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How can we improve Illustrator (desktop)? Vote or share a new idea.

← Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests

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.
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Anonymous shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
Need More Info  ·  Yogesh Sharma responded  · 

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
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146 comments

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  • Aaron commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    100%

    This stupid tool is an embarrassment. It hasn't been updated in 20 years. That's ridiculous.

  • Martin Cross commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Having just produced a 200pp report with nearly 100 charts in three days, I couldn't agree more.

    The charting in illustrator is just about useable for the most basic of charts, which isn't much of a boast.

    There is a need for a product to make these jobs easier; one that understands excel, and CMYK.
  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    in a world of infographics and data visualisation, this is so overdue and frustrating!
  • Nicolaas Klopper commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    A lot of people are still frustrated by this, and it seems that the request somehow fell through the cracks and Adobe is unaware of it (or they just couldn't be bothered). Either way, I have posted a link to this thread as a bug report now, to bring it under their attention again. I have wasted 30 minutes now trying to communicate with the chat line to get contact details of someone at product dev whom I can speak to, but to no avail.
    I find the Adobe support experience to be way more embarrassing even than their rubbish graphing tool.
    (Here is the link to the bug report I posted, if anyone wants to comment there or vote it up: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-bugs/suggestions/37587976-no-response-from-adobe-on-uservoice)
  • Nicolaas Klopper commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    There seems to be a lot of disappointment and frustration with the rubbish graphing/charting tool in Illustrator. There is a feature request with quite a lot of user activity, but the last time anyone from Adobe commented was Oct 2017. The graphing tool is so substandard that I think it goes beyond just a "nice to have feature", and is, in fact, a bug. So either Adobe is unaware of the issue because somehow the feature request fell through the cracks, or they are purposefully ignoring user input.

    (https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-feature-requests/suggestions/31150012-improve-graph-chart-tool?page=1&per_page=20&tracking_code=c4756df03af04dab6f108482457f69b2#sa_src=web-messaging)
  • Aaron commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    20 years?! That is a disgrace. I'm sure glad they prioritized such things as "New Home Screen" (WOW), "Content Aware Crop" (which we could do in PS), and "Stock Photo Licensing" (which we could do from a browser).

    Project Lincoln would be great. A beta would be great. An experience like XD for charts would be great if it isn't going to be built directly into illustrator. I'm fine with either at this point.

    I suggest we tweet at Adobe Illustrator as well (@Illustrator). I used hashtags such as #Dataviz #UX #UserExperience #UPDATE #ListenToUs #Embarrassing

  • John Reynolds commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Lindsey Thomas Martin, agree. I was thinking about 20 years. Long before "CS" version whatever. It's maddening.
  • Lindsey Thomas Martin commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    The graphing function is actually much older. I have been using since 1997 and it is virtually unchanged since then. I believe it was originally added to Illustrator 5 (Mac) in 1993.
  • Aaron commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I agree with @Ian and @Nicolaas. Ridiculous that using data to create graphs is still such an issue with an when illustrator is used extensively for this and the calls are clear that it needs to be improved.

    The UI is so antiquated and subpar. Honestly, it's embarrassing for a company that prides itself on UX to ignore this for so long. Not even simple improvements, just completely ignoring the issue for what, well over a decade? There isn't even a functional alternative within the Adobe suite. This is the only way to make charts in the Adobe workflow. It's crazy.

    Please fix this Adobe. I don't know how much longer I can put up with this before moving to a different suite entirely as 50% of my time in illustrator is spent using this infuriating tool.
  • Ian Aberle commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I agree with @Nicolaas. This feature still feels like a CS2 version than a CC2019 version.
  • Nicolaas Klopper commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Hi Yogesh, I notice that this request has been marked as "Need More Info" for nearly two years. The current version is still very substandard and not at all what I'd expect from an Adobe product. Please escalate this to a higher priority and get it fixed as soon as possible.
  • Thurid Wadewitz commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I'd also prefer, like many, to have the improvement implemented in Illustrator itself.
    I think it could look like the 3D-Extrusion-Effect-Window. On the left you have a window with an Example of the graph and on the right you have the settings. Under these two you have the Excel-Sheet with the data .... so that you don't have to flip between those menues any more.
    When inserting the excel-Sheet, you get a preview of your chart in the window. Then, by clicking at the elements, you can set the formats for every item.

  • Cassie commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I would like this inside of Illustrator - just an improvement of the existing tool. And having graph styles would be very handy
  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I agree, this is a very useful tool but it sits in stark contrast to all the other features that have been included and updated in Illustrator over the years. Typically if you format any element of a graph (say the line widths or font styles) they revert to ugly over sized text or thick rules if any new data is added. Colors are a mystery, with black forcing its way back into the palette even when other colors are used, again when new data is added, and the interface looks like it belongs to Illustrator 3. I could go on... please have a look at this tool and update.
  • Sam Loy commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I would rather have the tool within Illustrator improved, to be able to make full advantage of the illustrator styling tools.
  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Hi is there any update on this? I have a template with formatted charts/graphs that need updating weekly. I would love to simply link my excel file which updates from our DB weekly and have my charts/graphs update.

    Or is there a workaround for when I have to manually upate data for charts/graphs that the formatting is lost? I update data for 10 charts a week and each time I lose all formatting.

    Any answer is appreciated
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