Those pesky Artboards

[Paul Martin]

Every now and then, I return to Affinity Artboards. I understand a little better how they work but, fundamentally, I still don't see the point.

So, would some of my kind colleagues here who have entered the necessary higher state of being give an example or two?

Why, when you started a new document, did you include an Artboard? What does it enable you to do (more easily or at all) that you couldn't do without it?

Does it have anything to do with commercial printing?

Is it just something that professionals expect to see?

Can I just sneak one in when I've finsihed my design to make it look proper?

Pretty much any suggestions welcome!

[MEB]

Hi @Paul Martin,
Let's say you have to design some stationary items (envelopes, cards etc) for a company. Without artboards you would have to create a document for each item. With artboards you can use one artboard for each type of item keeping everything in the same document and copy/pasting common elements (logos patterns whatever) easily between them speeding up the whole process of both creating and exporting everything.

So basically each artboard is used as an "independent canvas" and you can have as much as necessary to design any pieces you may need keeping everything together in a single document/file.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Paul Martin said:

Can I just sneak one in when I've finsihed my design to make it look proper?

In Affinity Designer there is an Artboard Tool with a "Size:" option that by default is set to "Document." So if you want you can use that to convert your canvas to an artboard, but unless you need artboard(s) for some other reason you do not have to use that.

It also might be worth reading the "About Artboards" help topic & the other help pages it links to.

[Paul Martin]

1 hour ago, MEB said:

Hi @Paul Martin,
Let's say you have to design some stationary items (envelopes, cards etc) for a company. Without artboards you would have to create a document for each item. With artboards you can use one artboard for each type of item keeping everything in the same document and copy/pasting common elements (logos patterns whatever) easily between them speeding up the whole process of both creating and exporting everything.

So basically each artboard is used as an "independent canvas" and you can have as much as necessary to design any pieces you may need keeping everything together in a single document/file.

Aha! Yes, that sounds useful. I think I'm struggling to visualise how I would lay that out/manage it but I can see an advantage. Thank you very much. One thought, does it make any difference to how you use the Assets feature?

[MEB]

41 minutes ago, Paul Martin said:

Aha! Yes, that sounds useful. I think I'm struggling to visualise how I would lay that out/manage it but I can see an advantage. Thank you very much. One thought, does it make any difference to how you use the Assets feature?

No, you can store and use assets both in regular based documents as well as artboard based documents.