Document size

Whenever you open a new, blank document (by clicking New on the File menu or by pressing CTRL+N), Microsoft Expression Design creates a document frame in the middle of a huge white area. The document frame — also called the artboard — represents the intended output area of your file. This is what gets printed or exported unless you specify a different area with the Crop Marks feature. Also, live effects are only visible within the document frame area. In general, you should match the frame size to your output size.

There are two ways to change the document frame size. Document Size scales all of the objects on your page. Artboard Size changes only the frame, without changing your objects.

Document size

When you click Document Size on the File menu (or press CTRL+ALT+P), Expression Design opens the Document Size dialog box, which is similar to the New Document dialog box.

You can scale the size of your document by adjusting the Width and Height fields. To ensure your document will scale proportionally, enable the Constrain proportions check box.

The value you choose in the Resolution field determines the native resolution of your document, and the resolution at which live effects will be rasterized. Note that some live effects, primarily the artistic effects, are resolution dependent, and if you change your document resolution, the effect might appear different.

Artboard size

When you click Artboard Size on the File menu (or press CTRL+ALT+C), Expression Design lets you alter the size of your document frame without resizing any objects on the page.

  1. Select the measurement system you want to use (such as pixels, mm, or inches) from the drop-down list. If you select Pixels, the document frame size will be based on your current document resolution (see Document size, above).
  2. Adjust the Width and Height fields. If you want to adjust the frame size by a relative amount rather than a specific page size, enable the Relative check box. For example, when the Relative check box is disabled, typing 150 px into the Width field changes the width to 150 pixels. When it is enabled, this adds 150 to the current page width.
  3. Because the objects on your page will not be scaled, specify where you want to position the page objects relative to the new document size. You can do this by clicking one of the nine Anchor buttons. For example, if you click the upper-left Anchor button, the document frame will extend or contract based on the upper-left corner of your current frame size, and all objects will be pinned to that upper-left corner point.