Discover the benefits and functionalities of using artboards on Photoshop, including how to create new artboards, adjust dimensions, and experiment with different design elements. Learn how objects can interact with multiple artboards and live outside of the artboard space.
Key Insights
- Artboards in Photoshop offer the advantage of experimenting with design elements within a single file, allowing users to create and manage multiple artboards.
- Objects in Photoshop can interact with multiple artboards, they can be moved across different artboards, and they can exist outside of the artboard space, providing flexibility in designing and organizing elements.
- Users can conveniently create new artboards through the layer menu or the tools bar, adjust their dimensions, and create additional artboards of the same size by clicking the plus signs at the sides of an existing artboard.
Note: These materials offer prospective students a preview of how our classes are structured. Students enrolled in this course will receive access to the full set of materials, including video lectures, project-based assignments, and instructor feedback.
In this video, we will be discussing artboards. Let us create a new file by selecting File > New, and we will navigate to our Art and Illustration templates.
Next, let us select the,000-pixel grid, and we will be making a few changes to this file. First, let us change the name of the file by double-clicking and typing “artboard painting.” Next, let us modify the width by double-clicking the width field and typing,000.
Finally, our last change is to check the option for Artboards, as we will be discussing them in this video. Click Create or press ENTER when you have finished. With this file open, the first thing we will want to do is save it.
We will go to File > Save As. We can then save this in the C drive where we have unzipped our course files. We will ensure that it is titled “artboardpainting.psd” and that it is saved as a Photoshop file. Let us click Save.
We will select “Maximize Compatibility” and click OK. Unlike the previous files we have been opening, this file uses artboards. There are a couple of key distinctions.
One benefit of using artboards is that we can have multiple artboards within a single file, allowing us to experiment and change our approach as needed. Let us create more artboards so we can experiment further. One way to create new artboards is to go to the Menu and select Layer > New > Artboard.
This will give us the default name “Artboard 2” and dimensions that match the original artboard created in the file. Let us click OK. Let us now zoom out by pressing CTRL + MINUS (–) on our keyboard, and we can see that we now have two artboards.
Let us create one more. Again, we will go to Layer > New > Artboard. Click OK, and we will now see that we have three artboards.
Let us use the Hand Tool by pressing the shortcut H on our keyboard and drag our view so we can see all three artboards. Next, let us review how objects work between different artboards. We will use our Shapes Tools for this, and let us select the Rectangle Tool.
I will simply click and drag a rectangle in Artboard 1. Now, let us use the Move Tool from the Tools Bar. As I click and drag this rectangle between artboards, we will see in the Layers Panel that it changes position between the artboards. If we click and drag it into Artboard 3 and release, we see that “Rectangle 1” has now moved to Artboard 3.
In addition, using artboards allows objects to live outside of the artboards within the file. That means that if we click and drag the rectangle outside of the artboards, it can exist independently of any artboard.
As you can see, “Rectangle 1” is not under any of the other artboards, meaning it resides outside the confines of the artboards. Let us now delete the rectangle using the Delete key on our keyboard.
Another way to create artboards is by going to our Tools Bar. By clicking and holding the Move Tool, we can select the Artboard Tool.
To use the Artboard Tool, we can simply click and drag to create an artboard of any size and then release. When we release, we will see plus signs on each side of the artboard. If we click these, Photoshop will add artboards of the same size that we just created.
Here, I will continue clicking until there are five artboards across. Then, using the Hand Tool, I will drag all of the artboards back into view. Let us again save our project by navigating to File > Save, and now we are set up to begin painting in our next videos. See you there!