ARTBOARD OVERVIEW

The artboard represents the entire region that can contain printable artwork. However, the artboard’s dimensions do not necessarily match the current page size. For example, your artboard may be 10 x 20 inches while your print settings specify 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper, or 864 x 480 pixels. You can view the page boundaries in relation to the artboard by showing page tiling (View > Show Page Tiling). When page tiling is on, the printable and nonprintable areas are represented by a series of solid and dotted lines between the outermost edge of the window and the printable area of the page. Illustration window A. Printable area. B. Nonprintable area. C. Edge of the page. D. Artboard. The printable area is bounded by the innermost dotted lines and represents the portion of the page on which the selected printer can print. Many printers cannot print to the edge of the paper. The nonprintable area is between the two sets of dotted lines representing any nonprintable margin of the page. The page edge is indicated by the outermost set of dotted lines. The artboard is bounded by solid lines and represents the maximum printable area. To hide the artboard boundaries, choose View > Hide Artboard. The scratch area is the area outside the artboard that extends to the edge of the 227 inch square window. The scratch area represents a space on which you can create, edit, and store elements of artwork before moving them onto the artboard. Objects placed onto the scratch area are visible on screen, but they do not print. Change the size and color of the artboard Choose File > Document Setup. From the menu at the upper-left of the Document Setup window, do either of the following: To change the size of the artboard, choose Artboard, and then set the size and orientation for the artboard. To change the color of the artboard, choose Transparency. Select Simulate Colored Paper, click the top color swatch, and select a new color using the Color dialog box. Changing the color of the artboard lets you view your document as it might appear when printed on colored paper. For example, if you draw a blue object on a yellow background, the object appears green. The simulation is only performed when the transparency grid is not shown. About page tiling By default, Illustrator prints your artwork on a single sheet of paper. However, if the artwork is larger than the page sizes available on your printer, you can print onto multiple sheets of paper. Dividing the artboard to fit a printer’s available page sizes is called tiling. You can choose a tiling option in the Setup section of the Print dialog box. To view the page tiling boundaries on the artboard, choose View > Show Page Tiling. Artboard divided into multiple page tiles When you divide the artboard into multiple page tiles, the pages are numbered from left to right and from top to bottom, starting with page 1. These page numbers appear on screen for your reference only; they do not print. The numbers enable you to print all of the pages in the file or specify particular pages to print. Zoom in or out There are several ways to zoom in or out of artwork. Select the Zoom tool . The pointer becomes a magnifying glass with a plus sign in its center. Click in the center of the area that you want to magnify, or hold down Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) and click in the center of the area that you want to reduce. Each click magnifies or reduces the view to the previous preset percentage. Select the Zoom tool and drag a dotted rectangle, called a marquee, around the area you want to magnify. To move the marquee around the artwork, hold down the spacebar, and continue dragging to move the marquee to a new location. Choose View > Zoom In or View > Zoom Out. Each click magnifies or reduces the view to the next preset percentage. Set the zoom level at the lower-left corner of the main window or in the Navigator panel. To display a file at 100%, choose View > Actual Size, or double-click the Zoom tool. To change the view to fit the document window, choose View > Fit In Window, or double-click the Hand tool. Move the view area You can bring a different area of the artboard into view by doing either of the following: Select the Hand tool , and drag in the direction you want the artwork to move. In the Navigator panel, click the area of the thumbnail display that you want to view in the illustration window. Alternatively, drag the proxy view area (the colored box) to a different area of the thumbnail display. To specify the quality of the display when using the Hand tool, choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Display Performance (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Units & Display Performance (Mac OS). Drag the Hand Tool slider left to improve the quality of the view when you move it with the Hand tool, or right to improve the speed at which you can move the view with the Hand tool. Navigator panel overview You use the Navigator panel (Window > Navigator) to quickly change the view of your artwork using a thumbnail display. The colored box in the Navigator (called the proxy view area) corresponds to the currently viewable area in the illustration window. Navigator panel A. Thumbnail display of artwork. B. Panel menu button. C. Zoom box. D. Zoom Out button. E. Proxy preview area. F. Zoom slider. G. Zoom In button. You can customize