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How do I set default artboard spacing?

Engaged ,
Sep 13, 2023 Sep 13, 2023

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The current default is a bit too narrow, causing any artwork which overlaps the board edges to cross over into the adjacent. I tried doing the arrange artboards with adjusted settings but it makes the artwork misalign. Is there a way to configure how it spaces them out by default? Say, to 40px

 

Thanks

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correct answers 2 Correct answers

Community Expert , Sep 13, 2023 Sep 13, 2023

In the Rearrange All Artboards dialog there is an option called "Move Artwork with Artboard".  If you turn that option on, there shouldn't be misalignments.

 

If you want to persistently change the default artboard spacing, you may quit Illustrator, open the Adobe Illustrator Prefs file (locations see below) and change some parameters.

 

In the Prefs file there is a section called /artnewdialog. In that section you'd have to change the parameter /artboardSpacing 20.0 to something like /artboardS

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Community Expert , Oct 20, 2023 Oct 20, 2023

In pre-existing files it's a document-specific setting.

 

You will have to change it manually.

 

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Community Expert ,
Sep 13, 2023 Sep 13, 2023

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In the Rearrange All Artboards dialog there is an option called "Move Artwork with Artboard".  If you turn that option on, there shouldn't be misalignments.

 

If you want to persistently change the default artboard spacing, you may quit Illustrator, open the Adobe Illustrator Prefs file (locations see below) and change some parameters.

 

In the Prefs file there is a section called /artnewdialog. In that section you'd have to change the parameter /artboardSpacing 20.0 to something like /artboardSpacing 51.023 (if you want to get 18 mm as the default value for artboard spacing in the New Document dialog). Remember that you have to change the parameter a couple of times in different lines of the /artnewdialog section.

 

If you then want to change the default artboard spacing that appears in the Rearrange All Artboards dialog, you'd have to search for a section called /ArtboardRearrange. There you can change the parameter /ArtboardSpacing. Save the Prefs file and relaunch Illustrator.

-----------------------------------------------

 

Adobe Illustrator Prefs - Location:

 

MacOS: <OSDisk>/Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator <version number> Settings/en_US*/Adobe Illustrator Prefs

 

Windows: <OSDisk>\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator <version number> Settings\en_US*\x64\Adobe Illustrator Prefs

 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 20, 2023 Oct 20, 2023

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Thanks @Kurt Gold This is a game changer for my workflow ... all NEW files now add artboards at ¼"  (18 points) and rearrange artboards also defaults to ¼".  Followup question ... is there a way to change the default spacing on AI files that were created before I changed the Adobe Illustrator Prefs file?  If I open a file I created last week, and rearrange those artboards, the default number is still .2778 inches (20 points).  Thanks again!

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Community Expert ,
Oct 20, 2023 Oct 20, 2023

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In pre-existing files it's a document-specific setting.

 

You will have to change it manually.

 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 24, 2023 Oct 24, 2023

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THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!

You do not know how much I appreciate you documenting how to change the default spacing for artboards. I was so tired of manually having to drag / drop my artboards everytime I added a newone. This one post is going to save me countless minutes!

Thank you again!!

Gilley Estes

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Explorer ,
Jan 21, 2025 Jan 21, 2025

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Really wish I could get this to work.  For one, there are 13 "/artboardSpacing" lines in the preferences file (I don't understand why there are so many repeated preferences with the same name), and second, even if I change them all, they get immediately overwritten when I restart Illustrator.  This is version 28.1 (2024)

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