Work with boards (artboards)
Put several boards of different sizes in one design, then add, move, resize, duplicate, tidy and delete them.
Intermediate4 min readUpdated 25 September 2026Editor · Boards
On this page
Boards let one design hold several pages side by side, each with its own size, name and layers. Use them when a job has a set of pieces that belong together: a post, a story and a banner for the same launch, or the pages of a small leaflet. You keep everything in one file and can see the whole set at once.
How boards work
- Each board has a name, a width and height in pixels, and a background. A board you add gets a white background.
- Every layer belongs to one board. When you drag a layer so its centre crosses into another board, it joins that board.
- The canvas around the boards grows and shrinks to fit them, so you can place boards anywhere.
- A plain design with one canvas has no boards at all. Nothing changes for it until you add some.
In the Layers panel, each board is a row with its size beside the name and its layers listed under it. Click the arrow to collapse a board, and click the row to make it the active board. An active board is outlined in the accent colour on the canvas.
Open the Boards dialog
Choose File, Boards…. The dialog has two tabs: Boards, for managing the boards you have, and Cascade to touchpoints, for laying one board out at many sizes (covered in Resize one design to every format).
Add a board
- Open File, Boards… and stay on the Boards tab.
- Under Add a board, click a size: Instagram post, Square post, Story or Reel cover, YouTube thumbnail, LinkedIn banner, X header, Presentation slide or Website hero.
- For any other size, type a Width and Height and click Add custom board. Boards can be 16 to 8000 pixels on each side.
- The new board appears to the right of your existing boards, with a 120 pixel gap, and becomes the active board.
Move a board
Every board has a name badge above its top-left corner showing its name and size. Drag the badge to move the board anywhere on the canvas. Everything on the board moves with it. When boards sit close together and the badge would overlap another board, it moves inside the board's corner instead.
With several boards, Organise boards into a clean grid (in the Boards dialog) lines them up in rows and columns with even gaps. Use it after a lot of dragging, or before you show the design to someone.
Resize a board
In the Boards dialog, each board card has width and height fields under its name. Type a new value and press Enter. The board changes size from its top-left corner. The layers on it are not scaled or moved, so check the edges afterwards: shrinking a board can leave layers hanging over its side.
To change a board's size and have the content re-laid for it, make a new board with Cascade instead and delete the old one.
Rename, duplicate and delete
| To do this | Where |
|---|---|
| Rename | Type in the name field on the board's card in the Boards dialog, or double-click the board name in the Layers panel. |
| Duplicate | The copy icon on the board's card. The copy has "copy" added to its name, sits to the right of your boards, and gets its own independent groups. |
| Delete | The × on the board's name badge on the canvas, the bin icon on its card, the bin on its row in the Layers panel, or drag the board row onto the Layers panel bin. |
| Make active | Click its thumbnail in the dialog, click its row in the Layers panel, or click an empty part of it with the Move tool. |
Zoom to a board
- Shift+1
- Fit board: zoom to the active board
- Ctrl+0
- Fit on screen: show every board
- Shift+2
- Fit selected layers
These are also in the View menu. On a Mac, use Cmd where it says Ctrl.
Export boards
Open File, Export as… (Ctrl+E). When the design has boards, the dialog starts with Boards to export: This board, All, a Boards field for a range such as 1-3, 5, or click the thumbnails. Pick the file type and the size (1× is each board at its own size). With more than one board, tick Number files in board order (01, 02…) to keep them in sequence, and the button reads Download N PNGs (zip). Files are named after their boards, with the pixel size added unless the name already has it. For PDF, choose One PDF with a page per board, or A PDF per board. See Export for screens.
Good to know
- Photoshop files with artboards open as boards, with their backgrounds. See Open PSD, PDF and other files.
- Brand guidelines sent from Studio open with one board per page.
- Name your boards before exporting the zip. The file names come from the board names.
- The Boards dialog is in the File menu, which shows on desktop and tablet screens. The phone Editor does not have it.