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How to resize my Canvas in Illustrator

New Here ,
Jul 30, 2010 Jul 30, 2010

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Hello,

can anyone help me out. I would like to rezise my canvas in Illustrator and I dont know how to do that!

Why: I'de like to fit my AI design on to an other AI, real size object and the Illustrator canvas is to small to handle the design in a proper way. So my design is to large to fit the real obeject. the question is therefor how can I make my Canvas larger?

Hope for your support and help.

Thanks

Gert van de Cappelle

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correct answers 2 Correct answers

Enthusiast , Apr 19, 2017 Apr 19, 2017

Hey, the Illy team are trying to sort out a bigger canvas, and they are looking for more details from those that will need it -

Workflows that need large canvas / artboard

Thanks!

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Community Beginner , Feb 14, 2022 Feb 14, 2022

Here's a link to resize your Canvas (not artboard) in Illustrator.

 

Enjoy.

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New Here ,
Jul 12, 2016 Jul 12, 2016

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Can't tell if this has been said , but what I do is...

File > Document Setup > General > Edit Artboard

From there I'm able to rescale

I'm using Illustrator CC 2016

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New Here ,
Nov 08, 2016 Nov 08, 2016

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Sorry to seem silly but - I only 'know what I know..." which is why I'm here, to be better informed! Anyway, in thing to resize artboard, the message pops up "not possible to make artboard larger than canvas" which is why I asked before about "canvas size." What I'd like to do is this:

Make a new file to the size I need it to be. I can then work with that new format. But I'm stuck on the new cc 2017 in seeing how to over-ride the Presets, to make my own preset size for each one I need as the model version so to speak.

Does this make sense to anyone? hope so, need help. It is probably simple, the equivalent to "is it plugged in?"

Thanks

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Enthusiast ,
Nov 08, 2016 Nov 08, 2016

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Hi integralcolor​ can you explain a bit more what you want to do? 

What size are you trying to make the new file, and what presets are you trying to override?  What kind of work are you doing?


Regards, aTomician

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New Here ,
Nov 09, 2016 Nov 09, 2016

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Hi Tomy-rex,

I am doing some textile design and the files have to be the right size for each item. For example, one thing is to be set as 18000 x 12300 px. Another would be 9000 x 25800.  Others are smaller. SO when I try to create a new .ai setup, the widest it allows me to do is 16000.  I'd thought that editing artboards would do it, as usual, but for some reason I get the message about not being able to make the artboard larger than the canvas (the 16000 width). That's what has been frustrating.  I can design it in the smaller version and of course import into pshop since it has to be that type of file ultimately, but ideally I would like to set it up the exact size initially and not have to enlarge or resize in pshop.

Does that answer your question? I suppose I may have to give up on this wish based on what I have seen posted by others.

thanks for asking-

Barbara

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Enthusiast ,
Nov 09, 2016 Nov 09, 2016

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Hi Barbara,

I understand what you are trying to do.  Unfortunately, Illustrator has a "canvas" of about 225" x 225" dimensions, and artboards can not be bigger than this.

You have 2 options - either:

  1. Create the artwork at a smaller scale, 1:2 or something easy, and then enlarge it in Photoshop
  2. The other workaround that may work for you is to create 2 artboards (pictured below), half-length as shown and put them end to end.  This works because artboards can go outside of the canvas, but they can't be bigger than the canvas.  You can then export the 2 artboards and stitch them back together in Photoshop.

Let me know if that works.  The canvas size limit is an annoying restriction with Illustrator, and one that has been requested to remove for years now, but until it changes we just have to work with it.

Let us know how you get on.


Regards, aTomician

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New Here ,
Nov 10, 2016 Nov 10, 2016

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Thanks very much, I will try this. Thanks for your prompt and detailed responses. The funny thing is, is that my final "product" when printed is not going to be more than 86" max dimension either way, and will vary from piece to piece depending on the actual final finished size. Yet, the requirement is often in pxls up to 25800 (one of the dimensions). Even when it's at 18000 that takes it way beyond the "227-inch" at 16000 px.  I guess that is confusing but I'm not going to lose sleep over it . I will try your method as an option.

Thanks

Barbara

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Enthusiast ,
Apr 19, 2017 Apr 19, 2017

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Hey, the Illy team are trying to sort out a bigger canvas, and they are looking for more details from those that will need it -

Workflows that need large canvas / artboard

Thanks!


Regards, aTomician

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Adobe Employee ,
Apr 20, 2017 Apr 20, 2017

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Hello Everyone,

I am Yogesh from the Illustrator team at Adobe.

We are exploring ways to provide a bigger canvas in Illustrator. Like any other feature, larger canvas has its own share of complexities, functional as well as performance, and we are looking for your feedback. We would like to hear your requirements *if you need larger canvas in your work*.

Please fill out the survey:

U2U Feedback on Larger Canvas Survey

Thanks,

Yogesh

Product Manager

Adobe Illustrator

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New Here ,
Sep 12, 2023 Sep 12, 2023

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Hi Yogesh,

I am Reuben, an Adobe Illustrator user. I need to make an artwork for a 20+ Feet hoarding. Illustrator doesn't allow the Artboard beyond 16 feet. Kindly help.

