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MixManSC1
Participating Frequently
May 12, 2012
Question

Add the ability to scale the canvas beyond it's archaic 227 inch limits.

  • May 12, 2012
  • 33 replies
  • 134200 views

Make working with large format designs at 1:1 possible. In other words add a size function for the canvas to be scaled beyond 227 inches. Of course this would allow scaling the artboards beyond that size as well. Not sure if there woudl be implications to allowing it to be unlimited. Us large format print and design companies are annoyed at this daily. Vehicle template packages are at 1/20th scale. Finish the design for the 54 foot trailer and ready to print, scale 2000%. Nope sorry, cant do that. Export the file and open it in some other vector app for the final scaling then export from that to the RIP.

Was really hoping to see this in CS6. Sadly not happening.

    33 replies

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    C
    Clear_Mapping_Co
    Participant
    March 21, 2017

    In Photoshop, I haven't found a limit in Illustrator there is *sigh*.

    PPutman
    PPutman
    Participant
    March 10, 2017

    I design Architectural Signage and Wayfinding Systems using Illustrator and I often design vector beyond 227 inches wide. Some of the signage that I design is over 300 inches, and I have designed lengths of channel letters that were 150 feet long down the side of a convention center in Tulsa Oklahoma. I design FULL SIZE 1:1 then scale accordingly using architectural scaling, to fit on a tabloid size title bar. This feature would be EXTREMELY useful to myself and my colleagues at the office. 

      E
      ERIK
      Participant
      January 29, 2017

      I have been in the advertising industry for a long time, I made this question back in 2005, and I found a solution !! FlexiSign for Vector,  Photoshop for Pixel.  Adobe illustrator doesn't work for me, and I am not going to waste my time in a scale, more stress for prepress to deal with Versawork rip, just to get the final print with the real size !  No way!!! Illustrator is an amazing app but with this issue it is....crap!

        H
        HS_Finlayson
        Participant
        November 2, 2017

        I used FlexiSign way back in the '90s (I was in the sign industry in the '80s-'90s)... and loved it... better than Gerber's (crap) software at the time.

        EDIT... My apologies, I thought this reply would have nested under the comment that I (thought I) was replying to.

        aTomician
        aTomician
        Inspiring
        January 16, 2017

        the 12th of May 2017 will mark 5 years since this post was opened 5 years and Adobe have done nothing about is so far!....  I expect in 2020 we'll be looking at this post and thinking how stupid we were to even waste our time hoping Adobe would listen to it's customers!...

        Happy New Year everyone!.....

        Regards, aTomician
          Mirkwoood
          Mirkwoood
          Participant
          October 10, 2016

          This is absolutely ridiculous, I can't believe how long people have been complaining about this, yet absolutely no action taken on Adobe's part. I know I'm not adding anything to the discussion here. I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with Adobe's inability to fix issues that are in some cases OVER A DECADE OLD. If I was able to switch to another piece of software I would, in a second.

            B
            Community Expert
            Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            October 10, 2016

            In my opinion, Adobe has a bunch of other more important issues to fix regarding Illustrator rather than completely revamping how its art boards work (and possibly creating a bunch of other problems in Illustrator and other CC apps in the process) just to achieve a larger max art board size.

            If a project I'm working on is too big for Illustrator's size limits I work in scale, such as 1" = 1', 10% of actual size, 25% of actual size, etc. Most the time service bureaus, such as ones that do grand format billboard printing, are going to want artwork submitted in some scale, with 1" = 1' being the one most often requested. They can blow the artwork up to full size in their RIP software/hardware they're using. A 227" X 227" limit may seem ridiculous, but that's a big enough work space for most people and the scale workarounds I described are not difficult to manage. I can remember when Illustrator had a much smaller max art board size.

            If Adobe did get around to messing with Illustrator's math foundations, a bigger max art board size might be one thing to put on the check list of things to fix. There's several others as well -issues that didn't affect Illustrator's dead rival, Macromedia Freehand.

            aTomician
            aTomician
            Inspiring
            October 11, 2016

            BobbyH5280 wrote:

            I can remember when Illustrator had a much smaller max art board size.

