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Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests

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4689 results found

  1. Shape Distribution Tool

    A tool you can use with selected objects, that would distribute those objects, in layer order, around the outline of the designated shape, most likely a circle/oval, square/rectangle, triangle, star, or custom shape.
    This would be a great layout assistant for placing, scaling, and rotating different kinds of objects at once. A time-saving and more accurate way to create many types of layouts.

    With this tool, you could:
    - distribute different types of objects (shapes, text, symbols, etc) around a shape
    - scale the shape and objects independently
    - auto orient rotation to the center or the line segment in…

    5 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Other...  ·  Admin →
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  2. UNSAVED DOCUMENT ASTERISK - *

    Sometimes we need to know if we changed a document, or if something moved without us realizing it. And the only way to know is to look at that tiny asterisk next to the document file name to see if it was modified.

    My idea is to make that asterisk a little bit bigger, so people can easily spot it. I am attaching a screenshot with a rough concept.

    2 votes

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  3. Relative paths for linked assets

    An option to use relative paths for linked assets. Because links use absolute paths, simply moving the folder your artwork is in will break the links unless the links are in the same folder. For example:

    c:\artwork\project-1234\layout.ai
    c:\artwork\project-1234\assets\logo.jpg
    c:\artwork\standard-title-block.ai

    If logo.jpg and standard-title-block.ai are both linked to inside of layout.ai, renaming the project folder will break the links. Moving the project folder will break the links.

    Instead of storing the link paths absolutely, store them relatively. This way at least renaming the folder will preserve both links and moving the folder will only break links that point to file outside…

    82 votes

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    18 comments  ·  Other...  ·  Admin →
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  4. Allow users to set direction for X and Y axes

    Several versions ago Adobe decided to flip Y-axis, so origin now is placed TOP-left instead of BOTTOM-left, as it was before.
    They say it was done for compatibility with Photoshop and InDesign, which both have y-axis going down.

    I think that breaking people's workflow, deciding only ONE direction is right, was wrong.

    InDesign is a publishing software, it works with a flow. I don't know anybody who reads from bottom to up (RTL — yes). When you move an object there, you don't move it up, you move it backwards

    Photoshop is raster graphics editor, it works with a readable…

    52 votes

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  5. Turn off effects in outline mode

    I never really understood why effects are loaded in the background in outline mode. Why is it necessary to load an effect when you don't even see it? I thought the purpose of outline mode was for when the artwork have become heavy and takes longer time to load. The usual reason why my artwork becomes so heavy is because of all the effects I use. I wish I could switch to outline mode for quick edits instead of having to wait for the effect to load every time I do a tiny adjustment. Effects should be turned off in…

    7 votes

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  6. Please add option thickness and color options for the text cursor

    Why is the cursor so thin that it can not be viewed? Make it thicker as you zoom out or add an option to change it or it's color.

    4 votes

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  7. In multi-column text box, Page Break command does not work

    When I make a Area Type Text Box with Many Columns Page Break [return key] does not work.

    2 votes

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  8. A View Only Capability after free trial ends

    It's basically a "view only" section for students after their trial has expired who have already created items in Illustrator and have to double check something or just review what they've already created esp. those who may not be able to afford the full version of Illustrator.

    It'd be nice to have a "view only" section after students' free trials expire. Example: some softwares have a "read only" section where students can't edit work, but they can at least view it.

    2 votes

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  9. Autosave ON Visual indicator

    A visual indicator in the application frame that Auto Save is still activated/on. When dealing with complex files auto save is turned off, and stays off. A visual indicator that it is no longer on would be helpful when working in a new file that it needs to be turned back on.

    3 votes

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  10. Navigator and Artboard bug

    Navigator doesn't move around and there are two "23" in Artboards. The number artboard 22 doesn't even appear

    2 votes

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  11. Smart Guides and Snap To Grid mutually exclusive - please support both

    "Smart Guides" and "Snap to Grid" are currently mutually exclusive which is very troublesome. I don't see the immediate connection, even if I want to have my objects snap to a grid I'd still liket to use Smart Guides, especially for creating Squares, Circles and the like.

    8 votes

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    4 comments  ·  Snapping  ·  Admin →
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    Beta build now offers a way to have these two work together. This is still WIP and the team really needs your feedback on how it works.

