Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
731 results found
-
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.
8 votes -
Add Preview tick to Average dialogue Average dialog can be still confusing, and I personally often use a wrong option when I average points.
For some reason when I choose 'horizontal', I often imagine points to share the same X value, 'occupy the same position horizontally'... Same applies to Y. Sure, this is not what Ai mean, in fact it’s 'stick to the horizontal axis'.
I see both views as valid, and can’t learn it solid enough to never make mistakes. However, Ai can learn and add the sticky Preview checkmark, so I and others were able to see the result before they hit OK.
Ai…
11 votes -
Show global swatch triangle marker in Fill Stroke Control when a global swatch is selected Global swatches are marked with a white triangle in the bottom right corner of the swatch. Book colors also have a black dot in this triangle.
These triangles are displayed everywhere swatches are used in UI: Appearance, Properties, Control... But for some reason they are omitted in tool panels, in Fill Stroke controls (and also Gradient).
I personally see no reason why. Sure users would benefit from knowing exactly if a color is global or not when they see the color chip anywhere.
10 votes -
Make Recolor Artwork freely draggable The initial Recolor panel cannot be dragged around on small screens (that you need to set up for recording tutorials or for whatever other reason). The controls are hidden. It would be great if this panel would behave like a normal panel when dragging around.
In the screenshot the monitor is set to 1280 x 720 and the dragstrip is not available. For even smaller screens, some control might get out of reach.
4 votes -
In Appearance calling alternative color UI is done with Shift and not obvious Alt For some we have to hold Shift while clicking a fill/stroke square in Appearance panel to call the alternative pseudo-panel.
Alt = Alternative. Sure, Macs have Option instead, but it also fits.Also, the hint has the 'Shift' and 'Color' written in lower-case: 'Hold shift key to bring up alternate color UI'... and I have no idea why 'alternate', why no alternation happens? Who wrote this hint?
9 votes -
Drag tools from one toolbar to another When I setup tool panels for various reasons), I can’t just drag it between tool panels.
The only way to do it now is to remove the tool first in the first toolbox and add it again in the second one. Each panel has its own Edit mode and tools get dragged only within an edited panel :(9 votes -
Feature Request: Mouse-drag on numbers in UI and Eyedropper improvements. Could Adobe please alter the UI so that all and any number boxes are made so that we can lower or raise the number via dragging on it with the mouse? For example, I think all of the numbers in the UI in After Effects work in this way. Perhaps holding shift whilst doing this would snap them to useful increments, too.
Eyedropper improvements: This seems like an obvious thing to have in the UI (I think Photoshop behaves in this way), but when we double click on a colour/stroke pot to bring the Color Picker box, we don't seem…
1 vote -
Create new documents with a 'Plus' button or a double-click in the document tabs area Document Tabs is a well-known paradigm, thanks to browsers.
Since many of us spend a lot of time with browsers, we expect the same functionality form tabs’ headers in Illustrator.One of them is a middle-click to close a tab (https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/38150188-add-middle-click-to-close-document), another is remember opened tabs on relaunch (https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/44819065-launch-illustrator-with-the-same-opened-documents).
There are others.But the most prominent one is the Plus button to the right (in LTR world) of the last tab, which creates a new document.
Sure, one can hit Cmd/Ctrl+Alt+N, or go File > New, but sometimes we are lazy, and the other hand is…
4 votes -
Top toolbar should display true length and width of shapes, not the "properties" of the shape. It's very confusing when you reference the top toolbar to see the length and width of a shape only to realize the values are completely wrong. This is because the top toolbar displays the "properties" of a shape for whatever reason. The length of an object should always be the longest horizontal measurement, and the height should always be the longest vertical measurement, regardless of rotation. Despite not displaying true length and width, the toolbar uses symbols which clearly indicate length and width: a double ended horizontal arrow first, then a double ended vertical arrow second. Unless a user clicks…
2 votes -
Quick View (Space Bar on Mac) "elements" in Libraries "Tab Group" You can hover over Libraries elements and see more written info. But as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and a large "quick viewing" would help speed up the identification and selection of elements from Tab Group.