            BobbyH5280​ This sound interesting, can you say any more about this?

            From what you've said it sounds like a long time ago the canvas was smaller than it is now - how much smaller and when was this?  And why did they increase it back then? 

            Tech is always increasing, getting bigger, better, faster etc.   If Adobe don't scale and improve all the features of all their products, that's when they start to become outdated...  And from my perspective the 227" limits are waaay out of date.  Our designs are bigger and better and more complex then they were 5 years ago, and we need software to suit - and don't give me stuff about computers not being able to handle it!  If anyone's doing serious design then they'll usually have a computer that can handle a decent processing workload

            Regards, aTomician
            aTomician
            aTomician
            Inspiring
            June 21, 2016

            This post has been open for 4 years and people were requesting that this feature to be added into CS6!!!!  Has anyone got an idea of how we can actually make Adobe listen - enough people have posted here to give them a hint, but nope they seem to have more important things to do...

            Maybe we could ask every Illy user somehow to do a mass boycott for a week...   though not sure if it would make the point or not.  Otherwise, I may just cancel my Illy license and get going with Coreldraw - seems to be the best way forward.

            Maybe we could ask Shantanu Narayen   

            Regards, aTomician
            jessiem27901628
            jessiem27901628
            Participant
            June 22, 2016

            boycott... how?

            jessiem27901628
            jessiem27901628
            Participant
            June 18, 2016

            At least 3 question posts about the canvas size guided me here. I just started using AI and was previously using PS, but sadly it seemed that Adobe is not paying enough attention to both of them.

            +1 for this post. We need canvases that HAVE NO SIZE LIMIT. Having size limits in a vector design software is ridiculous.

            p.s. I know for sure this will just be ignored even in the coming version.

              janaleks
              janaleks
              Participant
              June 16, 2016

              Working with  print and cut programs where I have to place optical pass markers for cutting vinyl in a roland machine for printing 50 mts vynil and many cut details in scale is rather cumbersome. There is a big margin for error to happen, and even when working 1:10 expanding to 1000% makes minimal errors in size greater when scaled. Although those minimal fails are not visible in practice makes the machine unable to be accurate enough to read those passamarks. In the other hand CorelDraw as many other vector base programs has the possibility to work in real size. So what I am saying is that the ability to scale the canvas beyond it's  227 inch limits would add to my working process to go much faster and more accurate.   Yes I could use CorelDraw but I pay the license for Illustrator why would I need to use 2 similar software and pay 2 licences where I could do the same in one?

              A
              Adam Stanning
              Participating Frequently
              June 14, 2016

              I would like to add my support to the original posts request. One thing that seems to be missing in this thread (unless I have simply missed it) is the requirement to constantly do mental calculations whilst designing for large format prints. Being able to specify stroke and type in millimetres is great when working at 1:1. As soon as one is required to work to a scale these values become redundant and you must constantly make small calculations in order to size things accordingly. Rather than everyone jumping on their horse to explain the various workarounds, I ask the question, why should we have to use workarounds to something as simple as being able to design at 1:1. We all understand how we can in fact use scale to give us the desired result but why in the modern computing world is it necessary. Shaving off a little time here and there making conversions can result in greater productivity for us all.

                S
                StudioOpheim
                Participant
                May 25, 2016

                I agree. We need to remove the limit. I also work in the sign/car-vinyl business. To make vinyl, we always need the file in 1:1. To ease the process, I make the files ready for production. I know that I can make files in a specific height to match the width of the vinyl. Often I can not make the files 1:1 because you know why.. Them my guys in the production department get one more step of work. Why? In 2016 there is no need...

                Often I also get files from users who have, say, Corel Draw. If it´s made in 1:1 - I can´t open the file. There are always workarounds, but why should we need to work around something at all?

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