Illustrator New Document

Launch Illustrator.
Do one of the following:

Select File > New.

Click New or Start New in the Start workspace.

Use the following keyboard shortcut:

(Mac) Cmd+N

(Windows) Ctrl+N

Right-click the tab for an open document and choose New Document from the in-context menu.

Among other operations, the New Document dialog lets you:

Create documents using selected templates from Adobe Stock across several categories: Mobile, Web, Print, Film & Video, and Art & Illustration
Search for more templates on Adobe Stock and create documents using them
Quickly access files, templates, and items that you’ve have 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.

Mobile tab | New Document dialog box

In the New Document dialog box, click a category tab: Mobile, Web, Print, Film & Video, or Art & Illustration.
Select a preset.
Optionally, change the settings for the selected preset in the Preset Details pane on the right. See Modify presets to understand how.
Click Create. Illustrator opens a new document based on the preset.

Before opening a document using the preset, you can modify 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. To use different values for different sides, delink the dimensions by clicking the chain () icon.

Color Mode: Specify a color mode for the document: RGB or CMYK. Changing the color mode converts the default contents (swatches, brushes, symbols, graphic styles) of the selected new document profile to a new color mode, resulting in a color change.
Click More Settings to specify additional options:

Raster Effects: Specify the resolution for raster effects in the document. It is especially important to set this at High when you plan to output to a high-end printer at high resolution. The Print profile sets this at High by default.
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.

Note: You can change the Preview Mode at any time using the View menu.
Click Create Document to open a document with the preset settings.

Note:

Options in the More Settings dialog are similar to options in the legacy New Document dialog in earlier versions of Illustrator. See Files and templates for more information about those options.

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, do one of the following:

In the New Document dialog, click a category tab: Mobile, Web, Print, Film & Video, or Art & Illustration.
Select a template.
Click 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 that template.

Preview the template before licensing it
Click Download.

Illustrator prompts you to license the template from Adobe Stock. See Adobe Stock Help for more information about licensing and related considerations. 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
After the template has downloaded, click Open. While opening the template, if you’re prompted to sync some fonts from Typekit, click OK.

You can now work with the open document in Illustrator just as you would work with any other .ai document.

Note:

Downloaded templates are added to a Creative Cloud library called Stock Templates. You can access this library in the Libraries panel.

Libraries panel | Stock Template library

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.

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, simply click 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.

Explore and license templates on the Adobe Stock website

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.

Note:

Alternatively, you can open the Blank Templates folder directly from the New Document window. In the New Document dialog, click More Settings and then click Templates.
Select a template; for example, Gift Certificate Pouchette.ait. Click New.

Illustrator creates a new document based on the selected blank template. You can work with it just as you’d work with any other .ai document.

Note:

Illustrator templates carry the .ait filename extension. When you open a template, an instance of it is opened as a document with the .aiextension. Changes made to that .ai document don’t affect the original .ait template.

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.
Select Use Legacy File New Interface. Click OK.

Enable the legacy experience (not recommended)

Note:

See Files and templates for more information about options in the legacy New Document dialog.

Illustrator New Document

Access the New Document dialog

Overview: New Document dialog

Create documents using presets

Modify presets

Create documents using templates from Stock

Search for more templates from Adobe Stock

Create documents using blank templates

Use the legacy File New experience