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The Artboard tool creates and manages artboards: named rectangular regions that define the bounds of exportable artwork areas on the canvas. Activate it by clicking its icon in the tool shelf.
Creating artboards
Click and drag on any empty area of the canvas to draw a new artboard. When the mouse is released, the artboard is created with a white background and given a default label.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Drag | Create a new artboard with the dragged dimensions |
| Shift Drag | Constrain the new artboard to a square |
| Alt Drag | Draw from the center outward rather than from corner to corner |
Transform cage
When an artboard is selected, its transform cage appears around it. This works similarly to the Select tool's transform cage but is limited to moving and resizing; artboards cannot be rotated or skewed.
Selecting
Click any artboard to select it, which displays its transform cage and makes its properties editable. Only one can be selected at a time.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Click an Artboard | Select that artboard |
| Delete or Backspace | Delete the selected artboard, including its inner artwork contents |
Moving
Click and drag anywhere in the artboard to move it. The artboard's inner artwork contents move with it, maintaining relative positions to the artboard container.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Drag | Move the artboard freely |
| Shift Drag | Constrain movement to the horizontal or vertical axis (whichever is dominant) |
Resizing
Drag an edge midpoint handle or corner handle on the transform cage to resize the artboard. Its inner artwork contents are repositioned to match the new bounds if the top/left edges are dragged.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Drag an Edge or Corner Handle |
Resize the artboard while the opposite edge or corner stays fixed |
| Alt Drag | Resize from the center rather than the opposite edge or corner |
| Shift Drag | Preserve the original aspect ratio |
Nudging
Arrow keys move or resize the artboard in small increments without starting a drag.
| Input | Result |
|---|---|
| Arrows | Move the artboard by 1 px |
| Shift Arrows | Move the artboard by 10 px |
| Alt Arrows | Resize the artboard by moving its bottom/right edges |
| CtrlAlt Arrows | Resize the artboard by moving its top/left edges |
Snapping
While creating, moving, or resizing an artboard, it snaps to nearby artboards, layers, grid lines, and alignment guides. The edge midpoints, corners, and center of the artboard are all used as snap points.
Quick measurement
Press and hold the Alt key anytime while hovering the pointer over an unselected artboard to display the offset distances, in pixels, between that and the selected artboard.