Artboards

Everything Illustrator's artboard tools don't do: split one big artboard into tiles for printing, reorder and rename all your artboards in one go, resize them, and make artboards, frames or clipping masks from your artwork.

Version 0.3.2 · Needs PowerScripts 3.8.42 or later

Open the PowerScripts panel (Window > Extensions > PowerScripts) and choose Artboards from the Tools scripts. The script has three tabs: Tile, Organise and Create.

To rename every artboard “Page 01”, “Page 02” and so on, in reading order:

1. Open the Organise tab.
2. Under Reorder, tick Reorder Artboard List and choose Grid (Rows first).
3. Under Rename, tick Rename: and type Page {number:2}.
4. Press Apply Changes.

Split an artboard into smaller artboards, for example to print a big banner on several sheets.

• Range: tile the Current Artboard or All Artboards.
• Method: how the artboard is split:
  • Guides: split along the guides you've drawn on the artboard.
  • Fixed Size: tiles of a set Width and Height. Enter zero for no splits in that direction. The reference point says which corner (or side, or the middle) the tiles start from, so any leftover strip ends up on the opposite side. Create Tile Guides draws the split lines as guides first, so you can check or move them.
  • Grid: split into a number of equal tiles across (Horizontal) and down (Vertical). Create Grid Guides draws them as guides first.
• Overlap: how far each tile runs into the next one, so panels can be overlapped and joined after printing.
• Bleed: extra artwork round each tile. Tick Expand artboard to bleed to make each new artboard that much bigger.
• Remove original artboard: delete the big artboard once it's split.
• Duplicate contents and clip to new Artboards: copy the artwork onto each tile and clip it to the tile's edges, so every tile holds only its own piece.
• Explode with a gap of: move the tiles apart by this gap, so you can see each one on its own.
• Tile Artboard: does it.

Tick the parts you want, then press Apply Changes once to do them all.

• Reorder Artboard List: change the order of the artboards (the order in the Artboards panel, and the page order when you save a PDF):
  • Left to Right, Right to Left, Top to Bottom, Bottom to Top: by position on the page.
  • Grid (Rows first) and Grid (Columns first): in reading order, row by row or column by column. Choose the direction with the two Grid lists (Left to Right or Right to Left, Top to Bottom or Bottom to Top).
  • Reverse current order.
  • Alphabetically: by name, with numbers in the right order (Page 9 before Page 10).
  • Smallest Area to Largest Area, Width, Height: by size.

• Rename: give every artboard a new name made from this pattern. Type plain text and any of these codes:
  • {number}: 1, 2, 3… {number:3} adds leading zeros (001, 002…).
  • Start at and step: the first number and how much it goes up by, for example start at 10, step 10.
  • {letter}: A, B, C… (after Z comes AA).
  • {name}: the artboard's old name.
  • {doc}: the document's name.
  • {row} and {col}: the artboard's row and column in the grid.
  • {width}, {height} and {unit}: the artboard's size in the document's units, for example {width} x {height}{unit}.
  • {linked}: the name of the first placed (linked) file on the artboard.
• Trim white spaces: remove spaces from the start and end of each name.
• Replace spaces with: swap every space for another character, such as _.
• Change case: Title Case, lower case or UPPER CASE.
• Replace text: Find some text in the names and Replace with something else.

The artboards are renamed after they're reordered, so the numbers follow the new order.

• Resize to Artwork: fit each artboard to the artwork on it.
• Width and Height: set every artboard to this width and/or height.
• Expand: grow every artboard by this much on each side (a minus number shrinks it).

• Remove Blank Artboards: delete artboards with nothing on them.

• Create Artboards from Selected Shapes: make an artboard round your selection.
  • Expand Offset: extra space round the artwork.
  • Apply to individual shapes: one artboard per selected shape. Untick for a single artboard round the whole selection.
  • Remove other artboards: keep only the new ones.
• Create Frames around Artboards: draw a rectangle the size of each artboard, with a thin black outline and no fill, named after its artboard.
  • Expand Offset: make the frames bigger (or smaller, with a minus number) than the artboards.
  • Group Frames: put all the frames in one group.
  • Select Frames after creation: have them selected, ready to style or move.
• Create Artboard Clipping Masks: clip the artwork on each artboard to the artboard's edges (plus the Expand Offset), with an outline in the Stroke Width and Stroke Color you choose (a stroke width of 0 means no outline).
• Create Artboards Mask: covers everything outside your artboards with dark grey on a locked layer called “Artboard Mask”, so you can see exactly what will print. Delete the layer when you're done.

1. Select the banner's artboard.
2. On Tile, choose Method: Fixed Size and enter your sheet's printable Width and Height.
3. Set an Overlap (for example 20 mm) so the panels can be joined.
4. Tick Duplicate contents and clip to new Artboards and Remove original artboard.
5. Press Tile Artboard. Each tile is now its own artboard, ready to print or save as a PDF page.

1. Select the logos.
2. On Create, set Expand Offset to the margin you want, tick Apply to individual shapes.
3. Press Create Artboards from Selected Shapes.
4. To name them after their size, go to Organise, tick Rename: and use {width} x {height}{unit}.

• Use Create Tile Guides first when tiling: you can drag a guide to avoid cutting through text, then tile with Method: Guides.
• Save your favourite rename pattern as a preset (see Using Presets).
• Undo (Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z) puts everything back if the result isn't what you wanted.

• {linked} only finds placed (linked or embedded) files. An artboard with none gets its number instead.
• Pressing Apply Changes with nothing ticked does nothing and says so.

• 0.3.2
  • New: Reorder by grid in any reading direction (rows or columns first, left or right, top or bottom), plus Top to Bottom, Bottom to Top and Reverse.
  • New: Rename with leading zeros, a start number and step, letters, the old name, the document name and the row and column.
  • Fixed: Reorder by Height and Alphabetically (Page 9 before Page 10), Group Frames, tiling from a middle reference point, and Tile Artboard by guides keeping its tiles in order.
  • Improved: general bug fixes, reliability and speed.
• 0.3.1: Updated for PowerScripts 2026 (needs PowerScripts 3.8.12 or later).
• Older changes: PowerScripts Release Notes