Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
4543 results found
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An ability to have an exact width without tracking
The width should be based on the actual vectors and not the letters with Tracking (Kerning). If I add 100 tracking to the text, it is wider then the actual vectors and that creates issues with making sure the letters will fit on a wall that they would be attached to.
2 votes -
Make USEFUL hover hints for ALL the options, fields, menu commands
Clearly the team doesn’t really care about making hover hints to be a learning tool.
Rarely these actually try to say what an option or a field does or controls: like 'Start editing similar shapes together' for the 'Global Edit' button in the Control panel, or 'Click to pick arrowhead to apply to start point of path' in Stroke panel...
But in most cases the hint is extremely rudimentary.
Try to hover the 'W' field in Transform panel — you’d get 'W value'. W?! Weight? Wand? Why not say 'Width Value', or even 'Set Width for the selected objects'?Then…
5 votes -
Allow to use point-specific controls and functions when all points of a path are selected
There is a limitation in Adobe Illustrator with aligning anchor points.
When using the Direct Selection tool to highlight anchor points on a path the options to align anchor points disappears in the Align palette if all points on a path are selected.
That can be a problem if I'm trying to align two points on a simple two point path. I either have to add additional points or manually align the path using smart guides. It would be really nice if one anchor point could have key object like behavior and stay locked in place. Certain rival vector graphics…8 votes -
Custom marquee shapes for Direct Selection tool like circle, star, rectangle, etc.
The Direct Selection tool would follow the logic of creating an individual shape. A marquee that can be scaled, moved and also rotated live would be a awesome feature.
2 votes -
Lock Highlight (Unlock) mode
I've always wanted some kind of Lock Highlight feature:
Much like editing a Group after double-click (which grays out all other artboard objects while you edit only that grouped object), I'd like to be able to see a grayed out preview of all the locked objects.
With a keyboard shortcut (e.g. Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Click), you could Unlock individual elements, then exit Lock Highlight mode and keep working.
That would keep you from needing to go back around and relock other elements you didn't want to disturb.
3 votes -
ZWNJ (Zero Width Non-Joiner)
Please enable the shortcut for ZWNJ (Zero Width Non-Joiner), It's commonly used in Arabic and Persian Language. In other programs, we can type it by Ctrl+Shift+2 or Shift+Space ...
کتابها
Between "کتاب" and "ها" is a ZWNJ character, without that it will join:
کتابها2 votes -
Force swatches when directly opening an image
When we drag-n-drop / open an image into Illustrator, a new document is created with an artboard created to fit the image (when possible), and the image is put there.
The Swatches panel in this case is empty (as well as Brushes, Symbols, Graphics Styles).
While it makes sense (image have no presets stored within), for some users it’s extremely irritating — they treat this workflow as a way to quickly create a new document based on an image, with the fitting document profile used (even though if they have no idea about document profiles — thanks to the modern…
3 votes -
All Inputs / Panels Follow Dimension Tool Scale
I want to be able to create and edit all of my art in scale.
Example
I would like to be able to make a 2" rectangle in 1:2 scale and have it illustrator draw me a 1" square on the page.
This would be very powerful for things when expanded to the object info box to get area and path dimensions, being able to make a font 3' tall in the character panel.
Every place that you can control shapes with math, it would be amazing to be able to do it to scale in the program without having…3 votes -
Retain original, unexpanded art for pattern swatches.
"This pattern contains active content (symbols, effects, etc, it's a long list) that must be expanded to create a swatch. If you edit the pattern again, the expanded content will no longer be active."
There's a lot of clever, well-paid people at Adobe. I bet someone there can figure out how to store the original pattern art along with the expanded pattern art, and edit the former rather than the latter when I double-click on the pattern swatch. I have workarounds for this but they are tedious and annoying ones.
Also I would like to thank whoever wrote the dialogue…
2 votes -
Select all anchor points between two points
Select an anchor point, select another further along the path, and easily select all anchor points in between.
3 votes -
Allow to nudge or rotate individual elements along the path for Objects on Path
Objects on Path needs more options and in its current setup is very limited in its usefulness. This tool feels like it's still in beta. Whilst it's good at doing the one thing it's designed to do, it's missing a lot of useful capabilities.
