Contributed by Rohit Guglani, Illustrator Team
A lot of time we hear from our users to have the default settings of a new document changed to suit their requirements. Document Startup Profiles – control the properties of new document. Following settings can be controlled using the startup profiles:
1. Swatches
2. Brushes
3. Symbols
4. Character Styles
5. Paragraph Styles
6. Graphic Styles
7. Page Size
8. Units
9. Orientation
10. Language
11. Highlight options
12. View Settings
13. Transparency Flattener Settings
14. Preview vs Pixel vs Overprint preview
15. Page Tiling
16. Edges
17. Guides
18. Grid
19. Transparency Grid
20. Rulers
21. Smart Guides
22. Document Raster Settings (resolution, preserve spot)
So, next time you want to customize your default profile just create a new document and customize the various settings and save the file to any of these locations:
Mac : {user}:Library:Application Support:Adobe:Adobe Illustrator CS4:{lang}:New Document Profiles
Win : {drive}\Documents and Settings\{user}\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator CS4 Settings\{lang}\New Document Profiles
and the new profile starts appearing in the new document dialog.
There are people who work with thinner strokes (say .25pts) and repeatedly reducing the default 1pt stroke is part of design process for them. I found some one who was making good use of Startup Profiles - he simply modified the Default Graphic Style of the Startup Profile - made its stroke .25pts. with no fill. He was too fond of Universe font, which he used rather extensively - so he had changed the Default Character Style as well. I'm sure he saves a lot of time.
Can you can set multiple profiles and toggle between them?