Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
789 results found
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Make Reference Point controls larger and easier to click
Reference Point control is very small on modern displays in every place used and is hard to aim and click.
I think it’s better to have it larger, both visually and for UX.8 votes -
Keyboard commands to cycle through layers similar to Photoshop
Please consider a way to navigate, activate, delete and move layers using keyboard commands, similar to photoshop.
8 votes -
Object, Expand — Should be in the right click context menu. Also, the operation should be more robust.
Object, Expand — Should be in the right click context menu. Also, the operation should be more robust. I expand things all the time.
I almost always want compound paths instead of groups of compound paths. So, "Outlining Text" is really just redundant and still no option for compound path from the operation. AI should influence people to be more efficient. An unnecessary amount of objects is unnecessary, especially with AI's ability to quickly isolate objects.
8 votes -
The "new update" popup message is gross
A. Add a "don't show this again" checkbox because I don't want to be reminded later nor do I want to update on anything but my own terms.
B. Add a space between the period and "Know more..."
C. Choose a different call to action that isn't "Know more" because what?
D. Actually just don't show popups for anything. I pay you to draw vector lines and that's about it.
8 votes -
Have an 'Expand' button in the Image Trace panel
It's a pretty crazy change to remove it...
Why have it tucked away in the menus ?!8 votes -
Swap names for Reflect commands
Transform / reflect / horizontal-vertical
function is incorrect
8 votes -
Add a slider to the History panel to quickly review the states of the document
If we want to go back to a certain history state of the current document , we can scroll the History panel and click each step item, guessing the time, judging by the names of these, the scrollbar position (limited by the capped amount of steps)...
It’s a guesswork in most cases, since some steps still have generic names (like always 'Move' and not 'Move Point', 'Move Handle', 'Move Segment', 'Move Path', 'Move Group'...)Can I just grab a slider and scrub with it, seeing all the previous states rendered on canvas — and fast? Today Ai sometimes takes too…
7 votes -
Bring back Duplicate button in the Contextual Task Bar
It would be very useful to bring back the repeat / duplicate icon in the Contextual Task Bar -- specifically when selecting shapes. Illustrator 2024 had this feature when a shape was selected. The 2025 update removed this feature.
Please bring this back, or allow users to customize the Conceptual Task Bar in the settings.
7 votes -
How do we add copy and paste to the right click menu?
How do we add copy and paste to the right click menu?
In almost all Adobe products copy and paste are in the right click menu but I can't find a way to turn them on in Illustrator. How do I get them to show up or even request an update to the program if they aren't in the program for some strange reason. Why would they be left out? Can we also use scripting to add other useful commands to the menu to save time while we work?
7 votesIn case you missed it, latest Ai versions now do have Cut, Copy, Paste (all subcommands) in the context menus.
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Remove restrictions to useable keyboard shortcuts (e.g. Ctrl + Key for non-tools)
It would be great if the restrictions put in place for keyboard shortcuts regarding non-tools could be changed to include single key shortcuts (like tools). There is no valid reason that any of the File/ Edit/ Object/ Type/ Select/ Effect/ View/ Window shortcuts require using the Ctrl key. Indesign does this already just like many non-Adobe programs. It's time to change this.
7 votes -
Feature to export custom Keyboard Shortcuts
Those of us that frequently customize our Key commands and want to easily transfer them to other versions of Illustrator.
7 votes -
Layers Panel: Layers Name Available Width
I like my Layers Panel thumbnails to be large, like really large, larger than 'Large' for sure, so that i can easily see what's going on. I also like to name my layers briefly but accurately for the same reason. I don't have a big, wide screen however, so for me every tiny width saving matters. And here i come to the thing that infuriates me: why does Illustrator already trim layers names when there is still plenty room for them to be displayed in full?
7 votes -
Customisable touch workspace.
Adobe, could we please have a customisable touch workspace? The other workspaces can be altered, why not this one?
It could be a cool idea to be able to add the delete, undo and redo buttons to the sidebar menu in the classic workspace.7 votes -
Since you're not maintaining Illustrator, open-source it.
Year after year, we ask for simple but glaring deficiencies to be fixed. But NOTHING is fixed.
Top example: There's no way to force Illustrator to select ONLY the objects that are FULLY ENCLOSED by the selection rectangle. I don't know of any other vector-art program that lacks this feature, and some even use it by default.
Yes, we've reported this problem. Yes, we voted for the feature request. Year after year after year.
I bought Affinity Designer because I consider Illustrator unusable with this defect. And that's after years of running Corel Draw in a VM to, again, avoid…
7 votes -
The "Align" tool doesn't align
So the align tools is organized like this:
Align Objects:
Vertical alignment tools Horizontal alignment toolsDistribute Objects:
Horizontal distrib. tools Vertical distrib. toolsIt confuses me each time. Why aren't the vertical tools both on the left, and both the horizontal tools on the right? Each time I use it I have to stop for a second and think about it before jumping horizontally to the tool I actually want. Please put the vertical alignment and distribution tools on the left, and the horizontal alignment and distribution tools on the right!
7 votes -
Voice activated commands
What if all your basic commands could be said aloud? For example:
"File, save, export, save for web, jpg, 72 dpi, save, save to X folder..." or "select same fill color and stroke color, change to PMS246, object ungroup, select tool, select Layer 1, add 2 point white outline"Why would this be cool?
I am the worst at remembering short keys or using short keys and I'm sure not the only one. When software gets updated, sometimes things get moved in menus and that can be frustrating. I can say the commands faster than I can point, click or…
7 votes -
Allow to customize color of text used by Distance Guides
Recently Illustrator received Distance Guides (can be disabled in Preferences > Smart Guides > Invoke Distance Guides), thanks to this request: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/34302196 (it uses Opt/Alt, not Cmd/Ctrl)
For some reason the color of text in these is black — while the lines use the one set for object guides (magenta by default today). It makes it very hard to see when working with dark designs.
Dimension Tool uses magenta color for the same text... I think it should be either magenta as well, or a separate option should be used to set the color.
6 votes -
Layout for Swatch Info should allow to set grid, not only a row or a column
Creation dialog for Swatch Info object currently allows to choose between having it as a row or a column... great, when you have 5. Not great if there are 20 — it’s either a stupid long row, or a stupid tall column.
Add another value there to wrap these, to form a grid!
Make sure you also allow to set the layout order properly, like the Rearrange All Artboards dialog uses (RTL is a thing).6 votes -
Stop covering the document tabs with expanded docked panels
If I dock panels to sides of the application frame, expanding the ones from the top panel groups will cover the document tabs, like the GIF shows.
In a situation when it’s important to know what is the current document (they can differ slightly) this is especially irritating.Please nudge them down a bit!
6 votes -
Make USEFUL hover hints for ALL the options, fields, menu commands
Clearly the team doesn’t really care about making hover hints to be a learning tool.
Rarely these actually try to say what an option or a field does or controls: like 'Start editing similar shapes together' for the 'Global Edit' button in the Control panel, or 'Click to pick arrowhead to apply to start point of path' in Stroke panel...
But in most cases the hint is extremely rudimentary.
Try to hover the 'W' field in Transform panel — you’d get 'W value'. W?! Weight? Wand? Why not say 'Width Value', or even 'Set Width for the selected objects'?Then…
6 votes
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