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Community Expert ,
Sep 13, 2023 Sep 13, 2023

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Did you read the rest of this topic? You can create a large canvas document up to 190 ft wide.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 17, 2019 Jul 17, 2019

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ADOBE! this thread is 9 years!! yes 9 years old!!...

...and we (users) still don't have an option to change the canvas size in Illustrator!

What is going on????

Any chance this will be part of the next program update?

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Community Expert ,
Jul 18, 2019 Jul 18, 2019

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There was some development on it (ref: Yogesh's post above), but it stopped in 2017 and there has been no news since.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 18, 2019 Jul 18, 2019

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There are developments going on, but they are happening in the Illustrator Prerelease program. It's not permitted to discuss ongoing progress in a public forum.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 18, 2019 Jul 18, 2019

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I'm only referring to what we can infer from public posts.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 18, 2019 Jul 18, 2019

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I guess I am trying to understand why one would need to increase the seemingly infinite canvas size on a vector image if you can just change the artboard size using the Artboard tool? I would rather we be able to precisely input the artboard width/height, and maybe there's an option for that. Anywho, doesn't the canvas size increase whenever you add or increase the size of the artboard(s)? The canvas seems infinite, no?

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Community Expert ,
Jul 18, 2019 Jul 18, 2019

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The canvas is 16383 points, or around 227 inches, square. You can't make an artboard larger than this.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 18, 2019 Jul 18, 2019

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@toneloves indeed as mentioned in thread above the canvas in not infinite. It stops at 227 inch square. If i may, and i dont mean to be rude, it sounds like you have not tried it for yourself. It’s the best way to understand how it works.  

@dougaroberts and @stevewerner happy to hear. Just hope it won’t take another 9 years!

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 18, 2019 Jul 18, 2019

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No offense taken. I honestly hadn't tried it because I just didn't have the time or need. Instead, every project that's been that large, I've just reduced it proportionately since the artwork is entirely vector anyway. I simply zoom in if there was something requiring a high level of detail. It's worked absolutely flawlessly thus far. Maybe there are scenarios where reducing a vector exponentially won't do the job? I can't imagine though, but hey, what do I know? lol

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 18, 2019 Jul 18, 2019

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@toneloves yes, it's definitely the way to go to not have to run into the canvas limitation, and I have done it many times reducing the scale until I encountered issues dealing with parties who were not understanding the scaling part or get confused! (yes! it can happen, clients can be from another planet ). So I sometimes have to work at 100%.

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Community Expert ,
Jul 18, 2019 Jul 18, 2019

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toneloves, esther, others,

I've just reduced it proportionately since the artwork is entirely vector anyway.

There is one important aspect of this, namely the question of raster effects: it may be overlooked that many of the Effects are raster effects, and they have the resolution set in Effect>Document Raster Effects Settings.

As stated here,

How to apply effects in Illustrator

Raster effects are effects that generate pixels, rather than vector data. Raster effects include SVG Filters, all of the effects at the bottom section of the Effect menu, and the Drop Shadow, Inner Glow, Outer Glow, and Feather commands in the Effect > Stylize submenu.

So if you have vector artwork with raster effects, to get the required PPI at the final size, you will have to increase the Effect>Document Raster Effects Settings in the scaled document by the reverse scaling factor, 10 times higher if you use 1:10 and similar.

It works on all the raster effects in the document, including those created before your changing the setting.

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Explorer ,
Nov 09, 2021 Nov 09, 2021

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You can go to File then New. Before you create the new file change the Width and the Height to whatever you want.

That takes care of the Large canvas problems.

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Community Beginner ,
Feb 14, 2022 Feb 14, 2022

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Here's a link to resize your Canvas (not artboard) in Illustrator.

 

Enjoy.

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 13, 2023 Sep 13, 2023

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This does not actually solve the issue at hand. The question is the resizing of a given Canvas. The solution just provided only scales the Artboard but does not affect the size of the Canvas. Adobe just declares that your artboard that you are looking at is actually a given size. 

Given its should be all vectors this is really fine but that does not solve the issue of a bigger Canvas. Which has different benefits. 

For instane if you make a new file with a width size of 129ft the program will make a artboard with the size and smak it in the middle. Now if you copy the Artboard and but that directly next to the First Artboard it will now be too long and hang off the canvas. This can be seen in the attached Screenshot. Forcing you to scale the 2 artboards until the can fit inside the canvas. So again not a solution. 

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Community Expert ,
Sep 13, 2023 Sep 13, 2023

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@franciscob1218  schrieb:

This does not actually solve the issue at hand. 


 

You cannot scale the canvas.

You need to create either a normal or a large canvas document.

 

If you do not like that, then please post a feature request or support an already existing one. https://illustrator.uservoice.com

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New Here ,
Sep 13, 2023 Sep 13, 2023

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You have No Idea what you are talking about.

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