When I made the switch to Adobe Illustrator one of the things I quickly learned to love was the customization possibilities for the workspace.  One of the default settings I’m not fond of is the itty-bitty layer thumbnails that make it difficult to see what artwork is sitting on each layer.

I have an illustrator  template (.ait) that  has most of my file level settings saved including a larger layer thumbnail size, but  if  I happen to open a graphic in illustrator that has the tiny default size layer thumbs this is usually one of the first things I change and it’s super quick and easy!

Just go to your layer panel (if it’s not visible you can open it via the Window menu) and click on the options menu drop down in the top right corner.

From the layer panel options menu select Panel Options at the bottom of the list to open you the Panel Options dialogue box.

By default Illustrator will use the medium option which gives tiny thumbnails. In this box you can choose to set your thumbnails to large (still fairly small) or choose the “Other” option at the bottom and fill in a pixel size of your choice.  My preferred setting is around 75 pixels, which I feel gives me a good view of what’s on my layers at a glance.