Essential Tips for Using Artboards in Illustrator

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Illustrator uses artboards, which are similar to pages in InDesign, for layout. Although they all sit on the same canvas, they act individually and they can be printed and exported as distinct items. Having multiple artboards in one document allows you to maintain and edit multiple projects and different page sizes together for consistency and ease. Understanding how to work with artboards is a fundamental skill that all Illustrator users should master. Here are some essential tips for using artboards in Illustrator.

Set Artboard Options When Creating a New Document

When setting up a new document, set the number of artboards to start with—you can always add more later—and indicate a size, bleed, and orientation. In addition, you can indicate how those artboards are laid out by creating a grid, row, or column; how many columns the grid is arranged into; and the initial spacing between the artboards. You can have a maximum of 1000 artboards in a document!

In the New Document dialog box, click More Settings to get all the options for setting up your artboards.

Artboard settings for a new document in Adobe Illustrator

Once your document is set up, you can add, delete, re-arrange, and resize artboards.

Use the Artboard Tool

Select the Artboard tool from the Toolbox (Shift+O) to enter the artboard editing mode.

The Artboard tool in the Adobe Illustrator toolbar

Each artboard’s name and number (assigned based on creation order) appears in a box at the upper left of the artboard. Click an artboard to select it. Shift-click to select multiple artboards.

Adobe Illustrator document with five artboards

You can delete an artboard by clicking it and pressing Delete/Backspace. Note that deleting an artboard only deletes the artboard, leaving any artwork exactly where it was.

Resize any artboard by selecting it then dragging any of its handles, or using the Width and Height fields in the Control panel or Properties panel. Note that artboards will resize around the Reference Point chosen in those panels.

Resize artboards in Adobe Illustrator using the Properties panel.

You can also change the size of an artboard by selecting it and choosing a size from the Preset menu in the Properties panel or Control panel.

Artboard presets in Adobe Illustrator

Create a brand-new artboard on the canvas by clicking and dragging with the Artboard tool. You can duplicate an artboard by Option/Alt-dragging it. Use Illustrator’s Smart Guides to align to the grid layout, if needed.

Press the Escape key to exit the artboard editing mode and switch to the Selection tool.

Open the Artboard Options Dialog Box

To access more options for modifying an existing artboard, double-click on it with the Artboard tool. This opens the Artboard Options dialog box where you can change any setting for that artboard.

The Artboard Options dialog box in Adobe Illustrator

If you want to change the options for multiple artboards at once, select them and click the Artboard Options button in the Control panel or Properties panel.

Artboard Options button in the Control Panel in Adobe Illustrator

In the Artboard Options dialog box you can set the width and height of the currently-selected artboard(s) with the option of constraining proportions, indicate the orientation, and add any video-specific marks you might need.

Global settings for all artboards—such as fading the area that lies outside the selected artboard—can also be set here.

Use the Artboard Panel

Open the Artboards panel (Window > Artboards) to easily manipulate and navigate around your document’s artboards. Existing artboards are listed in the panel in the order they were created. In the left column is the artboard’s number. You can re-arrange the order from the panel by clicking on an artboard and either dragging it, or using the up/down arrows in the panel. Keep in mind, this only re-orders the boards’ numbering order, it doesn’t actually move them on the canvas.

The Artboards panel in Adobe Illustrator

Add and delete artboards in the document by clicking the appropriate buttons at the bottom of the panel. Double-click to the right of an artboard name to fit that artboard in the window. Double-click directly on top of the name to rename the artboard.

The icon to the right of an artboard name in the panel indicates the orientation (portrait or landscape) of that artboard.

Artboard orientations shown in the Artboards panel in Adobe Illustrator

The icon’s other function is a quick way to access the Artboard Options dialog box discussed above. Click on the currently-selected artboard’s icon, or double-click on any other board’s icon and the Options dialog box will appear.

