’s enough artwork beyond the artboard rectangle to accommodate the bleed.
To commit the artboard and exit the artboard-editing mode, click a different tool in the Tools panel or click Esc.

To see a video on using multiple artboards, see www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4016_ai.

Delete an artboard

Click the artboard and press Delete, click Delete

in the Control panel, or click the Delete icon

in an artboard’s upper-right corner. You can delete all but the last remaining artboard.

Select and view artboards

Select the Artboard tool .
Do any of the following:
- Click an artboard to make it active. (Clicking in or drawing over an artboard using a different tool will also make the Artboard tool active.) If artboards overlap, the artboard with the left edge closest to the click location becomes the active artboard.
- To rotate between artboards, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and click an arrow key.
- To view artboards and their contents as outlines, right-click and choose Outline. To see artwork again, right-click and choose Preview.

Edit artboards

You can create multiple artboards for your document, but only one can be active at a time. When you have multiple artboards defined, you can view them all by selecting the Artboard tool. Each artboard is numbered for easy reference. You can edit or delete an artboard at any time, and you can specify different artboards each time you print or export.

Select the Artboard tool , click to select an artboard.
Do any of the following:
- To resize the artboard, position the pointer on an edge or corner until the cursor changes to a double-sided arrow, and then drag to adjust. Or, specify new Width and Height values in the Control panel.
- To change the orientation of the artboard, click the Portrait or Landscape button in the Control panel.
- To rotate between artboards, press Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and click an arrow key.
- To view artboards and their contents as outlines, right-click and choose Outline. To see artwork again, right-click and choose Preview.

Move an artboard

Select the Artboard tool and click to select an artboard.
Do one of the following:
- To move the artboard and its contents, click to select the Move/Copy Artwork With Artboard icon on the Control panel , and then position the pointer in the artboard and drag. Or, specify new X and Y values in the Control panel.
- To move the artboard without its contents, click to deselect the Move/Copy Artwork With Artboard icon on the Control panel, and then position the pointer in the artboard and drag. Or, specify new X and Y values in the Control panel.

Display artboard rulers, center mark, crosshairs, or safe area

You can choose to display a center mark, cross hairs, video safe markers, and rulers around an artboard. Rulers are useful when you’re working with art intended for export to video. The numbers on the rulers reflect device-specific pixels, regardless of the measurement unit specified in preferences. The default Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) for Illustrator is 1.0 (for square pixels)—this value changes according to the preset you choose either in the Artboard Options dialog box or the New Document dialog box.

If you’re using nonsquare pixels, the ruler provides for easier device-specific pixel calculations. For example, if you specify an artboard of 100 x100 Illustrator points, and you want to know the exact size in device-dependent pixels before exporting the file for use in a NTSC DV Widescreen, you can set the artboard ruler in Illustrator to use a pixel aspect ratio of 1.2 (for wide pixels) and the ruler will reflect the change and display the artboard as 83 x100 device pixels (100/1.2 = 83.333).

Artboard with rulers

Show or hide artboard rulers

Choose View > Show Artboard Rulers or Hide Artboard Rulers.
(Optional) Set a value for Ruler Pixel Aspect Ratio in the Artboard Options dialog box. (To open this dialog box, double-click the Artboard tool.)

Display center mark, cross hairs, or video safe areas

Double-click the Artboard tool in the Tools panel, or, with the Artboard tool active, click the Artboard Options icon in the Control panel.
In the Display section, select the options you’d like displayed in your artboards.
Note: You can also set or remove the center point by clicking the Show Center Mark icon in the Control panel.