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Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests

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4594 results found

  1. Add a swatch from a color inside a gradient in Adobe Illustrator

    When you are working in a gradient, you may customize your colors inside. However, there's no way to add this new color as a swatch - or even to be given a HEX code. Let's make this more functional!

    12 votes
    1 comment  ·  Colors, Swatches, Patterns  ·  Admin →
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  2. Archimedean Spirals

    Surely this should just be a default option for spiral drawing, in the current state of design i would imagine regular spirals would be used far more often than logarithmic, the current way to create them is lengthy and cumbersome.
    Hope this makes it!

    12 votes
    7 comments  ·  Tools  ·  Admin →
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  3. Quick Apply in Illustrator (and all major Adobe apps)

    There’s a neat and extremely useful feature in InDesign called Quick Apply (and I wonder why is it only there). It’s a quick and convenient way to find, select and perform any desired action whose name I know but am unable to find (within myriad of menus and submenus of panel options). Please add the same feature to all major apps.

    12 votes
    0 comments  ·  User Interface  ·  Admin →
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  4. Add Transform Again Individually / Transform Sequence Again / Sequence Again Individually commands, as in InDesign

    Illustrator has Transform Again command (and it’s rather useful), but InDesign has three additional commands:

    1. Transform Again Individually:
      Applies the last single transform operation to each selected object individually, rather than as a group.

    2. Transform Sequence Again:
      Applies the last sequence of transform operations to the selection.

    3. Transform Sequence Again Individually:
      Applies the last sequence of transform operations to each selected object individually.

    As described here: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/transforming-objects.html#repeat_transformations

    Here is a video demonstrating the difference between these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4gLe9LeRKI

    Sure, we have Transform Each as a workaround, but it doesn’t support custom pivots as tools do, and these are just faster.

    If…

    11 votes
    0 comments  ·  Tools  ·  Admin →
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  5. Allow to collapse all items in Appearance panel

    The Appearance panel looks somewhat similar to Layers, but it differs in many ways, excluding several QOL methods to deal with large amount of items.

    For example, one can Opt/Alt-click a bracket next to a layer or a group in Layers to collapse unfurl all the children within it.

    Sure, Layers miss just a button to do it as well, and there is a request about it here at UV (http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/42451084) — but Appearance just don’t have any method to collapse the items (and these do unfurl all the time — take a look at this bug report: …

    11 votes
    0 comments  ·  Effects, Appearance, Graphic Styles  ·  Admin →
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  6. Oval Radial Repeat

    It would be very useful to be able to adjust the radial repeat to an oval radial repeat. Just like how you can change a radial gradient from a circular shape to an oval shape. Opens for lots of more possibilities and will be a huge time saver. Doing this manually is hard.

    11 votes
    1 comment  ·  Repeats  ·  Admin →
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  7. We should be able to right-click on any command and Add a Hotkey to it

    Ai is stuck in 90-s with the UI’s paradigm.
    We need faster ways now.

    Why can’t we right-click any command in the top bar menu and choose 'Add a keyboard shortcut' command that will immediately open the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog with this clicked menu item already chosen?

    Why should be go to the dialog separately and search for the command once more?

    11 votes
    1 comment  ·  User Interface  ·  Admin →
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  8. Shortcut to toggle visibility of Contextual Task Bar

    It would be useful for this tool to allow the user to hide/show this Contextual Task Bar using a single keyboard shortcut.

    11 votes
    1 comment  ·  User Interface  ·  Admin →
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  9. Allow to make sharp transitions using Width Tool

    Width Tool allows us to set width markers on a path, to make its stroke’s outline blend between set cross-sections. We have some limited controls over these markers, we can make each side have its own width, we can snap them to points, but that’s it.

    What we also need is way to make this transitions sharp, rather than smooth.
    Look at the image attached.

    The path on the top is a stroke with a variable stroke profile.
    The path on the bottom is a demonstration of what we want (an art brush actually).

    Sure, we can fake this behavior…

    11 votes
    1 comment  ·  Strokes  ·  Admin →
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  10. Buttons in Pathfinder panel should be disabled when nothing is selected

    If you have nothing selected, Pathfinder still have all buttons active, despite clicking one will give out an error message.
    What’s a point? Why shout? Why not display a shallow message (like the one we get when a live shape gets expanded)?
    Why not disable the buttons in the first place when a selection is empty?

    11 votes
    1 comment  ·  Pathfinder and Compounds  ·  Admin →
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  11. Move Blend Mode keyboard shortcuts from the Tools into the Menu Commands section

    If you open Keyboard Shortcuts, make sure you have Tools selected, scroll all the way down, you’ll see all 'Blend Mode - [name of the mode]' commands there — empty, ready to be assigned... but. Opt/Alt cant’ be used for these. Because these are in tooools. Which means these can be bound only to naked keys and Shift+keys. Which are all taken, long time ago!

    So please move Blend Mode keyboard shortcuts from the Tools section into the Menu Commands section, so we can use all possible modifiers for these, and not only Shift.

    Also, why do we even have…

    11 votes
    0 comments  ·  User Interface  ·  Admin →
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  12. Appearance and Gradient panels need a better way to signal 'No selection'

    Very often, working on a complex appearance, we accidentally loose the object selection, and the stack we edit remains unassigned.

