Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
4698 results found
-
Exact ARC export in DXF
Illustrator internally represents curves as Bézier paths, while CAD/CNC workflows rely on true ARC entities (constant-radius circular arcs).
At the moment, there is no reliable way to export Illustrator geometry containing circular arcs to DXF while preserving them as exact ARC entities. All curves are approximated as splines or segmented polylines, even when the geometry is mathematically circular.
This creates a serious issue for CNC workflows, where exact radii and true arcs are required for correct toolpaths, tolerances, and part fitting.A highly valuable feature would be:
• Detection of constant-radius Bézier curves
• Optional conversion of those curves to…4 votes -
An option to choose if the Artboard background color should be exported, for each format, including PNG
When exporting an artboard to PNG, I hope there is an option to follow the background color of the artboard itself. I thought the purpose of the new update is to be able to use that same background color when exporting. I still need to add a shape with the background color that I prefer before exporting.
6 votes -
Move a shape side (edge) without selecting both anchor points
Illustrator currently requires selecting both anchor points of a side to move it.
When working on very tall or large objects at high zoom levels, this forces users to pan away from the working area just to select the second anchor point, interrupting focus and slowing down layout work.Feature request:
Add an edge-based editing option that allows moving an entire side (edge) of a shape by interacting with a single visible anchor point or directly with the edge itself, without selecting the opposite anchor or changing the viewport.This behavior exists in other design tools (Figma, InDesign frames, CAD…
4 votes -
Bevel tool for Embossed Shapes and Text - Fully interactive
A tool to create a nice 3D-looking edge to an object, making it look raised from the page.
It can raise the object visually, by using the colour of the object and creating light and dark sides to it.
It would be great to be able to change the light direction, light height as well as other parameters such as the type of bevel - round, chiselled, etc. to give your object a physical appearance.
To create the tool with teh possibility to drag handles directly on the object to adjust depth, contrast, and light elevation in real-time.
This would…
2 votes -
Allow to distort a text with Free Distort tool
In many other software packages you are able to use perspective distortion on text. This should be a very basic feature of Illustrator. This way you can still change the font / text while it is in perspective.
9 votes -
Add opacity slider to guides settings
Please add an opacity slider to the guides settings.
5 votes -
In the Font Palette, under Filters, please add English, or Latin, or Western European Roman. PLEASE!!!
The lack of a Western European or Roman filter is insanely stupid. The way it works now, if I want to work in Burmese, I can have a nice short font list. But if I want to work in English, I have to show ALL LANGUAGES, so I wind up with a list of 400 fonts, most of which are unusable. This seems prejudicial, if not negligent. Why on earth was this obvious filter item excluded????
3 votes -
Temporary multi-object alignment without grouping
In Figma, holding Shift temporarily allows selected objects to be treated as a single unit when performing alignment actions (e.g., aligning to the artboard). This avoids the hassle of grouping and then ungrouping the objects. Can we have the same functionality in Illustrator as well?
3 votes -
Populate in Illustrator, like you do in Adobe XD
I can tell that many designers would love to have that function. Creating an item info like Image, Name, Info about the item, and then multiplying it on a page, like a flyer, or a poster - and populating the image and text, just by dropping a text file and a set of image you have in a folder to populate the design. Here is a visual example.
6 votes -
Dynamic Dimension Tool
Happy New Year
Just a thought for the upcoming year.
Add the ability to automatically extend the length of a dimension after the dimension is set and have the dimension to adapt to the new measurements.
Currently the measured distance is static, WYSIWYG. Would make placing objects in Illustrator a lot easier.2 votes -
An option to not highlight the active artboard in Trim View
It would be great if the Artboard Display Highlight Color could be hidden when in Trim View. So it doesn't interfere with the visual look of the artwork and yet could be larger in the standard display mode to enable easier workflow.
2 votes -
Add ability to hyperlink text (properly this time)
In June of 2023 the Illustrator team fixed a old bug with hyperlinks added through Attributes panel being dropped while exporting as PDF.
The team thought of it as a solution to this request: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/40418827 — and marked it as such.I do not agree.
The solution is nowhere final, done in the most basic way possible, merely a bug fixed, like if no-one in the team did try to make it useful at the level of today's standards.
— A partial text selection can't be made into a hyperlink.
— No widgets are given on the canvas to see…53 votes -
Recent Color Swatch Used Keybind
In short, a recent color swatch keybind would increase efficiency during creating projects. Currently I am working on a project where I have to use the same colors repeatedly. If there was a keybind to automatically change the color to the most recently used color it would be nice.
Ex. You have to type out a text on a card and you want to change the color of certain words quickly without having to go into the swatches board and having to highlight.