What if you want to insert a new artboard between two existing ones? There’s now way to do that automatically but you can accomplish the same result by following these steps:

  1. Add the artboard as normal
  2. In the Artboards panel, drag the new one where you want it to go in the sequence
  3. From the panel menu choose Rearrange All Artboards and set the options you want

Tip: The same command will also close up unwanted gaps between artboards when you delete one.

Other Artboard Options

Use the pop-up menu or arrow buttons at the bottom of Illustrator’s Application Frame to navigate to an artboard and fit it to the window.

Change the color of all current and future artboards in this document (to mimic paper or background color only) by choosing File > Document Setup. Select the Simulate Colored Paper checkbox, click on the top color rectangle, then choose a color. Note: This is an onscreen simulation that only appears while you are working in Illustrator. It won’t print or export to other file formats.

Choosing a background color for artboards in Adobe Illustrator

Artboards with a custom background color in Adobe Illustrator

Finally, you can export each artboard to a separate file when using Export As or Export for Screens.

You can also save each artboard as a separate Illustrator file, by choosing Save As. In the dialog box, turn on the option to Save Each Artboard to a Separate File and specify whether you want all artboards or a range. To export noncontiguous artboards, separate their numbers with commas (e.g. 1, 3, 5).

Saving each artboard as a separate file from Adobe Illustrator

Erica Gamet has been involved in the graphics industry for over 35 years. She is a speaker, writer, trainer, and content creator focusing on Adobe InDesign, Apple Keynote, and varied production topics. She is a regular presenter at CreativePro Week, regular contributor to CreativePro Magazine, and has spoken at Canada’s ebookcraft, Adobe MAX, and Making Design in Oslo, Norway. Find Erica online at the CreativePro YouTube channel, CreativeLive.com and through her own YouTube channel. When she isn’t at her computer she’s probably daydreaming about travel or living in a Nordic noir landscape.

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  • Dan Lewis says:

    Thanks for the tips. As for saving out to separate files, is that a MAC option only? I run Adobe CC on a PC and there is no option to save multiple artboards as separate file.

  • David Gooding says:

    I have a template for 25 artboards all in a row and i need to expand that but I am at the end of the canvas and I need to start a second row. How do I do that?

  • MegMcC says:

    Your tutorial dives a bit deeper than most of the simple artboard-help links that appear first on Google search. I’m super grateful for coming across this. You answered my issue which was this:

    Each time I enter Artboard Mode (Shift+O or via the Artboard Mode tool), my background outside the artboards was always grey. Somehow while working, it changed to white, but ONLY in Artboard Mode. I couldn’t get this to change back until I read about double-clicking the Artboard Mode tool to bring up even more settings (NEVER knew this was a thing). I selected ‘Fade region outside Artboard’ and that seemed to be the issue! Somehow it became unselected while I was working :/ I can’t even see a shortcut associated with this tool.

    Thank you so much for this post!

  • lynne says:

    This is wonderful; I learned a lot of new ways to work smarter! One of the things I struggle with is rearranging artboards on the canvas. For example, I delete a page and it leaves a gap, or I want to insert a page at a specific place and the new page shows up at the end. Any tips to share?

    • Mike Rankin says:

      Hi Lynne- Great question! I don’t think there’s a way to automatically insert an artboard between others but you can accomplish the same result by adding the artboard as normal, then go to the Artboards panel and drag the new one where you want it to go, then from the panel menu choose Rearrange All Artboards (and set the options you want). The same command will close up the gap when you delete an artboard. I bet lots of folks want to know how to do those things, so we should add them to the article.

  • Tony G says:

    Edit>Paste on All Artboards is occasionally useful – and there’s a few places on the internet with a script to export multiple artboards each to an individual file (Tom Byrne at Git hub and also Jonwun, I think)

  • Katherine Burgener says:

    My favorite artboard move is naming them all. When you export to different file types (PNG, JPG), named artboards append to the end of the file name (this is probably a default setting). This has sped up my process of exporting branding files CONSIDERABLY when I have alts and different colorways, or even social media graphics intended for different places.

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