Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
157 results found
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Option for object size to take priority over corner radius
When resizing an object, corner radius should be automatically reduced to accommodate the new size rather than blocking the change until you manually reduce the corner radius
(toggle in the options?)1 voteThere is an option to toggle this behavior, in Preferences > General > Scale Corners. You can also tick it in the Transform panel.
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Search filed is focused by itself
Every time I go back into Illustrator, the current version, my cursor automatically appears in the search area in the upper right hand corner. This was never the case in the past. This is problematic because, when I go back into Illustrator, I may want to select a tool or paste an object and unless I click on the artboard first, it pastes into the search window. Just one more simple glitchy thing that SLOWS DOWN WORKFLOW!
1 voteIn the latest release this search filed is gone, and it now has a button instead. Most probably it does solve the problem. Please comment back if it does not.
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1 vote
Yo can change global units in Preferences > Units with no document open.
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Ignore Groups and Clipping Masks
I lost about a Year of My Life double-clicking on objects within a group, inside of clipping masks. A less repetitive and MUCH faster way would be an option to "Ignore Groups and Clipping Masks" (i.e holding some key while clicking).
The option would temporarily (select-wise) treat grouped and clipped objects as normal objects, allowing direct click on an object through a clipping mask and ignoring groups. An "If you can see it, you can click on it!" approach for instant color and other adjustments.
This alone would speed up the workflow and, combined with wireframe view, it would be…
3 votes -
make one layer from more layers like in photoshop
Hello, I would really like it if different layers could be used to create one layer, just like in photoshop.
(so if you work with a lot of layers, and you repeat the design on the same page, or want to create a pattern, this doesn't work)
I very much hope that this will be possible in the future1 voteYou can do that using Layers panel’s menu (a hamburger icon in top right corner). Select layers you need and choose one of three available commands: Merge Selected, Flatten Artwork, Collect in New Layer.
Also, you can operate with a selection of object on canvas. Select object you need there, focus a layer you want you objects to be in and apply Object > Arrange > Send to Current Layer.
Finally you can drag a square marker of a selected objects in Layers to another layer to move them.
Please comment on how it works for you.
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Crop Image tool
With the Crop image tool, it would be nice if the initial crop bounds were to the exact size of the selected image. Right now when you select an image to crop, it creates a random selection, that requires more work than if the crop selected the outer bounds of the image instead of a small selection.
1 voteEric, this behaviour is regulated in Preferences > General > Enable Content Aware Defaults.
Notice that checking this off will also disable auto-placing of color stops in Freeform Gradients and of, pins in Puppet Warp.
If you want to be able to regulate these separately, perhaps you might want to vote for this request:
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Ability to set line width based on the angle of the line
I'd like to be able to set the line width based on the angle of the line, so if the line width is 10 pt on horizontal lines, and you set it so it's 90% of that on vertical lines, it automatically sets it to 95% on 45 degree lines etc.
In the example image you'd just have to draw a circle, set it to a 10 pt line and then set the thickest point (vertical) to 400% of the thinnest part (the horizontal).
The controls for this would be simple, all you need to be able to do is…
1 voteThis effect can be achieved with Calligraphy brushes. Set one up in Brushes panel, use angle 0, change the size to be the thickest weight you want, and use the roundness value to change it at thinner horizontal parts. If you want 4x difference, set it to 25% of the set size. Done — apply it to any path you want.
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Make Document Color Mode menu available to set up as an action
Make Document Color Mode a recordable action. I have to edit lots of files and they all have to be CMYK. If I forget one, it will look horrible on our website and we might never notice it. It would help a lot if color mode could be set up as an action.
3 votesYou can insert the 'Document Color Mode: CMYK' command into an action using the 'Insert Menu Item' from the Actions panel’s flyout menu
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Find approximate/closest Pantone from a process color
If you choose a color from the color picker in Photoshop, it will show you the nearest equivalent in the Pantone library.
3 votesYou can do it for a single color. Open the Recolor Artwork dialog (full one), then limit the color to a desired Pantone palette, by pressing the button at the bottom that says ‘None’ and choosing the book you need.
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Install brushes to Illustrator
Install custom brushes to Illustrator
With photoshop, you can install custom brushes. With Illustrator, you have to make any custom brush yourself which can be tedious and very difficult.4 votesIllustrator for desktop allows to save and import brushes with an ease.
To save brushes, just save a document with your brushes as an .ai file. You don’t have to have them on canvas for this, just in Brushes panel.
To load brushes, click the Brush Libraries Menu button in the bottom left corner of the Brushes panel (looks like a bookshelf). Choose Other Library, locate the brush library .ai file.
If you want to create, save and import brushes in Illustrator for iPad — you have to vote for this feature here: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/931888-illustrator-ipad-feature-requests/suggestions/41682511-import-or-create-brushes
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We need, again, Custom Bevels in 3D-Extrude & Bevel, please!
Illustrator used to have the ability to create customer Bevel profiles ( in the Bevels.ai file in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator 23/en_US/Symbols ). HOWEVER, the feature is now gone! Please give us the option to create custom Bevels, again! Thank you.