One of missing bits is the ability to nudge or rotate individual elements along the path.
Other two requests are:
1. Objects on Path needs an ability to keep orientation of objects relative to page/path, similar to blends — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/48984890
2. Add an option to measure gaps between objects in Objects on Path by their bounds,…9 votes -
Effect > Distort & transform > Stacking order
Sometimes you have a group of objects that are not in the correct stacking order, and you have to expand the effects that generate these objects to fix it.
I propose a new effect that offers a few options to change this:
- reverse stacking order
- stack left-to-right, right-to-left, up-to-down, down-to-up, or maybe just an angle dial for stacking order? that'd be super useful for "I drew three balls and blended them to make a necklace and I don't want to have to split it into two blends to make the right ball be the nearest one".
- smallest-to-largest, largest-to-smallest
2 votes -
Do not select both the clipping mask and the clipped contents with Select All while in isolation
When we isolate a clipping group, it’s like we are jumping in a whole in a canvas and start dealing with what’s behind it. Whatever we move while inside isolated, would be visible through the hole.
So when we say Select All while being isolated, we usually don’t mean 'Select the stuff behind the hole and the hole itself' — it’s about clipped content only. Otherwise why isolate in the first place?
Select contents only first and and the clipping mask to the selection only when Select All is called again, if the clipped content is fully selected already. Display…
6 votes -
Escape should cancel an execution of a script / plugin
If we run a script or a plugin operation and the execution of it takes a long time, there is no real way to abort it other than killing the whole Ai process completely (since there is no dedicated one). This can loose us data, and saving each time before running a script or a plugin is paranoid and is hardly a solution.
We need to be able to hit Escape when a script or a plugin makes Ai freeze and expect for it to be stopped, perhaps with a confirmation.
6 votes -
Allow to show contents (unfurl) of compound paths in Layers
Illustrator treats a compound path as a single entity, no matter how many singular paths it has inside.
Layers panel does not display '>' next to the name of it, and does not allow to unfurl the item to see what it has inside.
It makes sense in a way, since the order of items does not matter (it is for a Compound Shapes, where it matters a lot, with e.g. 'Minus Front').
At the same time, we can still select a subpath of a compound path with the Group Selection tool, and use Object > Arrange commands (even though…
8 votes -
Having '.2' at the end of a filename makes Save As dialog drop actual file type when saving
I need to save multiple Files withe Pos.1, Pos.2, Pos.3 etc.. Every time i want to save a file with the filename ".2" at the end wil not save the file.. In the Explorer will be the file but in a unreadable file type.
1 voteIt turns out some application added '.2' as a file type, and Ai had to comply with it when auto-completing file names in OS-managed dialog.
Follow the solution in the comments if you have a similar problem.
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Non-destructive clipping mask options
An option where you take a whole object or group and use it's whole area(including strokes) as a clipping mask for other layers. Similar to what you can do in Photoshop.
So you can create for instance, a shape with stroke and set it as the clipping mask for an underlying texture. Without the need to flatten it, so you can experiment with it, or keep a text live for later editting it.
Or have multiple shapes working as the clipping mask while you are choosing the appropriate combination or later need to adapt to a different format.
2 votes -
More fields to Smart Guides angles
Have you ever required to customize Illustrator more, well, this is a feature that is here a long time ago and it would be nice to have more options: In Preferences > Smart Guides, we should have more options to add custom angles, since six fields are falling short. Is this doable?
7 votes -
Make Revert operation into a History step we can undo
Shielding Revert this with a confirmation does NOT work.
Having confirmations is a bad UX solution, and it’s known now — it seems like only Adobe is not aware.
People don’t read these, and either learn to not notice these or to skip these.What apps should do instead is to allow a mistake, but then giving a chance to Undo it.
Like modern email clients now do — you can undo sending an email, because there is a hidden delay.Photoshop does NOT have a confirmation, but it allows us to UNDO the Revert, unlike other apps.
Make Revert…
12 votes -
A Pathfinder filter that results in open paths.
Sometimes you just want to do a boolean operation that results in an open path, and you want to embed it in a complex appearance stack.
This could be an entirely new entry in effect>pathfinder, or it could be a switch added to existing pathfinder effects.
5 votes
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