I’m referring to the dark gray area that the artboards sit within. Is there a way I can make this area larger without creating a new Illustrator file? I would create a new file and make the artboard larger like I usually do but unfortunately, I’m working with a graphic that has so many vectors that it cannot be copy/pasted into a new Illustrator file without Illustrator crashing…so I need to make THIS file’s bounding box larger. Is this possible or not?
Not entirely sure why you need a larger artboard?
Can you elaborate what you’re doing?
If the image is vector - then why does it need to be larger, just output it at a larger size?
Again, not entirely sure what you’re doing - an explanation with some screenshots would go a long way.
I need to make the dark gray area that artboards sit within larger without making a new Illustrator file, does that make sense?
I see that the Canvas size has been increased for Illustrator - but only when creating new files.
I’d try creating the new file.
In your Layers on the old file - go to the sub menu and select Paste Remembers layers.
Then try copying a layer at a time.
use Paste in Place on the new document.
I found an alternative way to solve my problem. I exported the complex vector selection as a PDF and placed that in my new file and that worked. Thanks for your help.
That wasn’t the answer really.
You could have placed the .ai file directly in a new file.
But whatever.
I’m not quite sure what you’re asking, but you can change the size and dimensions of Illustrator’s art board quite easily. Go to File > Document Setup. Once there, click the Edit Artboards button, then drag the edges of the art board to whatever size you want them to be.
Why would you do that rather than just copy and paste the selection from one Illustrator document to the next? As I said, perhaps I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying.
I’m not quite sure what you’re asking, but you can change the size and dimensions of Illustrator’s art board quite easily. Go to File > Document Setup . Once there, click the Edit Artboards button, then drag the edges of the art board to whatever size you want them to be.
I needed to make the dark gray area that artboards sit within larger without making a new Illustrator file, does that make sense? However, I found out the only way to do this is to create a new Illustrator file. Which I already knew but I was wondering if you could change it on an existing file.
Why would you do that rather than just copy and paste the selection from one Illustrator document to the next? As I said, perhaps I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying.
Like I said in my post, the graphic has so many vectors that it could not be copy/pasted into a new Illustrator file without Illustrator crashing every time I tried.
I think they meant the canvas. Which can only be larger when creating a new document.
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I did try that and it crashed Illustrator.
Anything with enough points to crash Illustrator risks clogging and crashing the RIP on whatever output device you’ll be using (if it’s for print). I don’t know what you’re working with or why, but a need for a larger scratch area/canvas is unusual since the default is already huge and the area doesn’t print anyway. You must have your reasons, though.