Last year, 2018, I created a object and gave it a 3D custom bevel, and now I can do nothing with that object. Whenever I try to do something with it Illustrator crashes. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I tried creating a custom Bevel again. There is no way to create a custom Bevel! When I…
8 votes -
Allow Eyedropper tool to copy/apply different things
Guys, the Eyedropper is an incredibly important tool, whether or not it's "****" by virtue of its age. You haven't updated it in, what, decades? Among the things that it is incapable of copying are:
- multiple strokes
- stroke profiles
- transparency
- blend modes
- graphic styles
Those are extremely common usages/needs. And that's off the top of my head, I'm sure there are many more. Obviously there's no reason this tool shouldn't be able to copy these things! Almost every aesthetic effect that gets added to AI should be reflected in that tool's pickup abilities. Please make this happen already.
1 voteThe Eyedropper tool can work in two modes: basic and extended: basic picks/applies only colors and text. extended allows you operate chosen appearance attributes.
If you open the tool’s options (by doube-clicking the tool button or hitting Enter while it’s picked), you’ll see that you can check/uncheck two top ‘Appearance’ options and customize attributes to be processed.
This is not intuitive, but very powerful once you get the concept.
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Contextual Eyedropper Tool
Currently, the Eyedropper Tool is an underutilized and often counter-intuitive tool that needlessly increases the complexity of a workflow because of its limitations. This- combined with Illustrator's poor color tools- often adds unnecessary time and effort to what should and could be more simplified tasks.
For example, a common situation is that I have a shape with a fill color that I like, and I want another shape that has a stroke to also use that color, except only for the stroke. Currently, if I use the eyedropper tool on the filled shape, it will completely remove the stroke and…
4 votesThe solution to that would be to activate a stroke if you want to apply a color to it, then to hold Shift when clicking a color — does not matter where this color is on a stroke or a fill. Illustrator then applies the picked color to the active fill/stroke, ignoring the source nature. There are two things to know — the cursor does not inform you about this mode (unlike the Alt-mode, should be addressed), and if you pick a color from a swatch — you’d get a screen representation of the color... harmless for RGB documents (if your color settings are in order), but crucial for CMYK documents (should be addressed too). Pleas comment back. -
Keyboard Shortcuts for Select > Same > Fill; Select > Same> Stroke; Select > Same> Appearance
Requesting Keyboard Shortcuts for Select > Same > Fill; Select > Same> Stroke; Select > Same> Appearance; Select > Same> Stroke Weight.
Graphic designers and pre-press use these all the time and I am surprised there are keyboard shortcuts for these very vital features.
From a fellow pre-press production specialist.... this small little tweak would skyrocket workflow efficiency! Would love this!
Also, Adobe rocks!
8 votes -
Fix the help search function
Help used to work fine but since illustrator 18 cc the help function always takes much longer to load (5/10 seconds every time I type a singl letter). Make a short cut to type in help, as seen on c4d, would speed up workflow considerably
1 voteThe Help option is completely reworked in recent versions, into the Discover panel. It’s rather fast now. If you have feedback on it — please comment.
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Overprint simulation on image file exports (JPEG for example)
I think that it would add great value when Illustrator exports to image file the option to add overprint simulation, in the same way as InDesign easily does.
I would add great benefit to our jobs and would simplify some steps (not going to InDesign just to do that).9 votesIllustrator respects the overprint when exporting raster files. Please follow the instructions in comments and reply back if it does not work for you.
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Shortcut for the SMOOTH tool please.
N brings the pencil... I need something for the SMOOTH tool.
4 votesYou can assign your own hotkeys to different tools with Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.
Also, you can pick Pencil, hit Enter )or double-click the tool’s button) to open the Pencil Tool Options dialog and check 'Alt key toggles to Smooth Tool' — this will allow to quickly temporarily access Smooth on the go while you are working with Pencil.
Same applies to the Brush and Blob Brush stools by default.
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view Anchor Points
View Anchor Points selection under the view tab. I'd like to see Anchor Points anytime I click on an object if I have this view selected, not just a barely there blue line that is hard to tell what is clicked as it currently is when you select Show Edges under the view tab.
1 voteYou can enable this with 'Show Anchor Points in Selection Tool and Shape Tool' option in Preferences > Selection & Anchor Preview
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Allow the existing file to remain active when using "Save as"
When working in AI in a native file format, then saving as a different file format (ie PDF), the new file format is now the active file. In InDesign and PS, when you "Save as," your new file is saved in a folder but you are still able to continue working on your native ID or PSD file. I wish Illustrator would work this way, too. Or am I missing something in settings to fix this?
1 voteUse 'Save a copy' command instead of 'Save as', it does exactly what you want.
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Keyboard Command for Expanding Objects
Please. It's so much more intuitive to press ctrl/cmd+a and expand using the keyboard. I work with other peoples files all the time so being able to easily expand their files to make them work is critical.
3 votesYou can assign your own hotkeys via Edit > Keyboard shortcuts, including Object > Expand, Expand Appearance, and object-specific Expand commands (Blend, Shape, Envelope, etc.)
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