Photos dragged into Illustrator change the artboard size

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 26, 2025
2 replies
814 views

I've always been able to drag images into Illustrator (I'm using a Mac) and they would open on the default artboard size (I have it set to 8.5 x 11). But recently, any image I drag into Illustrator makes the artboard resize itself to the size of the image, making me manually have to change the artboard each time or copy and paste the image into an entirely new file. Is there a way to fix this? New documents are sized fine - the issue is only with images dragged and dropped. Thank you!

Anshul_Saini

Community Manager

Hi @Holton Recorder,

Thank you for sharing your experience — I understand how this is adding extra steps to your workflow.

As Monika and Ton pointed out, this behavior does seem to differ from previous versions. Since you mentioned that placing a border around the image is a common task in your process, I’m curious — is there a particular method or template you rely on to maintain consistency when preparing these images for InDesign?

I will check with the product team and get back.

Best,

Anshul

Monika Gause

Community Expert

So you drag them into an existing file? Or you open them by dragging them on the Illustrator icon?

H

Holton RecorderAuthor

Inspiring

I drag them on the Illustrator icon, and then they open up in a new document with the artboard set to the size of the image rather than my default setting.

H

Holton RecorderAuthor

Inspiring

I can confirm the change. When dragging on the AI app icon, previous versions just placed the file on an artboard with the last created (and saved) size. Now it creates an artboard that has the dimensions of the image.

If you want something like the previous versions, create a new file and drag the image onto it.

But if you want to report it:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/

That's really annoying... I wish they'd quit changing things like that. If it's not broke, don't fix it. Most of the time all I need to do is put a border around the image and be done with it. Now I have to open a new file, open the image, copy and paste the image into the new file, rename the new file, and then put the border around it. Very frustrating. Is there no way to make the image be automatically placed on the saved artboard size anymore?

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