You can change the artboard size in Adobe Illustrator by dragging the transformation nodes at the corners of the artboard or inputting the specific details in the height and width fields.
Working with Adobe Illustrator primarily revolves around artboards, whether you want to create designs or export finished works. It may be confusing for beginners to change the artboard size in Adobe Illustrator but don’t worry! You will get the hang of it soon.
My name is Rita. I have used Adobe Illustrator for over five years. In this tutorial, I will show you how to change the artboard size in Adobe Illustrator.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- You need to click on the artboard icon to resize it. Clicking on the artboard icon creates the environment for you to change the artboard size.
- You can access the artboard using the shortcut Shift + O, the Artboard panel, or the Artboard tool.
- You can change the size of the artboard manually or input the specific size you want your artboard to be.
3 Ways to Change Artboard Size in Adobe Illustrator
Note: All the screenshots used in this tutorial were taken from Adobe Illustrator CC (Windows Version).
You can change the artboard size in Adobe Illustrator by selecting the artboard tool. When you select the artboard tool – you signal the software that you are about to take an action (in this case edit the artboard). There are three ways to change the artboard size in Illustrator.
Method 1: Artboard Panel
You can change the artboard size and access other artboard settings using the artboard option. Follow these steps to use the artboard options.
Step 1: Open the Artboards panel from the overhead menu Window > Artboards if you don’t have it open already.
Step 2: Select the artboard you want to resize on the Artboards panel (in case you are working with multiple artboards). Double-click on the Artboard to select it.

Step 3: Edit the details of the artboard. After clicking the artboard icon, a dialogue box will pop up. You can change the height, width, and orientation of your artboard. Don’t forget to click OK once you are done with the edits.

Method 2: Properties Panel
You can access the artboard tool through the properties panel.
Step 1: Go to the overhead menu and choose Window > Properties to open the Properties panel.

Step 2: Select Edit Artboard to change the artboard size and other details.

When you click on Edit Artboard, the options will actually switch to the Transform options.
Step 3: Input the W and H value manually, hit the Enter/Return key and your artboard will be set to the new size.
This method is useful if you want your artboard to be in a specific size.

Step 4: Click Exit, or use the keyboard shortcut ESC to deselect the artboard.
Method 3: Keyboard Shortcut
You can resize the artboard using the artboard shortcut command tool Shift + O. This will select your artboard and you can drag one of the corners to resize it.

Tip: If you want to preserve aspect ratios, remember to hold the Shift key when resizing your artboard. Hold Shift + Alt/Option to scale your artboard from the center.
Final Thoughts
Changing the artboard size in Adobe Illustrator is easy. You can manually drag the corners of the artboard or input specific values to resize an artboard depending on what you need.
Which artboard resizing method do you feel comfortable using? Let us know in the comment below.