Two artboards created when one specified

[Blue_Devil1]

I got CS5 many years ago.   when I was using it to make a text object recently  I selected a Film and Video preset (1920x1080) with 1 art board and I noticed that two artboards were created (one 1920x1080 and the second 14400 square).  I've seen where this had been discussed before, but I was wondering if this was a bug or there was some specific reason for this behavior.

When I created a print document, and selected 1 artboard, only one was created .  Since I wanted to import this document into After Effects, when I saved the project (with both Artboards), AE imported the document at the 1920x1080 size with an alpha channel.   This implies to me that the large second Artboard has really no effect on my workflow. 

Still though, every once in a while, I find myself accidentally moving to AB2 which I wouldn't know unless I had the Artboard window open.

Is the second Artboard still created in CC and is there any reason not just to delete it?

[Doug A Roberts · Accepted solution]

I never use the film & video doc profile and never noticed, but it does indeed have a second, huge artboard. Bizarre!

I guess it was an error when it was created. There is no reason not to delete it. In fact, delete it, and then save over the original document profile and you will never see it again.

[Doug A Roberts]

Actually it seems to generate a new one even if you do that. Not sure why that would happen. This is the only other reference I can find:

Unwanted multiple artboards in new Illustrator file

[Blue_Devil1]

Thanks so much.  I was leafing through my favorite Ae book and I found this obscure paragraph which also was reproduced at the bottom of this link

https://www.provideocoalition.com/cmg_hidden_gems_chapter_38_import_and_interpret/ .

I don't understand what they're saying with regard to the number of layers in Artboard 1, but I think it's interesting that they knew about this behavior back then.    I think I'll follow your advice and just delete the second artboard when I first create the document so I won't have to worry about jumping back and forth during editing.

I like this preset, because it has the green guides.

[Doug A Roberts]

I see... so this artboard behaviour is specifically for After Effects integration?

Illustrator also includes a set of film and video document profiles. An advantage of using these presets in CS5 is that if you create a new Illustrator file using one of the Video and Film presets, in addition to creating Artboard 01 at the appropriate size, it also creates a second artboard that is much larger (14,400 x 14,400 to be exact). Provided you import your file into After Effects as a Composition (and you have at least two layers), any imagery that falls outside Artboard 01 isn’t cropped off or lost – it will reside outside the composition frame, ready to be animated onto the stage.

If the file was created without using a CS5 preset (or in a previous version), simply create a second artboard at 14,400 x 14,400 – this magic size will trigger After Effects to behave the same way.

I wonder then how one could create a document profile that behaved this way (automatically generating a second artboard) or turn it off in an existing profile.

[Blue_Devil1]

It seems like this behavior is directed in some way to AE and Premiere, but I can't see how it helps.  If I have a Ai project set for a certain size even if I expand it , then A1 file  is set to the expanded size  when saved.  If I have text that extends beyond the A1, then that text is not saved but cut off.  A2 is not saved along with A1 and therefore isn't imported into Ae.  Any information that extends out of A1 laying over A2 is lost. 

The only way I've found to prevent the lost of the extending text is to expand A1 using the Artboard tool and that works perfectly containing all the text.

It would be interesting to see what the Adobe engineer in charge of the 2 Artboard idea was thinking, but that's almost 10 years ago, so he probably isn't there any more.

Maybe the Ae forum guys have some idea of how this works.

When I "Open" this Ai file in Photoshop, I get to select 1 of 2 "pages" .  The first is the amount of text inside that appears to be the A1and cuts off all the bounding box outside A1. The second appears to be all the text bounding box including that inside and outside of the A1.