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Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests

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539 results found

  1. Keyboard shortcuts for Flip (Reflect, Mirror)

    I flip vertically and horizontally quite often. It'd be very nice to have a shortcut for it. I currently have to create a custom action for it, but that ends up using one of the F1-F14 keys which are inconvenient to use.

    13 votes

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  2. Allow to customize colors for handle controls, anchors, and paths edges (permanently and context-based / on the fly)

    It would be helpful if you could make the color of pen tool handles distinguishable from the anchor color, even just a slight difference would be helpful.

    13 votes

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  3. Transform Shortcuts / Enter the transform panel with a keyboard shortcut

    I want to be able to transform an object using the keyboard.

    For example, in Sketch, I can manipulate an object by holding the command key (optionally with a 10x Shift-key modifier) and using the arrow keys to increase or decrease the height or width of an object. This tends to be easier than using the mouse or the Transform panel when making quick modifications. (Also, less painful for arthritic users!)

    Please consider it.

    13 votes

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  4. Word Cloud Creator

    the ability to create a word cloud based on specific words, fonts to be applied to specific shapes or artwork. This would be very handy.

    13 votes

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  5. Offset Path - Interactive Tool

    Would love to have a tool for interactively creating offset paths.

    Use: Select the tool, click-drag on a path to interactively create an offset version of it

    Tool options could include: [distance], [copies], [join on/off] for open paths, [join type] etc.

    13 votes

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  6. Non-uniform scale tool by angle

    Using available AI tools I have to twist and dance to perform non-uniform scale by angle.

    Right now I have to do this:
    1. Rotate path to make in straight oriented (it's not an default ellipse, it's manually traced path)
    2. Reset bounding box
    3. Rotate path backwards
    4. Turn on bounding box (I work with it turned off)
    5. Scale using bounding box at angle

    If I use Scale tool instead, and set point to a center,
    AI will scale path uniformly ONLY.
    What a stupidity is this? I even remember custom plugin tool that allowed desired action, but…

    13 votes

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  7. Make Drawing Guides Thicker

    With the onset of 4K & 5K monitors, the red dotted guides have become incredibly hard to see. I would like to suggest that the guides be made thicker or that there be a way for me to increase their thicknesses in settings so they can be seen better.

    13 votes

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  8. Dimension tool improvements

    The dimension tool is a really helpful thing but some improvements would be appreciated.

    • As stated in other posts, please include the possibility to add user defined scalings, including decimal numbers like 1:1.5 and other ones, like 1:15.

    • According to ISO standards, the dimension text should sit above the lines, as viewed from the right. This would be a great option, because at this moment I don't use this tool regularly because of this.

    • When dimensions are too small, there should be an option to move the text away, either to the right or the left. Of course this can…

    12 votes

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  9. Swap Tool or Transform Option

    I would like a tool or feature whereby I can select two objects, hit the tool or possible transform option and the objects swap their exact positions. This would save an incredible amount of time especially when updating an existing document. There used to be a script for this way back in the day but I think it's time to bring in this very effective feature.

    12 votes

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  10. Image Trace results have deteriorated over the years, detail is lost and line work looks terrible!

    I’m a full time illustrator and have been using Adobe Illustrator since the launch of CS - so it’s been years :) I LOVE the app, in fact it’s how I make my living as an illustrator and the app features have contributed to my style development and workflow.

    Which brings me to the feedback I’d like to give regarding the Image Trace tool. My illustration style is a mixture of hand crafted, grungy texture and flat colour. I achieve this by creating pencil on paper line work, scanning then I image trace in Adobe Illustrator to vectorize. BUT, I…

    12 votes

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  11. Blending live pie (ellipses) treats them as path and not like live shapes

    Make an ellipse and set pie end angle to 5 degrees (press Invert button if neede to get thin pie)
    Duplicate and offset it and change en angle to 270 (doesn't really matter).
    Blend these. AI won't blend their shape properties, but blend them as paths. What's use of live shapes then, if AI can't handle them with basic tools?

    12 votes

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  12. Scale Percentage to automatically tell you the Percent of Increase or Decrease in the Object's Size

    Enhancing the Scale tool so that it automatically tells you the Percent of Increase or Decrease in the Objects Size. When scaling elements in Illustrator I cannot always select all and type in 10 inches and have it be what I need. In the attached Image I need the letter T to equal 10 inches in height and scale the other letters up accordingly. So I take the size of the "T" and now have to manually calculate the percent of increase from 4.691” to 10”.

    With an improved Scaling Tool it would be nice to see what that percentage…

    12 votes

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  13. character/puppet rigging

    To add the ability to puppet rig illustrations directly in Illustrator.

    This could not only be used to easily move parts of character illustrations while keeping it intact but also export illustrations ready for animating in After Effects.

    Main feature would be ability to pair objects together using anchor points.
    e.g pairing characters hand to forearm and forearm to bicep and bicep to torso. so when the hand is moved the rest of the linked objects will follow.

    12 votes

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  14. The ability trim or extend a line using another line. Like the one they have in Autocad

    The ability trim or extend a line using another line. Like the one they have in Autocad

    12 votes

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    Illustrator allows this today with Shape Builder tool.

    You need to hold Opt/Alt and either click or brush through the excessive portion of the path, and Ai will trim it to the next intersection or between intersections. Works with selected objects only.

    The precision of the tool is limited and bound to internal grid of the document. There is a bug report about this you might want to upvote.

  15. Archimedean Spirals

    Surely this should just be a default option for spiral drawing, in the current state of design i would imagine regular spirals would be used far more often than logarithmic, the current way to create them is lengthy and cumbersome.
    Hope this makes it!

    12 votes

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  16. Split "Scale strokes and Effects" into two options...

    Please split the "Scale strokes and effects" into two options, one for strokes, and one for effects. See mockup attached.

    11 votes

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  17. Make Pen and Scissors tools prioritize editing to a selected path

    Am I missing something? can the pen and scissors tool prioritize editing to the selected path? If I'm editing a path behind another path it is often a complete guessing game when I'm trying to edit a selected path if it is anywhere near the top path.
    I just don't understand why anybody would find it useful that a selected path would be ignored for another overlapping path when using the pen or scissors tools

    11 votes

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  18. Ability to change starting point for closed path

    Currently the only option is to cut and the path or redraw the path completely if the starting anchor is in the wrong place. For straight edges, such as a square or even a rectangle it's easy to work around, but when it's a curved edge it is difficult to replicate the same curve with the cut method. Could easily add this feature to stoke effect so that the starting point can be adjusted with a click on the anchor. Or have left and right arrows to move it to a different starting anchor (although that wouldn't work on things…

    11 votes

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  19. Add CAD path creation/modification tools

    Some wonderful tools that would help are Trim, Extend, and Corner tools.

    Trim allows you to stop a line at another line. So if you drew a + you could trim the top to the - and make a T.

    Extend does the opposite. It makes a line longer until it hits a target line. It turns |- into a T (rotated).

    Corner tool trims or extends two lines as need to make a corner. |- becomes L by clicking both lines.

    Look to AutoCad or Revit for examples.

    11 votes

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  20. Restrict Pan to work only Horizontally / Vertically with a Shift modifier

    I'd love if there was a key we could hold down to restrict the hand tool to only pan perfectly vertical or horizontal. Would make it easier to develop for web — you could quickly get a sense of how a site would work when the user scrolls.

    11 votes

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