Skip to content

Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests

← Adobe Illustrator

When entering a new feature request, please provide:

  1. Description
  2. Why is this valuable to you?

How can we improve Illustrator (desktop)? Vote or share a new idea — one request per entry, please.

(thinking…)

Enter your idea and we'll search to see if someone has already suggested it.

If a similar idea already exists, you can support and comment on it.

If it doesn't exist, you can post your idea so others can support it.

Enter your idea and we'll search to see if someone has already suggested it.

  • Hot ideas
  • Top ideas
  • New ideas
  • My feedback

4586 results found

  1. Make Enclosed Selection Mode a permanent option

    Illustrator now allows to use Enclosed Mode to select objects within the marquee (originally requested here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/31863601), but the only way to do it is tap E key.

    I agree that this basic feature is essential, but I don't agree that any modifier keys or specific dragging directions (like requested here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/49489604) should be required. Shift-drag is already used to add to the selection, so that won't work.

    Opt/Alt toggles duplication, and both can be toggled mid-drag (unlike in Photoshop).

    This should be a selectable selection mode (also with a hotkey), and in fact there should be a…

    19 votes
    1 comment  ·  Selection  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  2. Ability to view comments by date

    As well as filtering read/unread comments, it would be ideal to be able to sort by date

    2 votes
    0 comments  ·  Other...  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  3. Allow targeting layers with no unlocked/visible paths in them.

    You can target a layer to apply an appearance by clicking on the circle to the right of its name in the Appearance palette.

    This is not possible, however, if the layer is empty.

    This is also not possible if the only thing the layer contains is empty layers.

    This is also not possible if all the children of the layer are locked. Or invisible.

    There must be at least one unlocked, visible non-layer object in a layer before you can target it.

    I am most often annoyed by trying and failing to target a layer with a bunch of…

    3 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  4. CAD like selection (direction of the marquee toggles Enclosed mode)

    Illustrator now allows to use Enclosed Mode to select objects within the marquee (originally requested here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/31863601), but the only way to do it is tap E key.

    Make an option to enable this method also:
    Click - Left drag: select everything INSIDE the marquee.
    Click - Right drag: select everything CROSSING the marquee.

    Many CAD programs work this way. It makes selections much simpler.

    16 votes
    3 comments  ·  Selection  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  5. Need Save As... in Edit Toolbar options

    I use saved toolbars, but they are tedious to create because when you click New toolbar... you get a blank toolbar and then have to add each tool one by one. I would like to open an existing toolbar (like Advanced) and have the option to Save As... under a new name - then, I can remove the tools I don't want and save it. Better to work from a starting point, than have to start from scratch.

    3 votes
    0 comments  ·  Tools  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  6. Add Catalan to the available languages ​​of Illustrator (as InDesign already has)

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  Type, Fonts, Text  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  7. Create a symbol without replacing art with the symbol.

    I would like a switch in the New Symbol dialogue to allow me to leave the original art on the canvas instead of replacing it with a symbol.

    Also it would be nice to be able to make a symbol out of the entire contents of a layer nested in another layer without the entire layer being replaced by the symbol.

    I use symbols in weird ways and both of these behaviors annoy the heck out of me.

    3 votes
    1 comment  ·  Symbols  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  8. Remove quantization / rounding for the Curvature tool

    Curvature tool is handy, but it places new points based on a hidden grid. The grid is screen-spaced, and it means the step of it stays the same on the screen, no matter what level of zoom we have.

    Once a point is places and the mouse button / pen is released, we can move this point freely, with no rounding!
    Why can’t we have this behavior for new points? Why limit new points in precision?

    5 votes
    0 comments  ·  Tools  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  9. Add an option for Curvature tool to prioritize the currently selected path

    Curvature is one of the more recent tools Illustrator introduced (well, in 2014... time flies). Unlike older tools, it tries to be smart. One of this 'smart' behaviors is an ability to both select and edit paths. It prevents us from placing the next point of the currently selected path right above an existing unselected path — the tool treats it as an attempt to select the latter.