    Please try it — Beta builds are available for your Creative Cloud Desktop app and can be installed together with general builds (the only problem would be default file association — OS can’t tell Beta form GA apart).

  12. Preview Checkbox defaults to On rather than Off

    I'm not sure if there is a reason for this, but for the 12 years I've been using Illustrator, the effects checkbox always defaults to "Off" and every time I make an edit to an effect, I have to switch it to "On". It never remembers my setting and there is no way to make it default to On. Either would be acceptable.

    Many thanks for everything.

    100 votes

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    Hi Everyone,

    All the effect checkboxes have now been set to ON by default, and are sticky (meaning that if you disable preview, on next launch of Illustrator preview will remain disabled). This functionality now is available in our latest release build – 24.1.1 for Win and 24.1 for Mac which is available worldwide now.

    What’s new in 24.1: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/whats-new.html

    You can update to the latest release using Creative Cloud desktop App: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/creative-cloud-updates.html

    Thank you for all the feedback.

  13. Variable Fonts in Paragraph/Character Styles

    This may well be planned already, but I would love to be able to edit variable font axes inside the paragraph style dialogue. This would be very valuable in keeping things consistent.

    2 votes

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  14. The "new update" popup message is gross

    A. Add a "don't show this again" checkbox because I don't want to be reminded later nor do I want to update on anything but my own terms.

    B. Add a space between the period and "Know more..."

    C. Choose a different call to action that isn't "Know more" because what?

    D. Actually just don't show popups for anything. I pay you to draw vector lines and that's about it.

    8 votes

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  15. Ai File icon turned upside down

    Hi. I have updated the ai to version cc 2018 and all the icons of my files in ai format turned upside down. It makes me feel annoyed even it does not hinder me from opening and working on the files. May i know how this can be fixed?

    Thank you.

    1 vote

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  16. Identify and name color swatches with human-readable names

    There is a very handy tool in Yandex.ru search engine, named 'Колдунщик' (literally 'Sorcererer', with triple 'er').
    The way it works with colors is briefly described there (in Russian):
    https://yandex.ru/blog/company/94762

    What it does is binds color names with color values. Some are quite standard, 'light blue', some are familiar, like 'bordeaux' (but every man think of different shade or even tone, speaking of it), some are very uncommon, like 'The color of the thigh of a frightened nymph' (it is a real color — https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisse_de_Nymphe).

    What if AI could name colors in a same way, when swatch is created…

    25 votes

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  17. Add numerical control over light sources in 3D Extrude & Bevel Effect Options

    When applying and tweaking 3D Extrude & Bevel Effect, user has to manipulate light by precise mouse twitching over the small sphere.
    It should be at least twice as big to provide fine control (I won't note this as separate request), but there should also be numerical fields to control the lights' position over sphere — angle, elevation, choose any.

    Also, why Depth and Height values there are immune to document Units settings? 56.96pt is nonsense to me, while 20mm makes sense.

    19 votes

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  18. Add ability to set grid settings while creating new document

    First of all — I'm speaking about adding this feature to OLD New dialogue window, because new fancy one is a disaster.

    I create new documents with a vision in mind, what will I do and what grid would I use. I'd like to have an ability to set it with defining size of a document.

    Next, most new users have no idea about grids and don't understand, why use it. More of it, even intermediate users don't have a clue, and I have to deal with a lot of designs, made by these average designers. All of them can't…

    17 votes

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  19. Return greeking of vector graphics

    AI is never fast enough. Pan is slow.
    Why did you remove greeking completely? If I wanted to better have nice looking art while panning, I would tick an option in Preferences! But now there's no such an option.
    InDesign still have greeking option fro both text and vector art.
    Please return it back as an option (and add slider for quality, as ID has).

    23 votes

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  20. Add the ability to select an object by clicking it's visual appearance (strokes, glyphs, effects)

    Sometimes selection tools fail (seemingly) to pick up object.
    For example, if you have an object with fat stroke, clicking to outside part of that stroke will select nothing (or object underneath stroke) — you have to select in/inside edge to do it.
    Second example — type object, with an empty descender zone, behind baseline; you click below letters to select an object behind, but pick type object instead.
    Third example — object with a subtle but wide drop shadow effect applied to it. Shadow is almost invisible (low opacity and light color), but when you click in it, AI…

    25 votes

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    5 comments  ·  Tools  ·  Admin →
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