How to change the background color of the artboard in Illustrator

Do you want to change the background color of your artboard in Illustrator?

The background color of your Illustrator artboard is similar to the first coat of paint you would add to a physical canvas before painting your masterpiece.

In most cases, white is sufficient, so it is the default canvas color in Adobe Illustrator.

However, there are many reasons to customize it and adapt it to the needs of your project.

In this short tutorial, we will cover two different ways to change the background color of your artboard in Illustrator.

Here’s how to do it:

Method 1:

  1. Open your Illustrator project
  2. From the top menu select File > Document Setup > Document Setup.
  3. In the Document Setup window, check the «Simulate Color Paper» option and choose a new background color for the artboard using the top color swatch selector (you will see two colors stacked in the «Transparency and Overprint Options» – you want the top one).
  4. Exit the color selector and click the OK button (if the color does not appear immediately, try zooming in or out, this refreshes the view).
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Method 2:

  1. Open your Illustrator project
  2. With the Rectangle tool (M), draw a rectangle inside your artboard and snap it to the four edges.
  3. Using the Fill (X) option on the left toolbar, change the color of your new rectangle.
  4. Finally, open the layers panel (Window > Layers), move the new rectangle to the bottom of the panel and activate the lock icon (next to the eye icon).
  5. You now have a locked color layer as the base layer of your project.

How to change the background color of a single workbench:

If you are working on a project with several artboards, but want to change the background color of only one, follow this method.

  1. Select the worktable to which you want to change the color.
  2. Select the Rectangle tool (M) and draw a rectangle inside your worktable and snap it to the four edges.
  3. Use the Fill (X) option on the left toolbar.
  4. Set your background color

The option to change the color of the simulated paper will not work when changing the color of a single artboard. If you want to quickly change the background color of all artboards in a project, set a dummy paper color.

How to change the background color of several work tables:

You can change the background color of multiple artboards using the Simulate colored paper option in the Document Setup tab.

However, if you need a more permanent option for setting the background colors of your artboards, or you want your colors to be unique, we recommend that you use the Rectangle method and create a rectangle for each artboard.

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How to remove the background color:

If you have decided that you no longer want the background color and wish to remove it, there are two methods for doing so, depending on which method you chose to create the color in the first place.

Method 1:

If you chose to create the color using the Simulate Color Paper option, follow these steps to remove it:

  1. From the top menu select File > Document Setup > Document Setup.
  2. In the Document Settings window, uncheck the «Simulate colored paper» option.
  3. Your paper will return to its standard white color

Alternatively, you can go manually and change the color you selected back to white. However, we do not recommend this, as simply unchecking the Simulate colored paper option is the quickest route.

Method 2:

If you have changed the background color using the Rectangle tool (M), follow this method to remove it:

  1. Go to the Layers Panel and Unlock your base layer if you have locked it.
  2. Make sure that there are no other elements in this layer that you do not want to remove.
  3. Select the layer and click Delete
  4. The rectangle that creates the background color will be removed from your project.

If there are objects on the base layer that you want to keep, create a new layer and move them there, or change the color of the rectangle to white using the Fill option and do not delete the layer.

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is the fastest way to change the background color?

The fastest method is the first one described in this article. Change the Simulate Paper settings of

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color requires only a few clicks. However, this method cannot change individual artboards, it will change all artboards present in the archive.

Will the simulated colored paper background print that color?

No, as you can see in the image above, the background color made with this method is not printed. The simulated color paper is just a tool to show you how it would look on that color paper, it will not print that background color on a paper if you print your project.

Will a rectangle of the base layer be printed?

Yes, unlike the dummy paper option, a rectangle filled to create a background color will print as shown above.

Did my simulated background color disappear when I reopened my project?

The colorpaper simulation settings can be returned to standard after closing the Illustrator application. You will have to reset the settings if you want the background color back. Or create a background color rectangle for a more permanent option.

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