the Navigator panel in the following ways: To display artwork outside the boundaries of the artboard in the Navigator panel, click View Artboard/Crop Area Only from the panel menu to deselect it. To change the color of the proxy view area, select panel Options from the panel menu. Select a preset color from the Color menu, or double-click the color box to choose a custom color. To display dashed lines in the document as solid lines in the Navigator panel, select panel Options from the panel menu and select Draw Dashed Lines As Solid Lines. To specify the size at which text is replaced by a gray bar in the Navigator panel, select panel Options from the panel menu and enter a font size in the Greeking box. View artwork as outlines By default, Adobe Illustrator sets the view so that all artwork is previewed in color. However, you can choose to display artwork so that only its outlines (or paths) are visible. Viewing artwork without paint attributes speeds up the time it takes to redraw the screen when working with complex artwork. In Outline mode, linked files are displayed by default as outlined boxes with an X inside. To view the contents of linked files, choose File > Document Setup, choose Artboard at the top of the dialog box, and select Show Images In Outline. To view all artwork as outlines, choose View > Outline. Choose View > Preview to return to previewing artwork in color. To view all artwork in a layer as outlines, Ctrl click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) the eye icon for the layer in the Layers panel. Ctrl click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) again to return to previewing artwork in color. The eye icon has a hollow center when Outline view is enabled and a filled center when Preview view is enabled. To view all items in unselected layers as outlines, Alt+Ctrl click (Windows) or Option+Command-click (Mac OS) the eye icon for the selected layer. Alternatively, select Outline Others from the Layers panel menu. You can return all items in the Layers panel to Preview mode by choosing Preview All Layers from the Layers panel menu. Use multiple windows and views You can open multiple windows of a single document at the same time. Each window can have different view settings. For example, you can set one window highly magnified for doing close up work on some objects and create another window less magnified for laying out those objects on the page. (Windows) You can arrange multiple open windows to suit your needs, using options from the Window menu. Cascade displays windows stacked and descending from the upper-left to the lower-right of the screen; Tile displays windows edge to edge; Arrange Icons organizes minimized windows within the program window. An alternative to creating multiple windows is creating multiple views. You can create and store up to 25 views for each document. Multiple windows and multiple views differ in the following ways: Multiple views are saved with the document, multiple windows are not. Multiple windows can be viewed at the same time. Multiple views can only appear at the same time if multiple windows are opened to display them in. Changing a view alters the current windows, it does not open a new one. Previewing artwork in its final output medium Illustrator provides the following ways to preview how aspects of artwork will look when printed or viewed on the web or a mobile device: Overprint Preview mode (View > Overprint Preview) Provides an “ink preview” that approximates how blending, transparency, and overprinting will appear in color-separated output. Pixel Preview mode (View > Pixel Preview) Approximates how your artwork will appear when it is rasterized and viewed in a web browser. Flattener Preview panel (Window > Flattener Preview) Highlights areas of the artwork that meet certain criteria for flattening when saved or printed. Soft-proofs Approximate how your document’s colors will appear on a particular type of monitor or output device. Anti-aliasing Gives vector objects a smoother on screen appearance and provides a better idea of how vector artwork will look when printed on a PostScript® printer. Anti-aliasing is helpful because screen resolution is relatively limited, but vector artwork is often printed at a high resolution. To turn on anti-aliasing, choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > General (Mac OS), select Anti-aliased Artwork, and click OK. Device Central (File > Device Central) Lets you preview how your document will appear on a particular mobile phone or device. Use rulers Rulers help you accurately place and measure objects in the illustration window. Rulers appear at the top and left sides of the illustration window. The point where 0 appears on each ruler is called the ruler origin. The default ruler origin is located at the lower-left corner of the artboard. To show rulers, choose View > Show Rulers. To hide rulers, choose View > Hide Rulers. To change the ruler origin, move the pointer to the upper-left corner of the illustration window where the rulers intersect, and drag the pointer to where you want the new ruler origin. As you drag, a cross hair in the window and in the rulers indicates the changing ruler origin. Note: Changing the ruler origin affects the tiling of patterns. To restore the default ruler origin, double-click the upper-left corner of the illustration window where the rulers intersect. Note: Rulers are also available for individual crop areas. To set rulers around crop areas, double-click the Crop tool to open the Crop Area Options dialog box, and select Show Crop Area Rulers. Change the unit of measurement The default unit of measurement in Illustrator is points (a point equals .3528 millimeter). You can change the unit that Illustrator uses for general measurements, strokes, and type. You can override the default unit while entering values in boxes. To change the default unit of measurement, choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Display Performance (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Units & Display Performance (Mac OS), and then select units for the General, Stroke, and Type options. If Show Asian Options is selected in the Type preferences, you can also select a unit specifically for Asian type. Note: The “General” measurement option affects rulers, measuring the distance between points, moving and transforming objects, setting grid and guides spacing, and creating shapes. To set the general unit of measurement for the current document only, choose File > Document Setup, select Artboard from the menu at the upper-left of the Document Setup dialog box, set the unit of measure you want to use, and click OK. To change the unit of measurement when entering a value in a box, follow the value by any of the following abbreviations: inch, inches, in, millimeters, millimetres, mm, Qs (one Q equals 0.25 millimeter), centimeters, centimetres, cm, points, p, pt, picas, pc, pixel, pixels, and px. When mixing picas and points, you can enter values as XpY, where X and Y are the number of picas and points (for example, 12p6 for 12 picas, 6 points). Use the grid The grid appears behind your artwork in the illustration window, and it does not print. To use the grid, choose View > Show Grid. To hide the grid, choose View > Hide Grid. To snap objects to gridlines, choose View > Snap To Grid, select the object you want to move, and drag it to the desired location. Use guides Guides help you align text and graphic objects. You can create ruler guides (straight vertical or horizontal lines) and guide objects (vector objects that you convert to guides). Like the grid, guides do not print. You can choose between two guide styles—dots and lines—and you can change the color of guides by using either predefined guide colors or colors you select using a color picker. By default, guides are unlocked so that you can move, modify, delete, or revert them, but you can choose to lock them into place. To show or hide guides, choose View > Guides > Show Guides or View > Guides > Hide Guides. To change guide settings, choose Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Guides & Grid (Mac OS). To lock guides, select View > Guides > Lock Guides. When the object’s boundaries come within 2 pixels of a gridline, it snaps to the point. Note: When the View > Pixel Preview option is selected, Snap To Grid changes to Snap To Pixel. To specify the spacing between gridlines, grid style (lines or dots), grid color, or whether grids appear in the front or back of artwork, choose Edit > Preferences > Guides & Grid (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Guides & Grid (Mac OS). About Smart Guides Smart Guides are temporary snap to guides that help you create, align, edit, and transform objects relative to other objects. To activate Smart Guides, choose View > Smart Guides. You can use Smart Guides in the following ways: When you create an object with the pen or shape tools, use the Smart Guides to position a new object's anchor points relative to an existing object. When you move an object, use the Smart Guides to align your cursor to construction guides and existing paths. The alignment is based on the position of the pointer, not the edges of the object, so be sure to click to the exact point you want to align to. When you transform an object, Smart Guides automatically appear to assist the transformation. You can change when and how Smart Guides appear by setting Smart Guide preferences. Note: When Snap To Grid is turned on, you cannot use Smart Guides (even if the menu command is selected). Measure the distance between objects The Measure tool calculates the distance between any two points and displays the results in the Info panel. Select the Measure tool . Do one of the following: Click the two points to measure the distance between them. Click the first point and drag to the second point. Shift drag to constrain the tool to multiples of 45°. The Info panel shows the horizontal and vertical distances from the x and y axes, the absolute horizontal and vertical distances, the total distances, and the angle measured. Undo and redo changes The Undo and Redo commands let you undo or redo operations, allowing you to correct mistakes as you work. You can undo or redo an operation after you select the Save command (but not if you have closed and then reopened the file). Choose Edit > Undo or Edit > Redo. You can undo an unlimited number of operations (depending on memory) by repeatedly choosing the Undo command. If an operation cannot be undone, the Undo command is dimmed. Revert to the last saved version You can revert a file to the last saved version (but not if you have closed and then reopened the file). You cannot undo this action. Choose File > Revert. INTRODUCTION WORK AREA NEW DOCUMENT PROFILES VECTOR GRAPHICS