    The panel then gets 'No selection' in the top row... but if the attributes stack is long, this line can get hidden if you scroll the panel down.
    Then, if you select something else, all your changes get lost.

    The workaround now is to be vigilant (ha) and save your appearance as a temp style before you select back the art you wanted to edit appearance for in the first place.
    A better solution would be to make the 'No…

    11 votes
    1 comment  ·  User Interface  ·  Admin →
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  13. Make Redefine Graphic Style option better accessible, and from the Graphic Styles panel too

    If Ai had a hotkey for this command (like this request is asking for: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/41254435), perhaps this one would be less painful.

    Yes, I know, you edit an appearance in the Appearance panel, and then force this changes to update the original style, using the panel’s flyout menu... but

    A. I often start looking the wrong panel, thinking 'I am updating a graphic style, so the relevant command should be in Graphic Styles' — and when I realize it’s a wrong assumption, it’s too late. For some reason this habit is hard to change!

    B. Why this command is…

    11 votes
    2 comments  ·  User Interface  ·  Admin →
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  14. Gradient tool on desktop similar to the iPad version!

    Please make the Interactive Gradient Tool work as in the iPad version, where both end nodes behave similarly.
    On the desktop version, when one end is dragged, it moves the whole gradient around.
    On the iPad, both ends can be moved independently.
    It makes the tool counter intuitive!

    11 votes
    2 comments  ·  Gradients  ·  Admin →
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  15. Intertwine needs a better way to display order operations rather than hiding them in a context menus

    It’s not clear we can chose methods other than 'swap order' for cases when a freshly created intertwine zone has several possible solutions. Illustrator draws and edge around the current zone (quite poorly signaled, which is a different topic: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/45845602-make-intertwine-edit-mode-telegraphed-better), but then a single left-click just swaps and immediately ends editing the zone.

    The fact we can click on the highlighted segment with a right mouse button and choose an order is not very obvious... because — let’s admit it — Illustrator can’t do context menus very well and we are not used to have anything really 'contextual' in…

    11 votes
    0 comments  ·  Clipping, Intertwine  ·  Admin →
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  16. Expanding Intertwine creates too many identical copies and doesn’t optimize them

    If you expand an intertwine object (with the global Expand: Object command, since it does not have its own specific Expand), the one with a lot of zones, you get a ton of overlapped clipping containers with a reordered copies insides, one per each zone used.

    While technically it’s OK, the amount of copies can be just absurd.
    Some copies are identical and differentiate only by the location of their clipping masks. Perhaps Ai should track these copies and clip then not with separate masks, but a single compound path mask, when possible?

    The degradation is not so graceful with…

    11 votes
    0 comments  ·  Clipping, Intertwine  ·  Admin →
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  17. We need custom made shapes to control Intertwines, drawn with other tools, like we can do with clipping masks

    Intertwine, as I see it, is a control structure for dynamically generated clipping masks. The only way we can create zones to control these masks is to use pseudo-tools, activated with the specialized Edit command. This is fine for quick appliances, but is not so great when you need to make a precise work, with snapping, complex shapes and several iterations.

    We got a Sax-a-Boom, but now we need a saxophone.

    I would like to add any other shapes, created with any other tool Ai offers, as zones, to an existing or a new intertwine — like Live Paint allows.…

    11 votes
    0 comments  ·  Clipping, Intertwine  ·  Admin →
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  18. Allow to group a single Intertwine object

    A way to workaround the bug with the self-expanding Intertwines on effect application (https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/45845533) would be to group them and apply an effect to this 'protection container'...

    But alas, Ai won’t allow that, and grouping an Intertwine object does nothing.
    I suspect Illustrator treats it as a group, onle a 'magic' one, and normal group restrictions, such as 'Thou shalt not group a single group' are applied to it.

    Why then we can’t ungroup an Intertwine... anyway, this one should not be applied, even if you fix the self-expanding.

    11 votes
    1 comment  ·  Clipping, Intertwine  ·  Admin →
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  19. Hitting Escape while creating a shape, an artboard, while using Rotate, Scale, etc., doesn't cancel the process

    When we marquee a selection and hit Escape — it gets canceled.
    When we hit Escape while dragging out a guide — it gets canceled.
    Dragging out a brush on the canvas — works.
    Dragging out a swatch to drop it on a gradient or the canvas — works.
    Dragging the appearance form the Appearance panel — works.
    ...and many other cases

    Escape does NOT work for these cases:
    1. Creating a shape, an artboard, an area text
    2. Rotating, scaling, shearing, free transforming...
    3. Setting up the width with the Width tool
    4. Setting up the gradient with the…

    11 votes
    0 comments  ·  Tools  ·  Admin →
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  20. Add an option to not zoom to the artboard at newly created files

    When you create a document in Ai, it first gets created and they Ai fits the artboard in window. For me, at Windows, it also happens with a noticeable delay, which sucks.
    But in the first place — why does it do it? I never asked for it, I want it to be at 100% and have it fitted only when the artboard is larger than my viewport, not smaller!
    I’d like to have at least a key value to edit somewhere in Prefs file to disable this auto-zooming.

    11 votes
    1 comment  ·  Documents and Artboards  ·  Admin →
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