Multiple Artboards

In today’s lesson, I worked on many properties and functions of an artboard and how a multitude of them can come in handy.

Illustrator allows you to have multiple artboards on a document, which comes in handy. For example, a design can be easily implemented on a letterhead, an envelope, and a business card without having to move tabs and switch between documents.

To begin, click File then New to open the dialog box. Head down to Number of Artboards and type in 4. To the right, there’s different arrangements (Grid by Row, Grid by Column, Arrange by Row, Arrange by Column). Underneath, you can change the spacing between the artboards. Once everything is set up, click OK. You should a new document with 4 artboards displayed.

On the right hand side, there is an artboard layer panel where you can work on an individual artboard. If it isn’t there, head to the Window menu at the top of the screen and select Artboards. By double-clicking on an Artboard in the panel, you can change the name. If you wanna delete or create an artboard, there’s 2 buttons at the bottom of the panel that have that function. You can also change the stacking order of the artboards.

A useful tool that works specifically with artboards is the Artboard Tool. Once selected, you can click on each of the artboards, making them active, and creates a bounding box where you change the size and move it. You can also delete it by clicking the X in the top right corner of the artboard and creating one by simply clicking and dragging. Furthermore, by holding down Alt key on Windows, Option on Mac, and clicking and dragging on an artboard, you can duplicate it.

There are additional properties of an artboard in the Artboard Options button which is located in the Tool Bar. Once clicked, it opens the Artboards Dialog Box where you can name it, set width and height, X Y coordinate relevant to the canvas, set reference point, orientation, and many others. There’s also additional display options like Show Center Mark and Show Cross Hairs.