Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
4727 results found
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Match Width or Height to Key Object
I would like a quicker way to match an object's width or height to that of another object. Currently I have to select the correctly sized object, copy the W value, select the next object, and paste the W value. This must be done individually for each object. A pain when you have, say, a dozen objects scattered around the artwork but you want them to all be the same size. I think it could work similarly to the "align to key object" tool.
19 votes -
Drop shadow distribution curves
Right now shadow is just blurred silhouette.
Please add option to tweak it's distribution, as PS does ('profiles').19 votes -
Make Smart guides optionally work with live text
Sometimes it is needed to snap to contour of live text.
Right now it requires to make a copy of text, outline it, snap to desired point/segment, delete copy.What if user could tick an option that allows to snap to live glyphs? or use 'Ctrl' modifier to toggle this mode on the fly? It would allow us to skip copying-outlining-snapping-deleting and boost the speed.
19 votesSnap to Glyph option, available in the View menu, released in the version 24.3 (2020), allows to snap to the live text as if it is outlined.
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Art brushes different weight value
Well, this is complex one.
As you know, a lot of people live in metric world.
It means they use 'cm-mm' instead of 'inches-points'.
I, for example, have all three major units set to millimeters — general, stroke and type.But each time I apply brush to anything, it gets weight '0,353 mm'.
Yes, it is 1 point. And every time I need to scale my brush twice as normal, I have to type in '*2' in the end of 'Weight' field instead of just typing 2.Worse, when I don't remember what weight it has now, but need to…
19 votes -
Refine (not revert to previous) zoom to selection
Now, 'Zoom to selection' zoom AND centers.
I think that zoom to selection should not center at all by default (and, of course, there should be an option to add centering to zoom). The selected art should stay where it is located in view, until zoom level is big enough so object will go outside current view — only then AI should move view to fit the art.
And there should be a tick 'Only for zooming in'.
19 votes -
Add ability to use fractional values for resolution everywhere
AI is used worldwide. Despite PostScript, based on points, based on inch, being de-facto a standard for most users, many people use metric system.
English inch, as you know, equals exactly 2.54cm.
This gives us, metric users, mantra for translating PPI into PPCM: 254ppi=100ppcmBut if we need lower value, such as 10 or 20 or 30 ppcm (working in scale with huge designs, such as ad bus wraps), we can't use it, because AI doesn't allow to enter fractional values anywhere inside! We can't use 50.8, 25.4, 76.2, Ai would round it to 51, 25, 76.
This will give…19 votes -
Make Ctrl+arrows jump to hyphen too
While editing text in Russian, I have quite many complex words separated by hyphen.
Pressing Ctrl+arrow ignores these and jumps to start and end of word.
Please add ability to respect hyphens while moving cursor with Ctrl+arrows.P. S. If you combine this with reported bug fix about Ctrl+Home and Ctrl+End, it would be AWESOME
19 votes -
Put all Blend options and commands into one dialog / panel
Blend Tool > Blend Options Panel stinks, nothing personal.
I use the Blend tool. A lot. When I start a blend, the Properties Panel helpfully tells me that I have a Blend. Thanks for that. But I still have to go to Object > Blend > Blend Options to get any options for the Blend tool. What if the Blend tool options would magically appear in the Properties panel while I'm using that tool?Also, the Blend Options panel will not let me make any changes to the blend other than Spacing or Orientation. How about putting the other Blend…
19 votes -
Anchor point Smart Delete
Deleting an anchor point by default breaks up the shape of the stroke.
What about Smart Delete, that automatically adjusts nearest handles to save the shape of the stroke?
I dream about it from the CS3 version :)19 votesYou can do it natively now, by choosing the standalone Delete Anchor Point Tool and clicking a point with Shift held.
This is an obscure way, and you can vote to make it more accessible — please vote here
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Snap shape to artboard or bleeds
When you draw a rectangle as a background color or border, you could snap to the edges of the artboard or snap to the edges of the bleed.
19 votes -
Relative math operations with defined and mixed values in input fields
When you have several objects with different parameters in your selection, Illustrator would show nothing in the input field controlling this parameter.
