In the New Document dialog box, select a category tab: Recent, Saved, Mobile, Web, Print, Film & Video, Art & Illustration or Free Templates.
Last updated on
Sep 5, 2024
- Illustrator User Guide
- Get to know Illustrator
- Introduction to Illustrator
- Workspace
- Workspace basics
- Learn faster with the Illustrator Discover panel
- Create documents
- Toolbar
- Default keyboard shortcuts
- Customize keyboard shortcuts
- Introduction to artboards
- Manage artboards
- Customize the workspace
- Properties panel
- Set preferences
- Touch Workspace
- Microsoft Surface Dial support in Illustrator
- Undo edits and manage design history
- Rotate view
- Rulers, grids, and guides
- Accessibility in Illustrator
- Safe Mode
- View artwork
- Use the Touch Bar with Illustrator
- Files and templates
- Tools in Illustrator
- Tools at a glance
- Select tools
- Navigate tools
- Paint tools
- Text tools
- Draw tools
- Modify tools
- Generative AI (not available in mainland China)
- Quick actions
- Illustrator on the web (beta)
- Illustrator on the web (beta) overview
- Illustrator on the web (beta) FAQ
- Troubleshooting issues FAQ
- Keyboard shortcuts for Illustrator on the web (beta)
- Create and combine shapes on the web
- Add and edit text on the web
- Apply colors and gradients on the web
- Draw and edit paths on the web
- Work with cloud documents on the web
- Invite collaborators to edit on the web
- Illustrator on the iPad
- Introduction to Illustrator on the iPad
- Workspace
- Documents
- Select and arrange objects
- Drawing
- Type
- Work with images
- Color
- Cloud documents
- Basics
- Troubleshooting
- Add and edit content
- Drawing and dimensioning
- Drawing basics
- Edit paths
- Draw pixel-perfect art
- Draw with the Pen, Curvature, or Pencil tool
- Draw simple lines and shapes
- Draw rectangular and polar grids
- Draw and edit flares
- Image Trace
- Simplify a path
- Symbolism tools and symbol sets
- Adjust path segments
- Design a flower in 5 easy steps
- Create and edit a perspective grid
- Draw and modify objects on a perspective grid
- Use objects as symbols for repeat use
- Draw pixel-aligned paths for web workflows
- Measure and plot dimensions
- 3D objects and materials
- Color
- Painting
- Select and arrange objects
- Reshape objects
- Crop images
- Transform objects
- Combine objects
- Cut, divide, and trim objects
- Puppet Warp
- Scale, shear, and distort objects
- Blend objects
- Reshape using envelopes
- Reshape objects with effects
- Build new shapes with Shaper and Shape Builder tools
- Work with Live Corners
- Enhanced reshape workflows with touch support
- Edit clipping masks
- Live shapes
- Create shapes using the Shape Builder tool
- Global editing
- Type
- Add text and work with type objects
- Create bulleted and numbered lists
- Manage text area
- Fonts and typography
- Convert text within images into editable text
- Add basic formatting to text
- Add advanced formatting to text
- Import and export text
- Format paragraphs
- Special characters
- Create type on a path
- Character and paragraph styles
- Tabs
- Find missing fonts (Typekit workflow)
- Arabic and Hebrew type
- Fonts | FAQ and troubleshooting tips
- Create 3D text effect
- Creative typography designs
- Scale and rotate type
- Line and character spacing
- Hyphenation and line breaks
- Spelling and language dictionaries
- Format Asian characters
- Composers for Asian scripts
- Create text designs with blend objects
- Create a text poster using Image Trace
- Create special effects
- Web graphics
- Drawing and dimensioning
- Import, export, and save
- Import
- Creative Cloud Libraries in Illustrator
- Save and export
- Printing
- Prepare for printing
- Printing
- Automate tasks
- Troubleshooting
Overcome the blank canvas syndrome. While creating a document, choose from a wide variety of templates from Adobe Stock and blank presets.
While creating a document in Illustrator, instead of beginning with a blank canvas, you can choose from a wide variety of templates, including templates from Adobe Stock. Templates include assets and illustrations that you can build on to complete your project. When you open a template in Illustrator, you can work with it just as you would work with any other Illustrator document (.ai).
In addition to templates, you can also create a document by selecting one of the numerous presets available in Illustrator.
Templates and presets
Templates provide rich, inspirational, and reusable content for your documents. You can download templates from Adobe Stock that include quality graphics and illustrations right within Illustrator. You can then build on these templates to easily create documents that share common settings and design elements. Illustrator also provides blank templates with predefined dimensions and settings for common tasks, such as designing business cards or brochures. Templates open as .ai files in Illustrator and generally include multiple artboards.
Blank Document Presets are blank documents with predefined dimensions and settings. Presets make designing for specific device form factors or use cases easier. For example, you can use a preset to quickly start designing for the iPad Pro. Blank document presets have predefined size, color, mode, unit, orientation, positioning, bleed, and resolution settings. You can modify these settings before creating a document using the preset.
