Remove canvas size limit
Can we please have the possibility to set bigger canvas size to incorporate large sized artwork.
(Please note: This item is NOT for more number of artboards per document)

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Gen commented
Oh yes please. I work with event buildups and often these involve really large graphics - 24ft and up. I end up working at 50% or even 25% scale, which is not ideal especially when construction details require pretty specific dimensions (lots of math involved, and that's a pain). Each face of a wall has to be on a separate file just because of the artboard size needed. It'd be nice to have everything in the same file and not have to switch tabs all the time.
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Jill commented
I fully agree with you.
I can't understand why this is taking so long to fix. Even a canvas limit
that's more or less the same like Corel Draw will make me the happiest. I
want to add that I don't get the scaling at all. Why? That's unnecessary.
Takes time. It's also risky. Which can cost alot of money and time. Just
fix this please! -
Aminah Challenger commented
I’m still transitioning over from CorelDraw because of this issue. I’m now paying for both because it’s so much easier/faster in Draw - I can easily proof in lettersize and then output 1:1. Why is this so complicated to provide??
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Philip King commented
I’m working on a set of illustrations for 1080p screen size. So I open a 1080p template, and duplicate the artboard, once, twice, three times, four t… ah, it’s hit the canvas limit.
Yes of course I can rearrange the artboards within the canvas limits, but it’s a nuisance, and even if I start the first artboard at the left edge of the canvas it will only allow eight artboards horizontally.
I'm working in pixels.
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trackhorse commented
Jason, you are right re actual illustrators who work for various forms of print or digital media. But for those of us who use .ai to design buildings, banners, signage, photomurals, etc. It's a real problem. "Illustrator" needs to change its nomenclature and toolbox.
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Keith commented
As a company outputting huge banners and wraps, scale is an issue. Our output software is 1:1. We must upscale before the RIP. If a piece is scaled wrong from the client, it can add days to production. A simple change would not need a workflow workaround. That is time. Time is money. File size is not an issue really anymore. Give me a 1:1 large file any day. Banners should not need more than a 200dpi photo anyway. Ive seen 100dpi photos come out great on large files. And most photos look like **** re-rendered above twice the native dpi. So link the file, and send the package. Increasing the canvas size makes me less likely to buy a competitors product that has a scale option. I should not have to break out a calculator when designing a graphic. Which I do now often. It sucks. And before you say get better at math, I'm talking about this bracket is 3.375" from the left and 4.788"w by 2.7933"h and my scale is 1"=3". Instead of just typing those numbers I now have to figure each out, or make it an transform it by 33.333%. Time is money. reaching for a calculator (which always disappears) is also problematic
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Jason commented
I don't see this as a problem with Illustrator, but with workflow and artwork practices. If you work in architecture engineering or mapping, as I do, you work mostly to a scale. Very little is output at 1:1. CAD is a different proposition and Illustrator is not CAD. It's not rocket science working to scale. Wanting a canvas 100m wide, or infinite, is not sensible to say the least. Rethink your workflow and what you are doing... even a different application. I wouldn't argue against a canvas twice the current limit, but this ongoing request is probably not that well supported in reality. I've never heard any Illustrator user in professional practice, apart from right here, raise the canvas size as a problem, so not convinced it's even an issue. Even companies outputting huge banners and wraps ask for scaled artwork as their gear isn't up to dealing with 1:1 artwork. If you are concerned over proofing, print extracts at the final scale; that's the traditional proofing process. The screen is never going to give you an exact representation of print output. Bigger canvas = bigger file size = stretching Ai beyond it's object handling abilities.
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Ben Nash commented
@abode you have a troll named "trackhorse" here. See my latest Tweet with this comment's date.