Instead of that you could:
Use a color once
Highlight the new uncolored text
Do a keybind…2 votesThis can be achieved with Actions panel. It allows to record certain operations and assign F-key-based shortcuts to call them later faster.
-
Focus the Search field in Preferences (introduced in Beta 29.7.0.60) when the dialog gets opened, and focus the found and highlighted option
Search in Preferences, originally requested here (http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/42476344) is a welcome feature! However, it works not as it should be, as shown in the GIF attached.
- The field should get immediately focused instead of Keyboard Increment field, so we can start searching right away after calling the dialog with Cmd/Ctrk+K
- When it finds an option that can be toggled (a checkmark) or focused (a field) — it should focus it, so we can toggle it with s Space or type a new value This makes the whole experience mouse-free for those who are in a hurry (and we are).…
9 votesThis change broke the existing method to quickly access the Keyboard Increment value, reported here. The team decided to revert this change until a better solution is found. Please watch this space for further news.
-
QuickLook Preview Support for EPS Files on macOS via Adobe own framework
As of macOS 15 (Sequoia), Apple has officially removed all system-level support for rendering Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files in QuickLook. This change began in macOS 12 (Monterey), when Apple deprecated the internal PostScript conversion frameworks (notably PSNormalizer.framework), and culminated in macOS 14 (Sonoma) and 15 (Sequoia), where these frameworks were entirely removed.
Historically, Finder’s QuickLook preview for .eps files relied on these system frameworks to convert PostScript content into a previewable image. Many third-party applications (including Illustrator) used the same system calls to provide file previews. Even QuickLook plugins like Illustrator.qlgenerator or others that claimed .eps support were not rendering…
14 votes -
Please make an artboard name and number on top of artwork
Instead of making a clipping mask, please make the artboard number visible on top of any layer.
3 votes -
Support noise effect from SVG exported from Figma
…<svg width="255" height="255" viewBox="0 0 255 255" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <g filter="url(#filter0_n_1_5)"> <circle cx="127.021" cy="127.021" r="127.021" fill="#FF7575"/> </g> <defs> <filter id="filter0_n_1_5" x="0" y="0" width="254.042" height="254.042" filterUnits="userSpaceOnUse" color-interpolation-filters="sRGB"> <feFlood flood-opacity="0" result="BackgroundImageFix"/> <feBlend mode="normal" in="SourceGraphic" in2="BackgroundImageFix" result="shape"/> <feTurbulence type="fractalNoise" baseFrequency="0.71641594171524048 0.71641594171524048" stitchTiles="stitch" numOctaves="3" result="noise" seed="7505" /> <feColorMatrix in="noise" type="luminanceToAlpha" result="alphaNoise" /> <feComponentTransfer in="alphaNoise" result="coloredNoise1"> <feFuncA type="discrete" tableValues="1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 13 votes -
Support background blur in SVGs exported from Figma
<svg width="367" height="255" viewBox="0 0 367 255" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <rect x="150.75" y="18.5726" width="216" height="216.897" fill="#7580FF"/> <foreignObject x="-51.0876" y="-51.0876" width="356.218" height="356.218"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" style="backdrop-filter:blur(25.54px);clip-path:url(#bgblur_0_1_16_clip_path);height:100%;width:100%"></div></foreignObject><circle data-figma-bg-blur-radius="51.0876" cx="127.021" cy="127.021" r="127.021" fill="#FF7575" fill-opacity="0.7"/> <defs> <clipPath id="bgblur_0_1_16_clip_path" transform="translate(51.0876 51.0876)"><circle cx="127.021" cy="127.021" r="127.021"/> </clipPath></defs> </svg>(I'm sympathetic that general
<foreignObject>support is nigh impossible 🙂 Figma uses this only for background blurs and angular gradients)3 votes -
Share for review needs rotate tool in the web cooperation mode
I use the share for review usually for the very complex packaging designs.
In many cases the package has text on all sides and that means that the texts are sometimes 180 or 90 degrees rotated. Its very inconvenient for the client to comment those texts. So the web interface definitely needs a simple 180-90 degrees rotation tool.
4 votes -
Turn off artboard names / labels when using Artboard Tool
When using the Artboard tool, the artboard label can interfere with the artboard content. Can there be an option to turn the artboard name off or move it to be above the artboard and not within the boundary?
3 votesTo hide the permanent captions for artboards, go to Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display and disable the new 'Show Artboard name on canvas' option.
This would restore the previous behavior with labels being displayed only when Artboard Tool / mode is active, and shown above the artwork.
This feature was added because of this request
- Don't see your idea?