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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search and replace layers / artboards
Add a function to batchrename artboards and layer with suffix & prefix.
17 votes -
Ability to temporarily flip canvas horizontally (mirror view) for design checking
For illustrative purposes, it would be really handy to be able to temporarily flip the canvas horizontally as if in a mirrored reflection.
You would instantly see slight imperfections in a design in this new angle that was not previously noticeable due to one's specific viewpoint.
A lot of graphic programs do this to allow scrutiny from an alternate angle. InDesign and Photoshop do this already of course.
Thank you!
Michael
17 votes -
Expand toolgroup on hover instead of long-click
Holding a mouse button to open a tool group can be not preferred way for some users that have experience in other software packages. It would benefit them and others if Illustrator will provide an option and a delay in Preferences to open these with just a mouse hovering over tools.
17 votes -
Add 'Relink image' in the right click (contextual) menu
would speed up productivity when replacing multiple linked images by allowing users to control-click or right-click on an image to relink files, rather than going to the menu bar every time.
17 votes -
Hotkeys for next/previous appearance item
Appearance is great but can be better.
To select a fill below current one you have to open palette and click the item you want to change. If there would be a hotkeys for selecting next appearance item above/below (like Photoshop has for navigating Layers) this would boost keyboard freaks like me.17 votes -
Allow Global Edit to work with Text, Clip groups, Images, etc.
Would love to see advance global editing. I've noticed that grouped, clip masked and text doesn't work with global editing. This will really speed things up for all adobe illustrator user.
17 votes -
Artboard Dimension Limitation
One of the biggest complaints we hear from our franchisees is the artboard limitation of 227.541". Why is that the limit? Corel doesn't have a limit. Why Adobe? and why such an obscure number? I realize there is a PDF limitation of 200" so that is another issue.
17 votesThe maximal size of an artboard is limited by the canvas, which is limited to a 2^14 = 16384 points (16383, if you count from zero). It equals roughly to 227 inches or 577 millimeters.
Why this value? Because of math and a weighted decision the team had made long ago about storing coordinates, I assume.
Why is this still relevant? Because a lot of other stuff had been built upon this foundation. It’s extremely costly to make changes to this without making everything else crumble.
There is another request, now marked as completed, 'Remove Canvas Limit' — https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/20395555-remove-canvas-size-limit. To make it work, the team added an internal scale factor which allows 10x larger canvas, by removing one decimal space — which makes sense, since a user probably won’t need to deal with ten-thousands when working in tens of meters.
However, this request is still valid — but please…
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Option for Smart guides to ignore objects outside isolation
Sometimes you want to isolate certain objects to not mess with everything else. Unfortunatelly, you can't isolate parts of different groups (but that is the other topic—'making isolation more like 'solo' in AE). But even when you have isolated something, Smart Guides still want to snap to objects other then you want to work with. Sometimes it's fine, yeah, but mostly I want SG to ignore everything else but isolated stuff. Please make a tick somewhere for this.
17 votesThe latest Beta now has a dedicated option for this in Preferences > Smart Guides section, in Limit Snapping area. We can now choose if we want to Snap to Isolated Objects ('...only, when isolated' — the name is not clear at the moment).
This is a WIP feature, and the team desperately needs your feedback on it. Please test it and comment if it works as expected (or not).
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A way to nest objects on artboards
Idea: Take multiple objects, such as multiple copies of a logo or elements and nest them within an artboard, and say how much space you want between objects.
Reason: When it comes to signs or sending a print job to a plotter, sign makers want to maximize the number of objects on a vinyl. Sure we can manually move objects or even use the distribute tool, but this takes too long and sometimes when selecting multiple objects you can not use the distribution tool to distribute both vertical and horizontal at the same time or objects in he middle.
Solution.…
17 votes -
Don't erase Note in Attributes when image is relinked
I store meta-information about image in Note field in Attributes palette. When I relink images, AI erases Note info. Don't do this. I see relinking as changing path to an image, not replacing image entirely. I need Note to be kept. Now I have to copy note before relinking and paste it back.
17 votes -
Lock Attributes Independently
I would like to be able to lock some attributes of an object but not others. For example, lock an object in place, but keep ability to change its colors. Or lock proportions and colors, but keep ability to move and scale, etc.
17 votes -
Can't select and edit two effects from two separate fills in single appearance
I can't select two effects, applied to different fills in one appearance — AI restricts to select both of them. Therefore, if I have same effect applied to all of my object's fills, I have to edit EACH of them one by one, instead of just Ctrl+click all of them and edit at once.
It means that if I want to change Drop shadow's parameters, scattered across different appearances, no graphic style won't help me. And I already mentioned in separate enquiry that Drop shadow and other color-based effects ignore global swatches.
This is nuts. I waste so much time.…
17 votes -
Hairline Stroke
Be more Builder/industry user friendly!
Please, set a preset "hairline" or 0.001 stroke size... so that CO2 laser users can focus more on creating content that dealing with this type of easy to implement features....17 votes -
Remember save locations and export naming conventions on a per-file basis.
Currently, Illustrator does not remember where you saved your files last and always defaults to the folder that your source file is in. I would prefer if it were to remember export locations on a per-file basis.
Similarly, with Export for Screens, the prefix and suffix options should be part of the individual file's metadata, not set globally.
v 22.1, MacOS
17 votes -
Import later versions of dwg
I would love to see an update so that you can import later versions of dwg files than AutoCad 2007. Most of our clients are working in later versions so it has become a big problem for us not being able to import these files into Illustrator.
17 votes -
17 votes
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Ability to UNDO not only actual changes to objects but also selections
Basically what title says.
Now if you select multiple objects and mess up your selection (accidentally deselect everything, select something that you do not want etc.) you have to select everything all over again (or carefully pick out unwanted objects). And there is no option to undo that.
In applications such as 3ds Max, for example, you can do that — undo history counts in every act of selecting and deselecting, even for individual vertices.17 votes -
Ability to search Glyphs by name
For Symbol/Icon fonts, it's impossible to find a specific icon you're looking for when there are thousands of unicode icons to sort through one by one. If I want to find headphones or something in the Glyphs panel, right now I can't just type "headphones". I have to search through every single icon and can easily pass by it multiple times.
17 votes -
Live preview of gradient (while dragging)
Whenever I'm using the gradient tool I wonder why I can never see the appearance of the gradient while dragging it. resulting in having to tweak it at least a couple of times before I'm content.
17 votesIllustrator now displays the appearance of the gradient interactively when you drag it, but only when GPU preview is on.
Make sure it is on in Preferences > Performance > GPU Performance, that you View > Preview on CPU / GPU Preview is correctly toggled, and that you are not using Overprint Preview.
If the issue still persists with all these checked — please comment back.
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More details on "an error occurred while processing the appearance of an object".
When you start doing complicated work with a lot of effects, you start getting the above-mentioned dialogue. It is incredibly unhelpful: which of the several thousand objects in my illustration is causing problems? What layer is the offending object on? Where in the appearance stack did things go awry? Maybe I'd like to find out which object caused this - how about a button to select the offending object, unlocking whatever containing objects may be locked?
To make an analogy for the programmers: imagine if your compiler just said "some errors happened while compiling your project", and didn't even tell…
17 votes
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