Hi, this is Anne with Graphic Design How To, and today we're going to talk about how and
why to use artboards in Adobe Illustrator CC.
So let's get started.
First, we're going to go over the 'why' you would want to use artboards in Illustrator.
That is mostly when I'm setting up documents that need to have similar elements like these,
but all need different sizes.
So these are my Skillshare images.
I have this image for Udemy, which I always put all my Skillshare classes on Udemy, too.
This image is for Skillshare itself.
And then the smaller image is for another platform where I share my Skillshare classes.
And then this is for a banner image for, like a blog site.
And then this one is for YouTube.
So, if you have multiple images that you're wanting to use similar elements on, artboards
are the way to go.
If we hit SHIFT O, that will bring us to our Artboard Tool right here.
And it will also show us the size of our documents.
If we have our Artboard panel up over here, you can see all the different artboards that
I have saved in here.
And you can get this panel by going to Window>Artboards.
If you don't have your Control Panel up, you can go to Window>Control right here.
And that will give you the dimensions of everything.
So if I click on this one, I'm still on the Artboard Tool, you can see this is also 1280x720.
And this one is 750x422.
So they're all different sizes, and that's totally fine.
I have all these multiple artboards, and if I want to export these as JPEGs, I can easily
do that by going to File>Export>Export As, and then choosing JPEG here, and then 'Use
Artboards' and I'll save these in a new folder on my desktop called 'Skillshare'.
And then we can hit 'Export' and then export them all as separate JPEGs.
So that's why you would want to use separate artboards.
Now let's talk about how to create an artboard.
So I'm going to hit SHIFT O, which puts me back on my Artboard Tool.
And now I can just draw an artboard of any size.
If I don't like this size, I can change it.
Let's do 1000x650, and now it's added an artboard here.
We can hit V to get our Selection Tool, copy some of these elements and then paste them
on here, resize or do whatever we need to do there.
And now we have a new artboard with artwork on it.
Now if I want to move this around, I can hit SHIFT O, and just click and drag.
And when I do this, it will move the artboard with the art.
So that's kind of nice.
If you don't want to move part of the art, you can select that and then just lock it
with Object>Lock Selection.
So now, if I hit SHIFT O and I try to move this artboard, it will move the artboard without
this information.
So I'm going to undo that.
So we'll just unlock all by going to Object>Unlock All.
I'll show you another way that you can move these without the artwork moving.
If we open up our Properties Window, and then hit SHIFT O to get back on our Artboard
Tool, we can just uncheck this button, and then we can move our artboards around without
the artwork moving with it.
But I like to have this checked most of the time.
Maybe I want to have three columns instead of two.
We can automatically rearrange our artboards by coming down here to the Artboards panel
and going to 'Rearrange All Artboards'.
I'm going to change this to three columns and I want 50 pixels between them.
And I do want to move the artwork with the artboard so we'll say 'OK'.
And now it's moved everything.
Now 50 pixels was not enough, so I'm going to undo that.
And we'll come back down here and try again.
I'm going to change this to 150.
And now we've got a little more space between the artboards.
Now let's say you've drawn a shape, and you wanted this to become your artboard.
You can do that by going to Object>Artboards>Convert to Artboards.
And when you do that, it'll add the artboard to your Artboards panel.
Your rectangle that you draw has to be a non-rotated, non-clipping mask rectangle.
Otherwise, it won't work, and it'll give you a little error message.
So just make sure that...if it's not working, I would just redraw the rectangle.
You're probably not going to get it at 100% non-rotated otherwise.
So, when we go to export these...I'm going to close this Properties window.
When we go to export these, it's a good idea to rename your artboards.
So I'm going to double click over here on this artboard, and we'll call this one...what
size is this...OK, we'll call this one Skillshare 1280x720.
And I'm just going to go ahead and rename these artboards to what they are.
And I don't need this brown one up here, so I'm just going to trash that artboard.
And I'll get rid of the rectangle too.
So the reason I'm renaming all of these is because when we export, it'll take that artboard
name and add it to the end of our file name, which is really nice.
So we'll go to File>Export>Export As, choose 'Artboards', and I want to make these all
JPEGs.
We want 'All' chosen and then we'll put them in our Skillshare folder, and we'll 'Export.'
And then we have some other options.
I only want 72 PPI, this is for web, but you can change it here and we'll say 'OK'.
Now we'll go out to our Skillshare folder and open that.
Here's our file name, and here's our artboard name at the very end.
So if I hit my spacebar, we can scroll through the different types of images that I made.
And that's pretty much it for artboards.
If you're creating just a flyer or something, you wouldn't really have a reason to use artboards.
But if you're doing something like this, maybe Google ads, this really makes a lot of sense
to have all your artboards in one document.
And that way, you don't have to have all these separate files.
Alright, that's my video for this week.
If you have any questions about artboards or if you just liked the video, please leave
a comment in the comment section below.
And I'll see you next week for another graphic design tutorial.
Thank you!!!