For example, if you have two paths selected, one having 1 pt stroke weight, and another with 4 pt — Ai would show nothing in Weight in Stroke panel, meaning it’s a 'mixed value'.What if we could focus this field, type '+5' in it, and get 1+5=6 for one path and 4+5=9 for the other?
Why not making it work for similar value as well? Instead of putting the cursor after the, say '2.25 pt' and type…
18 votes -
Effect dialogs need sliders
Illustrator's stylized filters need a more practical and dynamic UI.
Currently, stylized effects such as Drop Shadow, Feather, Inner and Outer Glow have an outdated UI and are not dynamic.
I remember that Gaussian Blur was not in the past either, but Gaussian Blur was updated years ago and these stylized filters were not.
I believe that these stylized filters deserve a more practical, faster and dynamic way of being adjusted, and I took the liberty of creating a UI suggestion inspired by the current Gaussian Blur UI.
What do you think, would it be possible?
18 votes -
Turn off Smooth Tool slider
I'm not sure if this is a bug or I just don't know what I'm doing so apologies if this is no the right place to post.
A few days ago I chose Object > Path > Smooth rather than using the Smooth tool as I normally do. A slider popped up which was actually rather useful. But now whenever I hold option to use the smooth tool (while using the Pencil), this slider dialog pops up directly over the area I am trying to see. Is there a way to turn this back off? Thanks!
18 votesWhile there is still no way to completely disable the Smooth panel when the Smooth tool is picked, the bar now remembers its position and better picks the initial location.
Please comment on this behavior and upvote if you think there still should be an option to not show it.
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Add an option to hide the Search/Filter field in Layers
Search/Filter is cool, but some prefer to not have it.
Other panels allow to choose components: we can pick sections to display in the Character panel, we can show or hide the search field in Swatches, etc.However, the panel does not have such an option in its flyout menu.
Please add one!18 votes -
Improved Layout of Illustrator Options
Illustrator 2023 (v27)
This is a proposal to improve the layout of the Illustrator option.
Illustrator format files contain two different types of data: PGF and PDF data. Currently, Illustrator options have three settings: PGF only, PDF only, and common settings for both PGF and PDF. However, these settings are currently mixed together in the window, making it difficult for users to understand which setting they are operating on.
To make Illustrator options more easily understandable, we propose organizing the layout and clearly distinguishing each setting. By grouping the setting items and labeling each group clearly, users will be able…
18 votes -
Appearance Variables
Imagine I have several drop shadows, with different colors, but same offset and blur values. Now I want to change the horizontal offset for all of them at once. Even if I use styles, it would require me change each style I have manually.
With Appearance variables though, I could have use something like '%h_shadow' in effects’ values’ fields, in all of these shadows, and set it equal to an actual numerical value in one place.
So, once I change it, every other shadow will adapt this immediately.18 votes -
Sync the order of Align and Distribute menu commands
Hey, we now have Object > Distribute commands! No more actions wraps to bind these to hotkeys!
However, why is the order is swapped? Align menu has Horizontal commands first, but Distribute has them at the bottom, under Vertical.
One can object it’s just like the Align panel has them, and this is not the legacy behaviour you better keep, really. Please sync these.
18 votes -
Placing a multi-page PDF
It would be great if we were able to place a multipage PDF instead of each link clicking through the finder window to the same file and going through the PDF pages one at a time again and again to place them in a document.
18 votes -
Customizable splash screen
Adobe marketing team decides what to display as splash screens. Sometimes the choice is great, and sometimes is not, much more often, to some of us.
And since the Illustrator splash screen is what we see often, and it obviously influence our thought and mood, we’d like to have options to customize it.
We can access the image ourselves, all of them are stored along with other version for different resolution screens at
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 2022\Support Files\Contents\Windows\aiccsplash.png (on Windows)
and packed in the application in Contents\Resources\ (on Macs),
but this feels like a hack.What if we…
18 votes -
Search for tools by name when editing the toolbar
When editing the tools that are in the toolbar we are confronted with a big panel full of tools. The recent update that categorizes them and allows for a grid view is very helpful. However, I still find myself scrolling down and up trying to find the particular tool I would like to add to the toolbar because it's so easy to miss it. If there were a little search bar at the top where we could type the name of the tool we are trying to locate to pair down the options it would be a much nicer/quicker experience.
18 votes
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