2 votes -
Improve and allow customize the 'Show' info slot in the bottom bar (next to horizontal scrollbar) Some things in Illustrator are old and have never been touched since its release — like the info slot at the bottom.
For now we can choose from five options for it:
Artboard Name
Current Tool
Date and Time
Number of Undos
Document color profileSome of these are almost obsolete, some are still relevant, but still it's not that useful. How about these:
Layer name
Raster effects resolution
Snapping statuses (like to grid/point/pixel/glyph)
Last save date
etc.2 votes -
Please allow hiding the "shape properties" from transform panel. This area wastes half the panel.
I will never use "shapes" - why is this bit of panel always showing?
2 votes -
Add Cut At Selected Anchor Points command to 'Object > Path' menu In Control panel we have three buttons for a point partial selection:
Remove selected anchor points.
Does the same as a menu command Object > Path > Remove Anchor Points, and this command can have a hotkey assigned toConnect selected end points.
Does the same as a menu command Object > Path > Join, and has a default hotkey. Why Ai uses both 'Join' and 'connect' for the same operation, and also has 'Join' tool, which does a pretty different thing — is an UX mystery.Cut path at selected anchor points.
There is NO a menu command for…
9 votes -
Swatch icons background color & size feature so that the swatches could be distinguished also if are a white pattern on a transparent bg Issue is described here:
https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/can-i-change-the-swatch-icon-background-color/m-p/13293140#M340515
The largest swatch icon size is too small to be able to distinguish different patterns, need larger icons option.4 votes -
Option to disable Rotate View I think the new rotate view update is great if you want to work from multiple angles. But I’ve found it extremely difficult to work while using my trackpad because when ever I zoom in on my projects rotate view is automatically triggered and I have to keep going back to reset my view. As someone who works on multiple art boards at once this happens in a smaller span of time which tends to become annoying after a while.
34 votes -
Fix behavior of numerical fields There are standards used throughout computing that inform how field values work and Illustrator screws this up terribly.
When a field is not in focus, clicking on the field or the field value brings the field and value into focus. This automatically should select the entire user-editable contents of the field value. This allows you to click and type a new value to change the value.
Illustrator instead changes the cursor to an insertion point when hovering over a field value. Clicking in the field value, places the insertion point at the location the pointer was at. If you then…
7 votes -
Remake the Tools / Menu Commands dropdown in Keyboard Shortcuts into two toggle buttons Dropdown lists just from two elements are pure evil.
Illustrator has one in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.What’s a point of having it? Don’t you have enough space on the x-axis to display both items at once and improve the discoverability of both options?
As if you were hoping to get another item in that list and never added... in30 years.Remake it into two conjoined toggle buttons, or at list in a radio-group (ugh), but just allow users to see both available options at once.
2 votes -
Control panel like that of Indesign I've always liked Indesign, especially its control panel top bar.
I was wondering but is it not possible to have a control bar in Illustrator like the one in Indesign?
- bigger
- With More controls
- Dynamics
- By inserting quick links to many features that Illustrator makes available to us but every time you have to go and get them from the menus / submenus and you never remember where to go.
guy:
- object / path / path path
- object / path / offset
- object / path / add points
- object / weave
-…2 votes -
save error - better message I occasionally see an error message that some document could not be saved, and a link to read about "alternate ways of saving"
Wouldn't it be great to show the actual OS error (in readable text, if possible, or a link to Microsoft or Macos error codes if not) in the message
For scripting use: make the error available to scripts as well2 votes -
Convert fractions to decimals within the program, not just the new file dialogue box: 116-7/8" to 116.875 in. We work with various large format sizes given with fractions, but the programs run off decimals. The New file dialogue box will convert them, so why can't this be added to the number fields for artboard and object sizes? Similar to how we can use the "/" to divide by a number when working at 1/4 scale or 1/2 scale.
1 vote
- Don't see your idea?