Remove Canvas Size Limit

[Mega-Tech]

There has been tremendous requests to remove, or expand, the current size limits of the canvas in Illustrator in the following thread.

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-feature-requests/suggestions/20395555-re...

There was only one response from Adobe personnel in October 2017, and my understanding is they no longer are part of the project.

Can we have someone from Adobe followup on this request since it has received a lot of votes.  I don't know if that feature request forum has been depreciated or not, or if feature requests should be made at a new site.

Thank you.

[Bobby Henderson]

There has been a pretty long, on-going discussion about the art board size limit in the Illustrator Feature Requests forum. New comments are still being posted:
https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-feature-requests/suggestions/20395555-re...

I'm not holding my breath for the current 227" X 227" limit to change. I suspect it has something to do with mathematical engineering "under the hood". I don't know of any vector-based drawing program has truly has things like unlimited zoom or unlimited art board sizes. CorelDRAW can technically allow art boards to go up to 1800" X 1800," but the program will become very annoyingly un-usable at that level. You'll get hit with max zoom limit warning boxes constantly at anything past 1000" X 1000". Object editing precision also starts to take a hit. There is definitely some kind of push-pull balance taking place.

[Garland5EDE]

Affinity Designer has a 50,000" or so limit (lol). However, anything above 25,000 is very hard to manuver around in.

[Garland5EDE]

CORRECTION: It seems to technically have a limitless canvas upon further experimenting.

[Bobby Henderson]

Affinity Designer does have max canvas size limits AND those limits will vary depending on the document's resolution settings. For example (via the latest 2.1 version) the new document settings yield the following maximum sizes:
640" X 640" @ 400dpi
853.3" X 853.3" @ 300dpi
1333.3" X 1333.3" @ 192dpi
1777.7" X 1777.7" @ 144dpi
2666.6" X 2666.6" @ 96dpi
3555.5" X 3555.5" @ 72dpi

So, while it's possible to create some huge designs for large format output there are still max canvas size limits in that application.

[Monika Gause]

Affinity Designer does have max canvas size limits

Yes, and let's not talk about its limits in functionality ...

[Daniel E Lane]

what the heck are you creating that you want to work on something larger than 18 feet by 18 feet?

[Bobby Henderson]

Signs, billboards, large banners, vehicle wraps/graphics, wall wraps, store-front window wraps, trade show graphics, etc. If someone is going to design those kinds of items within Adobe Illustrator the project usually must be designed at some scale level (such as 10% or 1" = 1') to fit within Illustrator's art board size limits. When the job is output it is critical for anyone else involved to scale the artwork up to the proper size before printing, cutting vinyl, routing parts, etc. Being able to design at full size removes that potential for error.

Some industry-specific applications (like SAi Flexi) are geared for large format design and can drive vinyl cutters, large format printers and other devices. But those applications have their own limitations. Flexi still isn't on the ball when it comes to fully supporting all the features of OpenType.

[creativeadvantech]

Tradeshow booth graphics for one. Vector is easy to work in scale, however when it comes to mixing with rasters, mistakes can happen. In print industry, accuracy is key.

[esaeo-nyc-pdx]

I've always had to do scale-downs as a designer, which sucks but is do-able.  However, now I am on the production end having to get the artwork to 100% (real-world scale) ready for vinyl cutting, and have to break the artwork into strips for the vinyl roll feed.  But the artwork is made of hundreds of overlapping and interlocking fragments that are intricate and extremely tedious to break up enough to pre-split the whole artwork so I can seamlessly split into overlapping vinyl strips. The width of the artwork is 379".

If Adobe allowed real-world OOH sizes, I could just size the artwork at 100% and place multiple overlapping artboards equal to the width of the vinyl roll (allowing for needed margins) under the artwork and export the panels.  Easy-peasy.  But now, it's near hell to get this seemingly simple job done.  It makes no sense that the limit is soooooooooo small.

And as a side note regarding having to work in scale: besides not being able to do things at size, why then wouldn't Adobe include scale settings so designers could at least use real-world numbers even if the actual artwork is not that size.

[Monika Gause]

Which version are you using?

in version 24.2.1 you can set up artboards of 60 metres.

[schroef]

Ah i see, they added 1000% scale, used to be 5.7 something meter, now i see 57.7 something meter. Did not actually know that, used to track all changes like a hawk. Nowadays with all those gimmicks they ad but forget to fi core functions. I dont really watch all that new stuff.

wotking in percentages has worked for me jsut fine for 2 decades or so

[Monika Gause]

"With this behaviour you are loosing positions - Dreamweaver got forgotten, Flash got forgotten, etc."

