Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
4594 results found
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Purge clipboard
It would be good to have "Purge clipboard" command in order to prevent lagging after copying/cutting large amounts of data. Currently the best way is to draw a simple shape and cut that to the clipboard, which feels very dumb but does the job.
Or just somehow solve the lagging when the user has data on the clipboard :)8 votes -
Choose which version of PDF when saving an Illustrator file as .ai with PDF compatibility.
When saving an Illustrator file with PDF compatibility, the default version of Acrobat is 5, (PDF Version 1.4) which creates issues with transparencies, when placing that .ai file into another .ai file for layout.
I would like to be able to choose which version of Acrobat and PDF to be compatible with when saving an .ai file with PDF compatibility.8 votes -
Attach Symbol Effect
Adding a new Effect to Attach a Symbol would heavily simplify the creation of Appearances (Graphic Styles) like the one in my Screenshot.
Of course a Reference Point and Liquid constraints like in InDesign would be amazing.
And that will open all new horizons of possibilities!
8 votes -
Pressing Ctrl+Shift+PgUp with single artboard doesn't work as it does with multiple artboards
When working with multiple artboards (I use them for exporting tiffs from larger design) using Ctrl+Shift+PgUp is quite handy to quickly navigate to first, master artboard AND set zoom to 'Fit artboard to window' with one hotkey.
But when you have only one artboard, pressing Ctrl+Shift+PgUp (expecting it to fit artboard in window) does nothing.I think it should work consistently.
8 votes -
Symbols with multiple features / variants
Would love to be able to construct multi-function symbols... the basic symbol is the same but when I place it, I would like to be able to change it from one of several variants which stays in the same place I put it..
8 votes -
"1 click" no stroke/fill
It'd be nice to have a "one click" no stroke/fill instead of having to bring one to the front each time, or having to click the color and click again for 'none'.
It's a minor thing but turning a 2-step process into a 1-step process adds up over time.
See mock-up.
8 votes -
Make Reference Point controls larger and easier to click
Reference Point control is very small on modern displays in every place used and is hard to aim and click.
I think it’s better to have it larger, both visually and for UX.8 votes -
I'd like to see the transform values of text be accurate to the text rather than the text box
I'd like to see the transform values of text be accurate to the text rather than the text box. Also so that when I am center aligning text horizontally it will align the actual text and not the text box.
8 votesLatest versions of Illustrator have an exact solution for that.
Open Align panel, and enable Align to Glyph Bounds option in the panel’s menu, for point or area text or both.
The bounding box will remain the same, but the text will now align to and by its actual bounds, just like you want.
Please comment back if it works for you.
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Action: Insert Conditional
In the Photoshop Action panel there's "Insert Conditional" allowing you to set logical conditions for action behaviour. Illustrator should have this too. It's neat.
It's useful for making action behaviour more intelligent and relevant to the document, eg. doing one or another thing depending on whether the document is landscape or portrait, colour mode, etc.
Another way it can be used is to create toggle buttons for things that Illustrator doesn't currently have shortcuts for (eg. Scale Strokes & Effects). Presently you have to create two separate keybindings for each action, whereas the conditional allows you to toggle with a…
8 votes -
Keyboard commands to cycle through layers similar to Photoshop
Please consider a way to navigate, activate, delete and move layers using keyboard commands, similar to photoshop.
8 votes -
Change order of assets in Library...
Allow us to organize the library better, e.g., change the order that assets appear in inside a library.
8 votes -
Automatically focus stroke or fill based on the current appearance of selected object
It would be great if AI took into account the attributes of an object and flipped the stoke and fill palette default accordingly automatically. If I have a circle that is filled blue and I want to change it, I would like AI to recognise the blue fill on selection and switch the fill palette to the default and vice versa for a stroke only object as it is more likely that I want to change that attribute than anything else. I find this very frustrating.
8 votes -
Allow Brush with tool to scale a pattern brush properly.
When I use the width brush on a pattern brush, it scales the brush on all of the path to the widest bit used. I'd like it to scale only in the width direction, where I'm using it.
8 votes -
Make "Export Selection…" Actionable.
The fact that "Actions" is not in the list is telling.
Make "Export Selection…" Actionable. Currently, it is not recognized when recording an Action of when "Adding a menu item" to an existing action.
Actons, in general, are in dire need of attention in Illustrator. Please consider making them a priority.
8 votes -
Brush smoothing (fidelity) per brush preset
Currently brush smoothing is set only by double clicking the brush tool icon and is universal.
Logically it should be set at the brush options dialogue, individual for each brush preset along with angle, size, roundness etc.
Each brush reacts differently, and there should be an option to have brushes with various smoothing settings all available at once.
Saving brush presets would retain their smoothing setting as well.
Ideally, Illustrator should adopt some of Photoshop's brush engine settings.8 votes -
Scale raster images by setting a new resolution
I'd like a tool which allows us to scale raster images (linked or embedded) relative to the artboard raster effect settings. eg. you'd tell it 72 dpi, 150dpi, 300dpi, 355dpi etc. and the image would re-scale to the correct relative size against the artboard.
At the moment raster images brought into Illustrator always seem to appear at 72pdi, and are scaled too large relative to an artboard with 300dpi raster effects. This is a problem which needs fixing.
8 votes -
Please make an easier way to export a seamless pattern tile from Illustrator
Please please can you make an easier way to save or export a seamless pattern tile - at the moment it is difficult to extract a tile from a complex pattern to use in Photoshop etc. Many people buy stock vector patterns to use in Photoshop and it would save a lot of time to get them easily from Illustrator to Photoshop.
8 votes -
Object, Expand — Should be in the right click context menu. Also, the operation should be more robust.
Object, Expand — Should be in the right click context menu. Also, the operation should be more robust. I expand things all the time.
I almost always want compound paths instead of groups of compound paths. So, "Outlining Text" is really just redundant and still no option for compound path from the operation. AI should influence people to be more efficient. An unnecessary amount of objects is unnecessary, especially with AI's ability to quickly isolate objects.
8 votes -
Recolor multiple layers panel layers at the same time
In Photoshop, you can select multiple layers, and add a color marker at the same time to all of them. I often use the colors of layers in Illustrator for UI and packaging design to separate visually which layers are finished (green), and which ones I still need to work on (red). But I have to double click each layer one by one in order to change the color.
8 votesYep, there is a way to change the color of edges for a selection of layers — 'Options for Selection' command in the Layers panel’s flyout menu.
But perhaps the original poster meant colored backgrounds to mark layers? Like Photoshop allows to and like we can do with actions in button mode?
If yes — please make a separate request about this.
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Export selected only
Would like to see an "EXPORT SELECTED ONLY" option, so that you can export just a selection of items from a file with many elements. Really a pain to have to copy the items I want to export, and paste them into a new file in order to export them.
8 votesThere is File > Export Selection command in Illustrator now, that adds a selection as an asset into Asset Export panel and opens Export for Screens dialog immediately.
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