The “New Document” dialog

So as I told you in the previous lesson, when you open a new document, it opens the “New Document” dialog.
Let us first go over what we can set here.

In the top box, you give the document a name.
In the second box, we determine the profile of our document.

 

In the third box, and this is new in CS4 version, enter the number of “artboard areas”. You choose the drawing areas that fit best in one page. Usually this will be a single area, but you never know.
With the buttons next to this box you determine the order of the different artboard areas.

 

In the “Spacing”, you determine the distance between two text fields. The unit used in the “Spacing” is determined by what you entered in your options for the “Units”. So, if you choose your size of the document to be set in Millimeter, then the “spacing” is in mm.
Do you still follow? Of course you still follow.

 

In the “Rows” you determine the number of rows in which the pages are displayed.

 

Select a paper in the “size”, then the boxes “Width” and “Height” are filled in automatically. If you choose these yourself by typing in the values, then the “Size” box and “Document Profile” box are automatically set to “Custom”.
With the buttons next to the “Orientation” box, you determine the orientation of the drawing area, “portait” or “landscape”.

 

In the “Bleed” boxes, type in the end margins imposed by your printer.

 

Clicking on the “Advanced” gives a number of additional options, including the color mode and resolution. When you work with your document for a professional printer, it is more likely get the CMYK color mode and needs a minimum resolution of 300 dpi.
If it is for your own printer, then set the color mode to RGB. Also with a high resolution.

Click the OK button, with the above settings, I get a new document with three upright “artboard” areas.

FYI!
Whether you open a new document using a standard profile or not, you can always customize all the properties in the “New Document” dialog.
Tip!
If you want a new document to begin with a standard profile, without first displaying the “New Document” dialog, click the profile in the welcome screen with the Alt key on your keyboard pressed.

 

Settings

To modify the settings of your document, click the “Artboard” button (1) in the toolbar.
This brings you into the “Artboard Area” mode.
Through the different options in the Options Bar (2) you can change everything.
The “Preset” from portrait to landscape, add a new drawing area and a few others. I will discuss this when we get to use them.

For changing the dimensions of a drawing area, we will first select the drawing area by clicking on it.

 

Once the drawing area is selected, change the dimensions of this by clicking and dragging the blocks on the edge of the drawing area (3).
If you wish to move your drawing area, select it, you place the mouse pointer over the drawing area and click and drag it to the desired position. Or you type in the coordinates of these in the X and Y boxes in the options menu.
For those who do not know, X is the horizontal axis, Y is the vertical axis.

In the next lesson, I will go a little further with the “Artboard Area”.

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