The artboard in Adobe Illustrator serves as the base for your artwork, offering a canvas where you bring your designs to life. Though it starts as white by default, you have the freedom to personalize its color to complement your project’s style or improve clarity. Below, find instructions on changing the artboard color in Adobe Illustrator:
Step-by-Step Guide to Changing Artboard Color
Step 1: Open The Document Setup Menu
In order for us to pursue this work around we will need to access the Document Setup menu. Navigate to File > Document Setup using the toolbar menu. (Press “Alt + Control + P” on your keyboard.)
Step 2: Change The Grid Color
Once you’re in the Document Setup menu, First, tick the box that reads “Simulate Color Paper” and make sure the preset beneath it is set to (Medium Resolution)
This “simulation of color paper” is what will allow you to change the artboard color in Illustrator to whatever you want. Once that is enabled, simply click on the top color stripe, next to the checkerboard grid, and set that to whatever color you’d like your artboard to be.
Confirm Color Change
Once you click on the stripe you will be prompted to choose a color. This will be the color that your artboard is filled with.
There is no way to specify a HEX color code, so you’ll need either the RGB or the HSL values for your shade if you have something particular in mind. Otherwise you can just choose a color manually using the interface.
Once you’ve chosen your color, click OK in the color menu, and then OK in the Document Setup menu to save your changes and close out of it. Your artboard should now reflect the color you’ve chosen to fill it with:
Reset The Artboard Color
If at any point you’d like to reset the artboard color so that you can return to a regular white fill, simply navigate back to the Document Setup menu and deselect the “Simulate Color Paper” box, and click OK to save and close out.
