Export Artboards to Files Include Overlapping Areas vs Artboard Content Only

[adifrank]

When exporting arboards using File > Export > Artboards To Files...
There's a radio button to choose between two options:

• Include Overlapping Areas
• Artboard Content Only

Does anyone maybe know what each of these options do? I've tested numerous artboards with overlapping content, without overlapping content, etc. Both options seem to produce the same results.

 

[kabak]

AI answer

Photoshop Overlapping Artboard Content

In Photoshop, when exporting artboard content, you can choose to include overlapping areas or clip to the artboard only. To export artboard content only, ensure you have selected the "Clip to Artboard" option in your Save for Web settings. This will crop the output to the artboard size, excluding any overlapping areas.

If you want to include overlapping areas during the export, you can disable the "Clip to Artboard" option. This allows the export to include any content that extends beyond the artboard boundaries.

To export your artboards with specific settings, go to File > Export > Artboards To Files, and customize the export settings to suit your needs. You can also use the "Export As" dialog to set dimensions, resolution, and scaling options for your artboard exports.

 

[adifrank]

Hi @kabak
I'm afraid that AI isn't accurate here. I tried both ChatGPT and Gemini and received similar replies.

1. There is no "Clip to Artboard" option in this dialog, as you can see in my screenshot above.
2. "This allows the export to include any content that extends beyond the artboard boundaries" - this too is unclear. The resulting images do not include any content that is beyond the boundaries of the artboard, even with "Include Overlapping Areas" selected. When testing both "Include Overlapping Areas" and "Attboard Content Only" I don't see any significant differences in the resulting JPGs
3. I'm aware of the different methods to export artboards. I just want to know what exactly these two settings actually do

 

[kabak]

It seems to be discussed around 55 seconds into this video

 

[adifrank]

Hi thanks, unfortunately the guy in the video doesn't explain what each option actually does. He just says leave the settings as is.
Again - I know how to export the artboards. In my testing I haven't been able to find a difference between these two options, so I'm just curious what they do exactly and when should I use one or the other.

 

[IamSam]

I just want to know what exactly these two settings actually do

In my testing I haven't been able to find a difference between these two options, so I'm just curious what they do exactly and when should I use one or the other.

Simple Google search.

 

[IamSam]

I've used artboards for multiple clients here locally. For brochures, (food) menu's, (food) menu apps, other apps, and slideshow power point/keynote presentations. I always export using "Artboard Content Only". The clients have no need for overlapping content that can only be accessed in a graphic type program like Ps, Ai, etc. I myself preserve the overlapping content in the PSD file........in case I need to edit something. For me, I see no need to export including overlapping content unless the client desires the option of editing for themselves. (Which I don't allow........that's my job!)

This is a red rectangle in an artboard....


If I move the red rectangle say to the right, it now "extends beyond the border of the artboard"! You can't see the "overlap" but I can drag it back if I need to.


When I export the artboard above, do I want to include the content extending beyond the artboard? Yes or no? That is the difference!

 

[adifrank]

Yes I've Googled this, and researched it pretty extensively. But have you guys actually tested both options out to see what the result is?

Created a PSD with a 100x100 pixel artboard.
Placed a 50x100 blue rectangle with half of it within the artboard and half of it outside the area of the artboard



Exported the artboard using Export > Artboards to Files.
Set to Artboard Content Only
The result is a 100x100 JPG that looks like this


Exported the artboard using Export > Artboards to Files.
Set to Include Overlapping Area
The result is a 100x100 JPG that looks like this


They are essentially exactly the same.
The latter is just 1 KB larger in file size. That's the only difference


* I accidentally placed the JPG you see below and it doesn't want to be removed... so please ignore it.

 

[IamSam]

But have you guys actually tested both options out to see what the result is?

Yes. Which is why I could not understand why you were getting different results..............now I know why!

Exported the artboard using Export > Artboards to Files.
Set to Include Overlapping Area
The result is a 100x100 JPG that looks like this

JPG does not support layers in image files, so of course it will appear the same.



Try exporting in another format that does support layers. TIFF is most common.

 

[adifrank]

Got it, so I'm not crazy
I would have expected those options to be grayed out or something when selecting JPG. Okay so when exporting artboards to JPG, it's safe to say that it doesn't matter which of those two export options you choose, right?

 

[IamSam]

Okay so when exporting artboards to JPG, it's safe to say that it doesn't matter which of those two export options you choose, right?

Correct!

 

[adifrank]

Thanks!

I'll explain what the issue was.

A client sent me some PSDs to work on. They contained multiple artbaords.
The client needed JPGs.
Two of the PSDs produced incredibly huge JPGs (in file size) when exporting the artboards to JPG with "Include overlapping area" selected. The artboards were only 1080x1080 and the JPGs were over 60MB!!
The client siad it was because of the "Include overlapping area" option that I had selected. And indeed, when I tried using "Artboard content only" the exported JPGs were normal - around 1MB.
However, I still found it strange. It didn't make sense to me. Both options produced 1080x1080 JPGs. And like you said, JPGs don't contain layers. They are just flat images. I couldn't figure out why the two options were producing different outcomes and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what could cause a 1080x1080 JPG to be over 60MB.

Then I found that there's this thing called metadata bloat, which can sometimes be a result of recycling a PSD over and over, essentially using it as a template and just swapping out elements for each project. I tried to bring this up with the client, but they were insistant that it was because of the settings.

I had to admit that using the "Artboard Content Only" option did solve the issue, but ultimately I found a script that removes junk metadata from PSDs, and running it fixed the PSDs so that they export JPGs normally regardless of which setting is used.

So I managed to convince the client that they weren't exactly right on this, but I was just curious why one of those settings created JPGs with the bloated metadata embedded in it while the other settting didn't.

 

[adifrank]

Here's the post I found with the script in case anyone is facing a similar issue and finds this thread:

Re: Saving JPG From PSD Bloated Size

When you copy layers between documents, Photoshop writes a specific set of metadata associated with the original document. On the one hand, this is useful and allows you to track the chains of copying layers, and on the other hand (when you regularly copy the same set of layers across multiple...

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