This is still an issue as of June 4, 2026.

The problem is directly related to Illustrator’s Oversized Canvas feature. I’ve run into it multiple times in large-format production workflows and currently use two workarounds.

The first option is to move the artwork into one or more standard-size Illustrator documents whenever possible. If that’s not practical, I place the PDF containing the oversized crop marks into a multi-page InDesign document and export a new PDF from InDesign. You’ll need to adjust the scale again, but the resulting PDF will have normal crop marks and is generally easier to work with downstream.

A few caveats:

* Gradients can occasionally cause issues depending on how they were built and how the PDF is interpreted by the RIP or other software in the workflow.
* Placed raster images may not always reproduce correctly, especially if they are low resolution or heavily scaled.
* As with any oversized-canvas workflow, thoroughly preflight and test before releasing files to production.

While this isn’t an ideal solution, it has been a reliable workaround for me when oversized-canvas files cannot be rebuilt at standard document dimensions.

They merged my feedback with a previous identical request.
I just found out that this 5-year-old feedback has been completely ignored all this time.

[Problem]
When creating crop marks (Object > Create Trim Marks) or exporting a PDF with printer's marks in a Large Canvas document, the crop marks become abnormally huge.
Even for a small A4-sized object or artwork inside the large canvas, the crop mark scaling matches the entire large canvas scale, making it unusable for printing.

[Expected Result]
Crop marks should maintain their standard standard size (line width and length) regardless of whether the document is a Large Canvas or not, as long as the target artwork is normal size.

[Steps to Reproduce]
1. Create a new document with a Large Canvas size (e.g., over 5 meters).

2.Draw a small rectangle (e.g., A4 size).

3.Select the rectangle and go to Object > Create Trim Marks.

4.The generated trim marks are displayed in a massive scale.

Please fix this scaling issue so that trim marks always generate at their original print-standard dimensions.

This is a ridiculous issue to still have after all this time. Not hard to fix.

It's been 5 years. Adobe give us the ability to customize TRIM MARK length for Large Canvas.

We really need a big canvas. In the advertising industry, large-sized files are converted into PDFs and sent to printing factories. Printing factories usually use CDR software, and opening PDF files with CDR will shrink them by 10 times. It is easy to make errors due to size issues.

There are scaling issues in large size canvas mode. For instance, when creating a file in large size canvas mode and saving as PDF with trim marks, the trim marks will be scaled up 1000%. Instead of them remaining .375", they scale up to 3.75".

Brian, if only it was simple, this 'simply allow'.
Ai is a behemoth with dependencies as bones and existing workflows as veins. Changing anything that simple can cause everything to crumble, in the most unexpected place imaginable. Actually, the problems you are seeing the large canvas mode is causing (while it being a rather harmless band-aid, applied to the surface of the behemoth) would be a tiny fraction of problems a truly infinite canvas would cause to the model. And it’s like performing a surgery on a living brain, since Illustrator is always is in use by us.

But I agree.
There is an existing request that is gaining popularity, about the truly infinite canvas: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/38129344 — you can upvote it, if you wish.

This happens in Large Canvas documents. Easily reproducable:
Create a large document (600 X 600 CM)
Change the artboard to an A4.
Create a PDF with trim marks.
The trim marks size is 9,525 cm

We are in 2024 and this bug is still happening. Any chance to fix somehow?
(on the screenshot, the cropmarks are more than 9 cm!

I had the same problem- When exporting a 24"x36" document as a PDF, crop marks showed up as 4" each. Happens on all new documents since the update.

Egor: done, the original file sent to Adobe.

Wojciech, it feels like a bug with the large canvas coefficient. Can you please package the original file and send it to sharewithai@adobe.com for further investigation?

Also, please try to create new file with the same dimensions (which should result in a non-large canvas doc) and paste your art there. Then try again the save process and see if the bug stays.

And thanks for the report!

In latest version of Illustrator canvas is increased, but trim marks got issues when making sizes over 5x5m. when making file with multiple artboards that exceeds 5x5m trim marks scale to 10x size, just like they would if you made the file 1:10