Learn how to use artboards to create your design projects in XD.
Meet Jeanee, a graphic designer who has been chosen to lead a UX design project. She is pitching Adobe XD to her team, the members of which have varying levels of expertise with UX design and tools.
Jeanee is training herself on basic design terminologies and working with artboards to create her first prototype in XD. Read on to learn how we can help her get started.
New to Adobe XD?
Learn app basics
Look at the basics of XD:
What is an artboard? Artboards represent the screens in your application or pages in your website. It streamlines the design processes and creates interactive designs for multiple screen sizes in a single document. Use artboards to create your XD project.
Read on to learn how you can set up your artboards.
Adobe XD provides you with artboards for popular screen sizes such as those for different versions of iPhones, iPads, and Web. You can create a custom artboard if the choices do not meet your requirements.
Home screen
Use the preset artboard sizes or create your custom artboard.
XD app
Use the Artboard tool to create additional artboards. Select and apply the artboard presets from the Property Inspector.
You can import existing artboards from Photoshop or Illustrator into XD without having to recreate them.
Use File > Import from XD to open up Photoshop or Illustrator artboards in XD with every artboard and layer intact and editable.
Check out this article that describes about top 5 ways to use Photoshop assets in XD.
Changed your mind about the artboard size? Resize them. You can also rename them based on your design needs. Want to create more artboards and manage their placement? Duplicate and rearrange them.
Rename
Double-click the artboard title.
Resize
Drag the circular handle that appears on the edges of an artboard.
Duplicate
Select the artboard and press Ctrl /Cmd + D.
Align and Distribute
Select multiple artboards and click Align and Distribute in the Property Inspector. Drag the artboard around to rearrange them.
Want to define the underlying structure of your design content added within artboards? Apply Layout grids. Want to get an idea on how to measure quickly and align your design content while laying out objects or text on your artboards? Use Square grids.
Layout grids
Select one or more artboards and in the Grid section of the Property Inspector, choose Layout.
Square grids
Select one or more artboards and in the Grid section of the Property inspector, choose Square.
Now that you have created your first artboard, learn how to add visual and text elements, change the background, and create scroll effects.
Now that your basic artboard is in place, you can create or modify the background color, add graphics, and create or format text styles into reusable assets. Want to create an editable grid of repeated elements? Use Repeat Grids.
Add visual and text elements
Use Drawing tools to create custom elements or select File> Import to import existing elements such as images and icons from your device folder. Use Text tools to create, format, and capture text styles into reusable assets.
To change the background color of the artboard, from the Property Inspector, select Fill and apply color from the color picker.
Create repeatable elements
Use repeat grids to create objects with repeatable elements such as lists and card-based layouts.
Want to add vertical and horizontal scroll effects in your design? Use scroll groups to prototype a window of content.
Do you want to achieve a realistic simulation of scrolling on desktop and mobile? Set the fixed position of an element on the artboard to allow other elements to scroll beneath.
Vertical scrolling
To extend the artboard beyond the viewport height, use the marker. The marker indicates the position till which you need to scroll to access the content.
Fix position when scrolling
To pin the design elements to a fixed position, select Fix position when scrolling in the Property Inspector.
Now that you know enough about artboards, you can play around with what you’ve learned so far and create more amazing artboards for your design projects.
Go ahead and download the final design to view how your design project looks.
Here is a sample 4-minute video to get started. You can also download the sample files to try alongside the videos.
Now that you've got the basics of artboards in XD, here are some handy tips and tricks:
For more pro tips on working with artboards, follow @Elainecchao, XD Product Manager on Twitter.
We've got you started with creating, managing, and sharing artboards. Take a step forward and learn how to create custom artboard guides and position your artboard using grids.
If you have a question to ask or an idea to share, come and participate in Adobe XD Community. We would love to hear from you and see your creations.
Sign in to your account