Every Illustrator document contains one or more rectangular Artboards (up to a maximum of 100 per document). An Illustrator artboard is analogous to a rectangular piece of paper on which artwork is drawn or pasted. It is similar to an AutoCAD Layout space.

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STARTING A NEW FILE.

Whenever you use File > New to start a new Illustrator file, you are prompted to select the number of artboards. By default, the value is 1 (one) artboard, but a single Illustrator file can have up to 100 unique artboards. Entering any number greater than 1 will cause Illustrator to prompt you to select a numbering/display order for the artboards.

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EDITING ARTBOARDS.

While working on an Illustrator file, you may need to edit (or add or delete) artboards. This can be done at any time by choosing File > Document Setup and clicking on the Edit Artboards button. The resulting interface includes an options bar (top of the screen) with several customizing options as detailed below. (Note that in the case of multiple artboards, each artboard can have unique settings such as size and orientation.)
The Presets box allows you to select from several standard, predefined artboard sizes. (Artboard sizes can also be customized by dragging handles or by entering custom values for the Width and Height settings.)

The Orientation toggle allows you to select the orientation (portrait or landscape) of the selected artboard.

The Name box allows you to specify a unique name for the selected artboard.

The Move/Copy Artwork with Artboard toggle is either on or off, and controls whether Illustrator objects move if the artboard is moved.

Clicking and dragging within the interface creates a new artboard.

Clicking within an artboard selects the artboard.

Clicking the selection tool (the arrow tool) closes the artboard editing interface, saving your changes, and returns you to the basic Illustrator interface.

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TO PASTE ARTWORK ON MULTIPLE ARTBOARDS:

1. Select and copy the artwork you wish to paste.

2. Choose Edit > Paste on All Artboards.