1. When answering, please read everything. You can set up canvas at large sizes.

2. 95% of folks in the forums are not Adobe. So who is the "you" youare addressing?

[schroef]

That is either designers fault or printers fault. Companies have been working like this for decades!
First thing designer needs to do, check what printer wants and talk about dimensions.

Communication is key!

[torie88182136]

Yes PLEASE adobe...please remove the canvas size limitations. We need to set our files to the proper scale and ensure the end result is as needed for resolution and quality of our imagery. I am needing to design a vinyl graphic wall installation and the wall is 278'' long....this is not good that I cannot design this wall to-scale as illustrator is currently set up with the artboard size restrictions. Any update on this update would be great?! Thank you.

[Jacob Bugge]

Mega-Tech, others,

You may follow the links in posts #65 & 66 & 79 by Rama and Yogesh and Doug here,

Re: Add the ability to scale the canvas beyond it's archaic 227 inch limits.

or directly,

Workflows that need large canvas / artboard

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LargeCanvas

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-fe…

In the old days the limit was 1296 pt or 18 in.

[Bhannon81]

THANK YOU FOR BRINGING THIS UP AS WELL! There are people posting on that page almost EVERY DAY!!! 502 votes and over 300 comments. And all of those links above just link back to the same page!

Remove canvas size limit – Adobe Illustrator Feedback

I don't know why they keep dodging this issue, seems like this is the only program in the industry that has these types of size restraints.

Adobe keeps on coming out with these new programs for CC, why can't they develop a large format specific program? Not everybody needs a mobile app design program but there are definitely hundreds of people (and probably a lot more) who would benefit from this.

And I'm tired of people using the excuse "you should have seen what it use to be" or "in the old days".

It would be nice to at LEAST hear back from Adobe on this issue, many people feel ignored and are starting to use other programs for design and illustration.

[Doug A Roberts]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/BH+VCD  wrote

And I'm tired of people using the excuse "you should have seen what it use to be" or "in the old days".

I believe Jacob meant it more as interesting trivia than excuse.

[Bhannon81]

Ok, but that is totally beside the point. Are you trying to discuss the problem here or call people out? How did you even see my comment, I don't see any posts from you on this thread...

[Doug A Roberts]

It's a message board. Everyone can see everything.

I don't see a lot to discuss. We all know the problem, as does Adobe, but there has been no word from Adobe on it in over two years.

[Bhannon81]

So if you know there is an issue or problem about something in life you just ignore it and never speak up? If you saw someone getting beat up on the same corner for 2 years and nobody ever did anything about it you would just stand by and not say anything? We are just expressing our frustration over this, and considering I get feedback requests all the time when I open my programs, Adobe is clearly looking for suggestions, and that is what myself and hundreds of other people are doing.

I'm just explaining where I am coming from here.

[Doug A Roberts]

If I see someone getting beat up, that's something I have the power to solve. This is shouting at a brick wall.

[Bhannon81]

Well Doug, I wish I had your Zen-like approach to these types of things.

[Jacob Bugge]

BH VCD,

The kind assumption made by Doug about my old days comment in my post #5 is true.

I included four links in that post #5, and only one was to the Remove canvas size limits thread.

It may be worth (re)reading what Yogesh wrote (see the second last link) which expressly says that enlarging the Workspace/canvas size has its challenges:

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*.

I believe the size limits and thereby the challenges may be related to inherent properties, maybe even comparable with other inherent properties such as the inaccuracy of Bezier circles/ellipses with 4 Anchor Points (shared by all Bezier based applications).

This is written after my returning from an(other) intriguing and far more complex and iterative double case of working to scale in the form of seed drill calibration for (barley) grain and clover/grass seeds to obtain the right seeding rates (the iteration including feedback in the form of actual seeding rates in the fields for readjustment).

[Bobby Henderson]

"I don't know why they keep dodging this issue, seems like this is the only program in the industry that has these types of size restraints."

No vector-based drawing program has unlimited art board sizes. They all have their limits, as well as relative limits of precision, zoom, etc. For example, I use CorelDRAW quite a bit in sign design work (in addition to Adobe Illustrator). The max art board size in CorelDRAW is 1800" X 1800". But it's really only usable up to about 1000" in any direction; going bigger than that will bring up a pop up message saying "the zoom has exceeded the boundaries of the drawing space, your window will be adjusted accordingly."