    There is an existing request to tweak the continuation tolerance, similar to what Pencil has: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/34578331

    But to be fair, I’d love more options for the tool in general. So far it…

    6 votes
    0 comments  ·  Tools  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  10. Local Artboard Editing Mode

    Illustrator already notionally works on one artboard at a time... the one that's zoomed to with Cmd-0, or pasted to with Cmd-V...

    Perhaps there could be a mode switch, similar to the 'Draw Inside' mode where all operations are confined to objects on the current artboard. Useful for Cmd-A for example. This would override unlocked artboards of course!

    This mode of operation is already familiar in InDesign where only current spread-object appear in the Layers.

    3 votes
    2 comments  ·  Documents and Artboards  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  11. 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
    1 comment  ·  Documents and Artboards  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  12. 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:
    کتابها

    2 votes
    2 comments  ·  Type, Fonts, Text  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  13. Add Black and White color chips in Color Picker dialog in Color Models mode

    For some reason, the Color Picker dialog is the default way of setting a color in several color induced effects: Drop Shadow, Inner and Outer Glow.

    Most of times these effects are used, we need to toggle between black and white. These are more or less OK to pick quickly, if we change the mode of the dialog to Color Swatches.

    But each time this dialog is called when editing a color for the effect, the dialog open in the first mode, Color Models.
    And to set black or white in this mode we need to click the spectrum field…

    5 votes
    0 comments  ·  Colors, Swatches, Patterns  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  14. 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…

    6 votes
    1 comment  ·  Images, Links  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  15. Show gradient annotator for Live Paint selections

    Version 29.3 finally allows to adjust gradients for individual Live Paint regions on canvas: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/35930962

    While these can indeed be adjusted now, the annotator is still missing.
    I suppose it requires more hacking to make it work, but still I’d like to see the controls on canvas, to tweak the look and not remaking it from scratch each time.

    2 votes
    0 comments  ·  Gradients  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  16. 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
    1 comment  ·  Documents and Artboards  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  17. Knobs.

    Just more knobs. There should be a knob next to every input that takes an angle value. The Scribble effect has one. The Gradient palette doesn't. The Transform palette has one but it could use another one along with a couple of text input boxes as an option to move an object a specified distance along a particular angle instead of moving it in X and Y. The angle value in the transform section of Properties doesn't have a knob. Scatter brush options have two horizontal sliders and no knobs. Put a knob next to each of those sliders.

    Go…

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  User Interface  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  18. A Node View mode for the Appearance Palette, and a complete revamp of what it can do.

    I feel like I have a lot of things I want changed about the Appearance palette that cannot be done in the form of a one-dimensional list of effects.

    I'd like to suggest something inspired by the "node view" in programs like Blender or Toon Boom or Unreal. Give me a 2d canvas upon which I can arrange strokes, fills, and effects, and let me plug them into each other in complex ways. Let me control exactly when a brush is applied to a stroke by moving its effect around. Let me dynamically generate an opacity mask for an entire…

    2 votes
    1 comment  ·  Effects, Appearance, Graphic Styles  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  19. 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
    2 comments  ·  Colors, Swatches, Patterns  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  20. Correct View > Snap to Grid shortcut from Cmd/Ctrl+" to proper Cmd/Ctrl+'

    My request is a bit nerdy, but hey! I have been using Illustrator for 'ages' and one of the shortcuts is simply not correct. I always think it's cute, in a way, but still.
    The shortcut to show or hide the grid is listed as Ctrl + "
    This is impossible to achieve since you need the 'Shift' key to type the double quotation marks :)
    So, I think it should be Ctrl + ' .
    The shortcut to snap to the grid is fun in this light; it's Ctrl + Shift + "
    So, I was wondering if anyone…

    2 votes
    3 comments  ·  User Interface  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?
1 2 3 4 6 8 … 229 230
  • Don't see your idea?

Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests

Categories

Feedback and Knowledge Base

(thinking…)