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trackhorse commented
When you consider the lies, obfuscation, recalcitrance, and schadenfreude, one is forced to conclude that the entire staff of Adobe is Republican
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Bjørn-Henning Opheim commented
Come on @Yogesh. We talked about this "problem" in a survey over a year ago. Adobe has been aware og this issue for many years, and they need to address this. Adobe needs to be more open and tell the users that they are working on a solution, but that it will take time. Even an ATA would be better than nothing at all. If we hear nothing for months/years, we believe that you just do not care about the users. We have just merged with another company that uses Corel, and now I have a problem defending the use of Adobe, just because of the size issue.. Please
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Ben Nash commented
I also would like a canvas document size to be about 10000x bigger, or no limit. I regularly work on design that need to drawn at scale larger than 227"
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Bryan commented
I would appreciate this as well... when you render something out in Blender, say for a tradeshow booth, you need to be able to see a raster image that might be 20 meters in size.
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Anonymous commented
I need to produce a vinyl for a wall that is 20ft x10ft and incorporate some raster elements that need to be seen "in real scale" to check for fidelity.
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trackhorse commented
"…multiple problems…" You are right. ARRRHGHH indeed
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Tom M commented
Comes back to my point of if you need to have a canvas to place artboards, why can't the canvas size be set by the user? If you're designing icons, you can create a canvas of a few hundred pixels. If you're designing for large format print, you make the canvas a few metres across.
Thus canvas size is user generated, so the program is always running efficiently.
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Anonymous commented
trackhorse there are multiple problems, not just raster image resolution mistakes that can occur with artwork that is not created at 100%. Off the top of head I can think of - precision of joins then having to manually zoom in to check at 100%, effects like gradients have to be checked at 100% for banding, working with eps cad files is a nightmare (rescaling and checking calculations etc) and then overlaying vector art in AI at rescaled size. ARRRHGHH! Then there is the chance you haven't done something right and need to recheck everything again. When you are doing multiple walls with wallpaper say in a museum with raster images, copy, graphics with cad files and crazy deadlines, and then your print supplier wants artwork in 1200mm wide strips to minimise mismatching - it gets very complex. Previously Illustraor used to do an infinite pasteboard but something changed around the time they did mulitple artboards - maybe 10-15 years ago.
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trackhorse commented
Yes, vector art is indeed "infinite". The only problem is related to images that—due to ignorance or inexperience— are not vector-ized (jpeg, tif, psd, etc.) and are inserted into artwork at an improper resolution.
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Anonymous commented
There is no reason to scale.. its vector.. This is the most ridiculous issue ever.. Vector scales infinite without an issue..
A 100"/100" file saved is the same size as a file saved when scaled at 10%. So why do we need to work in scale.. Every thing should be 1:1.. Its all about Adobe Illustrators code.. An AI file is a proprietary dated filetype.. it needs to change. Period. -
Jill commented
I don't see scaling as an option , why scale? That's extra. You can forget to scale back 1-1 when printing or in your printing software. And that's gonna cost money everytime. Illustrator must fix this. I really can't see why they haven't fix it yet. There's alot of users who gave good reasons. Still no luck. This is a big problem!
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Don Engel commented
While I would prefer a scale setting (perhaps with a tie-in to the print dialog to alert the printer), over a potentially resource-hogging "infinite" artboard, I would also like to mention that Bill seems a pompous *** with a desire for an ePenis enlargement.Also, plenty of pros use multiple artboards, despite the ridiculous insinuation that those that use them are amateurs. Artboards keep things tidy and human-understandable (maintaining relations between complex builds) and if you are outputting a hundred files named "left_side_booth_panel_section_c137_final_final_final.ai" I pity you.If you are concerned about "file corruption," the answers are simple... better DAM, Source Control, and better storage media. It isn't "store things 100 times so that there are now 100 files to corrupt and/or/lose track of/change when you have to modify the design"Source: a successful professional with 25 years in Illustrator. GTFOY "Bill." Also: "However, its much is harder to get that degree *then graphic design. "
Apparently an English degree is harder to get "then" an architechture degree :).