How can I rescale a whole illustrator document?

[KlausKi]

I created a document for DIN A4 artboard size, now I want to rescale the whole document (artboards + content) to DIN A3, so the print shop may print in that size (they don't want to rescale).

How would I do that?

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

You could check out the Artboards Resize with Objects sscript https://github.com/alexander-ladygin/illustrator-scripts 

[KlausKi]

Wow, what a great and powerful script collection!

Thanks alot for sharing!! 👍

[Monika Gause]

Glad you could solve it!

[Jacob Bugge]

Klaus,

Provided the content is all vector artwork, or that any raster effects and raster images have sufficient resolution/number of pixels to be scaled, you can (always keep a backup of the artwork before doing something like this):

1) Create a nostroke/nofill rectangle that follows the edges of the A4 Artboard;

2) Change the page setup from A4 to A3, then DoubleClick the corner where the rulers meet;

3) Make sure your Transform palette has the centre Reference Point chosen;

4) Select the rectangle from 1 and all the artwork (within the Artboard), and scale the whole set the W or H to be equal to the A3 size instead of the A4 size; 297 instead of 210 or 420 instead of 297), then hold Ctrl and press Enter.

In case of insufficient raster resolution/pixel number you will need to amend.

[KlausKi]

Unfortunately, that doesn't scale the artboards along:

[Jacob Bugge]

Ah, Klaus, I overlooked the s in (artboards + content), so I thought it was just one artboard.

Apart from that, have you raster effects and raster images with (in)suffient resolution/number of pixels to be scaled?

I doubt whether any script can just make that possible issue go away.

And what Brad said; for one thing I forgot to mention the need to scale strokes and effects, then remembered it afterwards, and then forgot it again.

[Brad @ Roaring Mouse]

The scale to A3 from A4 is essentially 141.4%. So it's a simple matter of changing your artboard size to A3 then selecting everything and scale up 141.4%. As mentioned, it's helpful to give yourself a reference object so you can position things accurately, like drawing a frame as @Jacob Bugge has said.

IMPORTANT: Make sure you have Scale Strokes and Effects turned on, either in your preferences or when you use the Scale tool, so your objects like drop shadows, etc, size up accordingly.

Another option is to PLACE (Link) your existing file, as it is, nto a new A3 document, scale up, then export a new PDF.

(also: Why any printer would refuse to scale a file, which is the simplest thing to do in the world, is beyond me. 🙂 )

[KlausKi]

Thanks a lot to all for sharing your thoughts on this!

As you may see from my screenshot, the artboards created from my PDF file were created side by side. Simply rescaling them would have left them and their (vector) content overlapping.

In the end I came to the conclusion that re-scaling in Illustrator would involve too many manual steps. So I came up with the idea to re-scale my PDF file using Adobe Acrobat by printing it to a new PDF file choosing the "fit" printing option and selecting "DIN A3" as target size.