Improve Graph / Chart tool
Current graph tool in Illustrator has many limitations that need fixing. Following are some of the problems in Graph tool:
- No value labels
- Data window that requires you to remove characters such as commas
- Resetting of chart upon making changes
- Resizing issues (e.g. with bounding box)
- Missing basic chart types like *****
- No support for templates
- Also the tool doesn't support making new chart types, such as attaching data to any attribute of the artwork.
Anonymous
shared this idea
Please share your thoughts on the following:
1. Would it make sense to have a separate desktop app, just to create charts, and bring them inside Illustrator or InDesign? It may not be on cloud.
2. Or would you rather have us work on building it within Illustrator?
Thanks
Yogesh
146 comments
-
Aaron
commented
@Ian Aberle HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Yes - make better bar graphs by not using Illustrator's built in bar graph feature because it's terrible. This is also a terrible solution - good luck manually entering in and placing the data at the right size. Better build a very high resolution grid.
Adobe - you've topped yourself this time. This is truly embarrassing.
-
Ian Aberle
commented
Even Adobe's own marketing materials are ignoring the chart tool. See "Make better bar graphs with Adobe Illustrator" at https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/how-to/make-better-bar-graphs.html.
-
Anonymous
commented
Just do something, ANYTHING to the graph tool. It is absolutely ridiculous that you've been comfortable shipping this tool in it's same hopelessly inadequate state for years and years
-
Anonymous
commented
Looks like the last thing from Adobe on this is "Need more information". That is rubbish – you just need to fix it.
-
Anonymous
commented
I have now requested updates to Illustrator graph tool several times but still no real promise of work on this. Right now I am creating graphs in Apple Pages and copying as PDF into Illustrator to convert to CMYK for print. In Pages I can resize the graph to fit a rectangle the correct size for my InDesign layout. WHY can't Adobe get this right? Datylon is a little too complex for day to day use. The Apple Pages graphs do almost everything I need quickly and easily – and the app is free on my Mac. Come on Adobe. Get this fixed.
-
Harry Thomas
commented
I first tried Illustrator over 23 years ago, along with Macromedia Freehand. I quickly chose Freehand over Illustrator for it's styles and graphic capabilities. Freehand had a great graphing tool - you could create a graph, then size it to fit your space (important in the newspaper business) and then tweak it without ungrouping it.
In 2005, Adobe bought Macromedia to get your hands on Flash. When you killed Freehand as competition, I was forced for years to create graphs in Illustrator, then ungroup them (destroying the ability to do more than minor edits).
As I watched Illustrator grow as a tool, I kept hoping that you would eventually get around to the graph tool. Sadly, it's the one area of Illustrator that you never touched. Now that I've left the newspaper graphics business, I don't use the tool anymore. But it still saddens me that it continues to be the same poor tool that I rejected 23 years ago.
For the sake of your future users, please give it an extreme makeover. Don't make us buy an extra plugin for something you should have fixed years ago.
-
Anonymous
commented
I beta tested the Datylon plugin. Pretty good BUT doesn't do some of the great stuff promised a few years ago at MAX. and, unfortunately, a bit expensive for me right now as well. I remember Adobe having a technology preview a couple of years ago that also filled me with hope but it got cancelled never to progress any further. Not good enough Adobe,
-
Scott Wallace
commented
Adobe might be allowing Datylon to access code and perform R&D as a beta startup just to measure success and work the bugs outside its house name. Should this prove to fall short, it can be fixed there until it does. If/when adoption has reached a certain mass, Adobe could "acquire" this into their interface, clean it up visually. A bolt-on solution isn't ideal in a "homogenized" Adobe world. But it's awesome to have another option in the meantime.
-
Anonymous
commented
I'm frustrated that it's another tool I need to pay for though when we're already paying an arm and a leg for Adobe CC.
-
Theresa
commented
Thurid & Deller. I've actually been using it for a few months, and really like it. Not without its own bugs, but a thousand times better than anything adobe has given us.
-
Deller
commented
Theresa, I just saw Thurid's comment and agree. I downloaded the 7-day trial from Datylon and purchased a full year subscription 2 days into it. It basically does everything you wish Illustrator could have been doing for 10+ years and all inside of Illustrator. I highly recommend it.
-
Thurid Wadewitz
commented
Theresa, Datylon just released an add-on for Illustrator that gives an improved graph tool. I haven't tried it out yet, but I don't think that Adobe will work on this anymore.
-
Theresa
commented
I see that a lot of housekeeping has been going on in the uservoice. Does anyone think that someone at Adobe might actually respond to this three year old request?
-
Erik Laurijssen
commented
Datylon is offering an advanced dataviz extension for Illustrator - check it out at https://datylon.com/graph
-
Stijn Simoens
commented
Datylon is developing a plug-in for Adobe Illustrator to create advanced graphs and charts in a very efficient way. Most of the features asked for in this thread are covered by our plug-in "Datylon Graph". Product Management of Adobe Illustrator is giving us full support in this.
We recently released a stable Beta version and are interested in users who try out our tool and give us feedback. You can download Datylon Graph for free at https://datylon.com/graph.
Don't hesitate! We plan to release a first customer version by end of January2020. -
Stijn Simoens
commented
Datylon is developing a plug-in for Adobe Illustrator to create advanced graphs and charts in a very efficient way. Most of the features asked for in this thread are covered by our plug-in "Datylon Graph". Product Management of Adobe Illustrator is giving us full support in this.
We recently released a stable Beta version and are interested in users who try out our tool and give us feedback. You can download Datylon Graph for free at https://datylon.com/graph.
Don't hesitate! We plan to release a first customer version by end of January2020. -
Anonymous
commented
This tool needs a major overhaul. I dread making charts and graphs because they are so tedious and unintuitive. There need to be ways to edit the design and look of a graph prior to ungrouping—and thus, rendering your chart uneditable.
-
Kjell Olsson
commented
Working with the graphing tools is like digital time-travel. It's frustrating and often forces you to come up with workarounds. It was old-fashioned many years ago. Both interface and functionality is in need of a complete overhaul. I hope it happens before my retirement - in 5-6 years time.
-
Chris Voros-Haynes
commented
Hello
I would like chart creation and update function including being able to update a link to an Excel file to be either in Indesign or Illustrator please
-
Simon
commented
Hadn't realized the limitations of this tool until now. I'm unable to align the object with anything or resize by specifying dimensions. It would seem natural to be able to style the graph (a pie in this instance) with the many tools illustrator provides, but the inability to use even the most basic on the graph object is frustrating.