Inspiring

Question

Artboard Position cause Export Issues

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
April 5, 2023
4 replies
2751 views

If the position of an artboard is not on a whole number, "Export Via Screens" and other export options will increase the resolutuion of the export by 1-2 pixels.

This is a long-understood issue by the community, but I see no listing of it as a bug or "known issue" by Adobe. I recieved little support from my previous post on the matter.

To recreate the issue, duplicate an Artboard and move it. Export the artboard. The resolution will not match.

There is no circumstance where this should be an expected output from the software. It's a bug and should be treated as such by Adobe.

Bug

This topic has been closed for replies.

JuniperfAuthor

Inspiring

Oh to live in a fantasy utopia where anytime I create an artboard I don't have to delete the decimal points at the end everytime 💔 It's disappointing to see longtime members love the taste of extra steps in their process. Nevertheless I will continue complaining - I'm great at it!

My final thought: Artboard pixel snapping (being on by default) would be a feature against the spirit of the software, but would correct the issue I'm describing. It would not solve the ultimate paradox of funneling mathematically-infinite artwork into a raster image, but it would save me like 5 minutes every day.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Did you already complain and add suggestions at the UserVoice page? That is where the engineers are listening, not here at the userforum:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/37694659-extra-pixel-added-to-image-size-when-exported

JuniperfAuthor

Inspiring

I appreciate the link. I post with the understanding that mostly users will see my posts, not Adobe.

Met1

Legend

How do you set up a photoshop file, is it equally as random and you worry about the size of your art to export at the last moment?

JuniperfAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks for the bad faith approach, very normal and nice of you!

When I use Photoshop, I avoid its artboards feature. When I'm using Illustrator with the intent of having multiple artboards, I create my artboards to my work's specified resolutions, assign its origin to the top left corner, and ensure its position is an integer. In my opinion, the last two steps should not be necessary. When working with hundreds of artboards across many files, time adds up.

Met1

Legend

In photoshop, new doc, try typing 23.2... then 23.6...

>...using Illustrator ...I create my artboards to my work's specified resolutions

How do you do that with a vector art program that intrinsically does NOT have a resolution setting (until export)?

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Because Illustrator is designed to create resolution independent artwork, it is has no size limits, unlike image editors like Photoshop that are limited to pixels. When you export artwork as an image, Illustrator has to define a pixel size, it uses 1/72 of an inch (same size as a Point). When artwork cannot be exactly reproduced (fractional pixels don't exist) pixels have to be created or deleted.

In some cases, moving an artboard including its artwork to the pixelgrid would be a solution, but what to do when changing the resolution to something other than a multiple of 72 ppi? 300 ppi can cause additional pixels even if the artboard is aligned to the pixelgrid and the artboard size does not contain fractions. Do you want pixels to be removed or added. This can cause visible problems when pattern tiles are exported.

There is no easy solution and this problem has been mentioned many times on this forum.

If you want, you can add your vote and give comments on this UserVoice topic:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/37694659-extra-pixel-added-to-image-size-when-exported

JuniperfAuthor

Inspiring

I understand my words have overly simplified the problem and possible solutions. I understand the nature of Illustrator as software for vector artwork.

To your question on whether or not pixels should be "removed or added" - Illustrator should remove the pixels they add. There is no issue with Artboards creating smaller exports, it consistently creates larger ones. When using Illustrator to export to an image format with resolution, such as with the "Export for Screens" function (which I image is a common use case) the resolution should always match the artboard size.

It surprises me there has to be this much discussion on the matter via community. I would rather the engineers be discussing the math and methods that should be used to correct this issue. I can imagine most options compromise something - but none would be more irritating than constantly reorganizing artboards to whole numbers.

Larry G. Schneider

Community Expert

If you recognize this as a problem, then you can work around it by making your artboards on whole numbers to begin with and not rearrange later.

Monika Gause

Community Expert

It's how artboards work.

If you think it's a bug, you can report it via https://illustrator.uservoice.com

JuniperfAuthor

Inspiring

Glad to know someone out there has a use for artboards randomly changing resolution!

I will have to disagree. As stated, it's clearly a bug.

The thought behind an Artboard is that is an editable, digital representation of the image you intend to display. The Artboard and its specifities should never take priority , or "work", over the user's expectations.

While I appreciate Illustrator offers so much freedom with Artboards - that they can be positioned within fractions of a pixel between each other - the issue I'm describing is still an unexpected, undesirable outcome (a bug). Either some rounding or snapping needs to occuer in the export process to correct the issue.

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