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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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Community Expert ,
Jul 30, 2010 Jul 30, 2010

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Gert,

There is no canvas in Illustrator.

In Illustrator you have the (about) 227" x 227" Workspace, and inside that the Artboard, which corresponds to the page (in print), and which holds the artwork that is printed or saved as PDF; in the newest versions, it is also used to crop for exporting artwork in other formats. You set the Artboard size with File>Document Setup>Artboard, or in the newest version with the Artboard Tool (DoubleClick).

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New Here ,
Oct 11, 2010 Oct 11, 2010

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Hi Jacob,

I've been tooling around the internet for a while now looking for answers and I was wondering if you could help! Do you know of any way to change the size of the default 227 inch workspace?

Thanks!

Conor

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Community Expert ,
Oct 12, 2010 Oct 12, 2010

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Conor,

There is no way.

Have you seen this post, which came after your post here?

http://forums.adobe.com/message/3201140#3201140

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New Here ,
Nov 08, 2016 Nov 08, 2016

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Even in .ai cc 2017 - no way to make a very large size file to accomodate a real-size object. Looks like it has to be done in Pshop. Too bad since I love using illustrator for design projects. (fabric and garment) If anyone knows something new please post! Thanks

Barbara

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Community Beginner ,
Sep 05, 2014 Sep 05, 2014

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Jacob Buggebrief answer is the answer to this question, quite simply.

@The artboard is to Illustrator what the canvas is to Photoshop. Period.

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New Here ,
Sep 15, 2014 Sep 15, 2014

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Hi everyone,

I wonder if anybody know if there is a possibility to change the art board size symmetrical !

The same way when we hold the option key to resize a rectangle object symmetrically.

Thanks

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New Here ,
Sep 30, 2017 Sep 30, 2017

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Thank you so much, I found your answer very, very helpful.

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Community Expert ,
Oct 01, 2017 Oct 01, 2017

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You are welcome, ofee.

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Community Beginner ,
Mar 07, 2018 Mar 07, 2018

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Guest
Jul 03, 2018 Jul 03, 2018

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Hi there,

I had the same issue when designing a banner with a size of 5800 mm x 2400mm . the same box popped up when i clicked create because it surpasses the canvas size limit. However, what you can do is create a new  artwork  and set the  size to a smaller ratio. Basically what i did was set the size by 50% smaller ratio making the art board dimensions  2900 mm x 1200 mm. After I sent it to the printing company, I specifically  told them that the artwork I sent to them  is in a 50% ratio and that they would have scale to rescale it back to its original size to print.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 14, 2021 Jul 14, 2021

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Just wanna say this is wrong. There IS a canvas in Illustrator. The Artboards are contained within the canvas. And while artboards are essentially the same thing as a canvas in photoshop. Saying that a canvas does not exist in Illustrator is incorrect

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Community Expert ,
Jul 15, 2021 Jul 15, 2021

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'Canvas' is a relatively new term in Illustrator, and it has spread around inconsistently since 2010 (when Jacob posted that message). Many users would have been more familiar with 'pasteboard' or simply 'work area' as Jacob said, but they are all the same thing.

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New Here ,
Feb 14, 2022 Feb 14, 2022

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Well said!

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New Here ,
Apr 28, 2022 Apr 28, 2022

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This is incorrect, at least in CS4. When I try to resize my artboard to outside the boundaries of the canvas area I receive the notification that I cannot do this. I am attempting to resize my artboard to a specific size that is outsise the canvas area and am finding nothing in any settings to change the canvas area dimensions. I am assuming this is not possible. CS4 Canvas Error msg.jpg

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Community Expert ,
Apr 29, 2022 Apr 29, 2022

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What was incorrect exactly?

What size artboard do you need to create? As Jacob said, the maximum is 227 inches square (until the 2020 version at least).

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New Here ,
Sep 05, 2023 Sep 05, 2023

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I've been searching how to do this forever and this is how you do it: You have to create a New document, put in the dimensions that you need, and it will create that Canvas size for you automatically. And it's Huge too, plenty of room for most scales. Unfortunately, what you can't change an existing document to a larger canvas size, it has to be a new document.

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Guest
Nov 09, 2011 Nov 09, 2011

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Jacob,

If there's no canvas in Illustrator, how come I get an error message saying, "Artboard size can not be bigger than CANVAS size", when I try to make a large artboard?

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Community Expert ,
Nov 10, 2011 Nov 10, 2011

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RPCappa,

Because whoever started using the term, in error messages and/or elsewhere, had failed to realize it.

Some day, (almost) everyone may use this basically misleading term with its implication of a (non existing) background, and we shall have to really waste time in the Illustrator forum explaining that there is no background (of any colour) in an Illustrator file.

Here is just one of many threads over there in the past, showing that it had not crept in in CS4:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/2211879#2211879

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New Here ,
Jul 16, 2013 Jul 16, 2013

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There's no point in being rude to people bro. get over yourself.

its a canvas.

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New Here ,
Sep 08, 2021 Sep 08, 2021

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I just had the same problem, I know it's 10 years after the original post... hahaha

Just group all the items that you have so that they can go beyond the canvas, then make a new file with an artboard the size of that and your canvas will stretch to that size, though not a lot more. Then copy and paste into the new file.

 

I just made a file 16K + pixels high and it worked. 

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Community Beginner ,
Oct 11, 2021 Oct 11, 2021

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Thank you!

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Guest
Nov 19, 2011 Nov 19, 2011

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Community Beginner ,
Dec 21, 2011 Dec 21, 2011

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Hey there Gert,

You can resize the canvas by going to File > Document Setup. In the top right hand corner of the dialogue window there's a button that says Edit Artboard. It will then highlight the artboard selected. You can then press Enter (Return) and it will open up the Artboard Options where you can change the size, orientation, etc.

You can also select the artboard using the "artboard tool" located in the toolbar which looks like a square with little tick marks at the corners. In either case the artboard options will also show up in the top bar if you want to quick adjust items without having to go into the dialogue window.

I'm using CS5 on a mac but I'm assuming the process is at least somewhat similar.

Hope this helps!

-ben

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New Here ,
Jan 10, 2013 Jan 10, 2013

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Thanks Ben! I was looking for this answer.

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