How to resize my Canvas in Illustrator

Gert,

There is no canvas in Illustrator.

In Illustrator you have the (about) 227" x 227" Workspace, and inside that the Artboard, which corresponds to the page (in print), and which holds the artwork that is printed or saved as PDF; in the newest versions, it is also used to crop for exporting artwork in other formats. You set the Artboard size with File>Document Setup>Artboard, or in the newest version with the Artboard Tool (DoubleClick).

Hi Jacob,

I've been tooling around the internet for a while now looking for answers and I was wondering if you could help! Do you know of any way to change the size of the default 227 inch workspace?

Thanks!

Conor

Conor,

There is no way.

Have you seen this post, which came after your post here?

http://forums.adobe.com/message/3201140#3201140

Jacob,

If there's no canvas in Illustrator, how come I get an error message saying, "Artboard size can not be bigger than CANVAS size", when I try to make a large artboard?

RPCappa,

Because whoever started using the term, in error messages and/or elsewhere, had failed to realize it.

Some day, (almost) everyone may use this basically misleading term with its implication of a (non existing) background, and we shall have to really waste time in the Illustrator forum explaining that there is no background (of any colour) in an Illustrator file.

Here is just one of many threads over there in the past, showing that it had not crept in in CS4:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/2211879#2211879

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx

download the image resizer....

Hey there Gert,

You can resize the canvas by going to File > Document Setup. In the top right hand corner of the dialogue window there's a button that says Edit Artboard. It will then highlight the artboard selected. You can then press Enter (Return) and it will open up the Artboard Options where you can change the size, orientation, etc.

You can also select the artboard using the "artboard tool" located in the toolbar which looks like a square with little tick marks at the corners. In either case the artboard options will also show up in the top bar if you want to quick adjust items without having to go into the dialogue window.

I'm using CS5 on a mac but I'm assuming the process is at least somewhat similar.

Hope this helps!

-ben

how do i make the canvas fit the new artboard size.... i tried the scale but cannot get it to work....thanks elaine

Elaine,

That rather depends on your definition of canvas.

Hey there Elaine,

Not quite sure what you mean... could you elaborate a little more? Are you trying to resize an existing project or pull a project into a new one?

Sincerely,

Ben

While I do not at all like the 227 inch restriction being in the large format print business the terms do often get confused. Sadly the ability to make the canvas itself larger is not a new feature in CS6.   80% of our work is done in Illy and while we can work at scale for what we do why should we have to? When designing for a 648" trailer (yes 54 foot), we need to print and/or cut the design at full size. So we always have to increase the files in our print system by 400% or whatever which is an unnecessary step.

As far as the terms, the main background is indeed called the canvas. It is not possible to change the size of the canvas. Period, not happening in Illustrator although most other vector programs do allow this. Artboards sit on top of the canvas and essentially act as containers (and print clipping masks) for artwork. Artwork can also be outside of the artboards, if printed anything outside of the artboards will not print. You can also have multiple artboards on the same canvas. Adobe has a decent explanation of the canvas and artboards here http://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/artboard-overview.html

Thanks Ben! I was looking for this answer.

Yes! Thanks for asking this question and for Ben's answer - super helpful.

I had a similar problem. I created an artboard 63x48 inches and then tried to duplicate it 4 times but when it got to the fourth one I would get that same message about the canvas size. What worked for me was to simply reposition to first artboard as further left as possible, then when I duplicated there was  more space and was able to create all four of them next to each other. Hope this helps someone.

Cheers!

There's no point in being rude to people bro. get over yourself.

its a canvas.

Thank you, finally. Someone who knows Illustrator well and answered the question: Can you resize the canvas after uploading a file from, let's say, rhinoceros3d.

Jacob Bugge's brief answer is the answer to this question, quite simply.

@The artboard is to Illustrator what the canvas is to Photoshop. Period.

Hi everyone,

I wonder if anybody know if there is a possibility to change the art board size symmetrical !

The same way when we hold the option key to resize a rectangle object symmetrically.

Thanks