When I Place A PDF, It Does Not Show The Correct Artboard Size (Doesn't account for the empty white artboard)

Question

The white box is showing what the art board size is when I open the PDF in illustrator (To edit). Yet when I go to place the PDF in a new document, the size changes. It is not saving he white/blank space on the art board, and just saving it to the art that's in the file. It's an illustrator setting, because when I open it in acrobat, it shows the white space included.

My last step in pre flight is throwing it in a new doc to make sure the sizing is correct, and there's no hidden layers that show up for print.

The obvious solution is to just add a white box in my art file, but I would like to know a fix that doesn't include that.

Answer 1

Select the correct option when placing the PDF:

• Bounding Box
  Imports based upon the bounding area of the artwork in the placed file (sounds like what you're using)
• Art
  Imports based upon the artwork edges in the placed file (could also be what you're using)
• Crop
  Imports based upon crop marks within the placed file if they exist, otherwise uses Media
• Trim
  Imports based upon trim marks within the placed file if they exist, otherwise uses Media
• Bleed
  Imports based upon the defined bleed size of the placed artwork, if defined, otherwise uses Media
• Media
  Imports based upon the artboard (or page) size of the placed file.