Templates and presets are categorized into these sets:
- Recent
- Saved
- Mobile
- Web
- Film & Video
- Art & Illustration
- Free Templates
Overview: New Document dialog
To access the New Document dialog, launch Illustrator and select New File.
Among other operations, the New Document dialog lets you:
- Create documents using selected templates from Adobe Stock across several categories: Recent, Saved, Mobile, Web, Print, Film & Video, Art & Illustration, and Free Templates
- Search for more templates on Adobe Stock and create documents using them.
- Quickly access files, templates, and items that you've had recently accessed (Recents tab).
- Quickly access templates that you've downloaded from Adobe Stock (Saved tab).
- Create documents using Blank Document presets for multiple categories and device form factors. Before opening the presets, you can modify their settings.
Create documents using presets
-
-
Select a preset.
-
Click Create. Illustrator opens a new document based on the preset.
Note:
You can change the settings for the selected preset in the Preset Details pane on the right. See Modify presets to understand how.
Before opening a document using the preset, you can customize its settings in the right pane.
-
Specify a name for the document.
-
Specify the following options for the selected preset:
Width and Height: Specify the size of the artboard. Select the unit from the pop-up menu.
Orientation: Specify a page orientation for the document: Landscape or Portrait.
Artboard: Specify the number of artboards in the document.
Bleed: Specify the position of the bleed along each side of the artboard. Select to use different values for different sides.
Color Mode: Specify a color mode for the document: RGB or CMYK.
Raster Effects: Specify the resolution for raster effects in the document.
Preview Mode: Set the default preview mode for the document:
- Default displays artwork created in the document in vector view with full color. Zoom in/out retains smoothness in the curves.
- Pixel displays artwork with a rasterized (pixelated) appearance. It does not actually rasterize the content, but displays a simulated preview, as if the contents were rasters.
- Overprint provides an “ink preview” that approximates how blending, transparency, and overprinting will appear in color-separated output.
Use More settings to modify the preset further.
Note:You can change the Preview Mode at any time using the View menu.
-
Select and then select Save Preset for future use.
-
Select Create to open a document with the preset settings.
You can access the saved preset anytime from the Saved category tab in the New Document window.
Create documents using templates from Stock
Illustrator comes with a variety of templates from Adobe Stock, including templates for tablet illustrations, mobile illustrations, laptop illustrations, letterheads, envelopes, business cards, and many more. Templates with font layers use basic fonts or fonts that can be synced from Adobe Typekit.
To create a document using a template, follow these steps:
-
In the New Document dialog, select a category tab: Mobile, Web, Print, Film & Video, or Art & Illustration.
-
Select a template.
-
Select See Preview to view a preview of the template. A preview is an image representation of a template that you can review and decide if you want to license.
-
Select Download.
Illustrator prompts you to license the template from Adobe Stock. For more information about licensing and related considerations,see Adobe Stock Help. After the template has been licensed using asset entitlements or credits in your account, you can open it as an Illustrator document (.ai) for you to work on.
Template licensing in progress
Template licensing in progress -
Once the template is downloaded, select Open. While you open the template if you're prompted to sync some fonts from Typekit, select OK.
You can now work with the open document in Illustrator just as you would work with any other .ai document. Downloaded templates are added to a Creative Cloud library called Stock Templates. You can access this library in the Libraries panel.
Note:
Illustrator templates carry the .ait filename extension. However, when you open a template, an instance of it is opened as a document with the .ai extension. Changes made to that .ai document don't affect the original .ait template.
Search for more templates from Adobe Stock
Aside from the preselected templates from Adobe Stock, you can search for and download numerous other such templates directly from within the New Document dialog.
- While working in the New Document dialog, enter a search string in the Find More Templates On Adobe Stock box. Alternatively, select Go to browse the full selection of available templates.
Illustrator opens the Adobe Stock website in a new browser window for you to explore. License and download the one that best meets your project's requirements. For more information about Adobe Stock, see Using Adobe Stock.
Create documents using blank templates
Blank templates make designing common deliverables, such as brochures, business cards, CD covers, and T-shirts, easier. Do the following to create a document using a blank template:
-
Select File > New From Template.
-
In the New From Template dialog, open the Blank Templates folder.
-
Select a template and select New.
Illustrator creates a new document based on the selected blank template. You can work with it just as you would work with any other .ai document.
Use the legacy File New experience
If necessary, you may disable the latest New Document experience and revert to the experience that Illustrator provided by default in versions CC 2015.3 and earlier.
-
Select Edit > Preferences > General.
-
Choose Use Legacy File New Interface and select OK.
Related Resources
Talk to us
If you've a question to ask or an idea to share, come and participate in Adobe Illustrator Community. We would love to hear from you.
Adobe MAX
The Creativity Conference
Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online
Adobe MAX
The Creativity Conference
Oct 14–16 Miami Beach and online