Any update on this AI team? Why would a doc preset for Art or Print be in Points? Who uses points for document sizes? Anyone in the world? Why is this a default? And why no response?

Hello Adobe team and admin Egor Chistyakov,
Here is bug / feature request that you can merge. If you search default unit, you will see several differently worded requests that total over 55+. You should merge these into one request titled something like "Ability to set the default units for new documents"

Illustrator's default for Print doc is points...... but all print docs are either in inches or mm.

Do ANY users out there use points for anything other than fonts? What rationale was used to make points the default? Seems like an oversight or bug but if there is a reason, please let us know.

Beautifully Written David,

Maybe we just need to get people to start spamming Adobe on this forum until they fix it?

Ya know, fight like adults in a digital world? :P

Has this issue gotten any additional attention?

The default measurement in the New Document dialog for the Print profile is Picas. We create primarily for print in North America (US) and almost exclusively use inches.

HERE'S WHY THIS IS A PROBLEM:

Yes, I can change the Units in the New Document dialog to Inches. And yes, they will remain Inches for my next new document. However, the Profile has now become [Custom]. Why should this matter, you may ask?

We get too many files from outside sources that began in Web or Mobile profiles. Those files begin in RGB. Yes, they can be changed to CMYK, but the Blacks in the file will be 4-color blacks, not single-channel, 1-color "K" Black.

Also, since Adobe moved the Document Raster Effects settings from where you could set it with no documents open and that would be your pref for all new files, to an option in the New Document dialog for each new document, files that began in a screen profile not only have to be changed to CMYK, all of the Blacks converted to grayscale, overprint set correctly, and then the Raster Effects Settings have to be at least checked, for each file, to make sure they're print resolution. (We sometimes get hundreds of single files for one title.)

The upshot is we advise people to always use the Print profile when creating art.

This sets all of the new art to Picas — regardless of the application preferences for preferred units.

Changing it to Inches makes the profile [Custom], and we're back to verifying the color and raster settings.

WHY CAN WE SIMPLY NOT SPECIFY OUR PREFERRED UNITS FOR NEW DOCUMENTS?

Seriously, this wasn't broken — why did Adobe go to these lengths to make this more complicated?

Better yet, why is points the default? Maybe those guys need to spend time switching back to points instead of us.

It's an annoying thing that happens when you update. But all you have to do is change the units in your pref. cmd+k or ctrl+k. Then open a new document, and change that to Inches, or whatever your pref. is. Then close illustrator out. Once you launch again, it should stay as Inches, or whatever you chose.

if u click on an empty section of the artboard the properties sidebar will give you the options to change the units for the document! I always get stuck on this and this is how you fix it!

I have had same issues driving me crazy. I believe the reason was that I haven't had the fully control over the Adobe folder (drive:\program files\adobe). So the Adobe Illustrator Prefs couldn't be updated. See attached screen shot and look on security tab for your (user) permissions

This has been a well documented bug for years. The fact it persists is testimony to how little the bank of Adobe cares about its customers.

If ever a corporation was eligible for investigation over pricing, quality of product and snuffing out the competition it is Adobe. A true clusterf*ck of broken parts.

I hadn't had this problem when I was working on my Mac @ work, but now I'm working on my PC from home, this has been driving me crazy.
I may have stumbled upon a fix, though.

Open Illustrator
Change unit preferences to required units
Create a new document, making sure you switch to required units before creating
Close document and Illustrator completely
Units should now stick (well they did for me)

Hope this is of some help.

Dang! I was hoping to find a solution here. This is so tedious.

Adobe still hasnt fixed this problem, its been on all of my versions of illustrator and even happens on photoshop too. 2017 and on....customer service sucks cant get through to anyone who isn't beyond "level 1" training.

happening again in v24.1 on macos. three pages of complaints, will somebody in adobe react to this?

Yes. If there's an option in Preferences then the program needs to actually use it, not ignore it completely. NOBODY want pts as a default unit other than the programmers.

This quirky unit preference issue along with the rulers are just ridiculous. I am in two threads and both are the simplest and most important user preference needs!!! Why can you not listen?????? When u open a doc, u want the measurements u want, not a different one that takes sometimes various clicks to take. I also want my rulers to show without having to click on them every time-a different thread going on just as long. Can you please fix these. This unit issue is unacceptable. And, I have the same problems discussed here with inches and pixels or points.. Thank u and hope we will see a result very soon!

2020 version Preferences - Units go back to "points".
Extremely annoying. Working with structural design files. When I have to open 20 files for an object, I always have to change the units back to mm. This is a major error of a very basic setting in my opinion.
I'm just saying, because I'm sure that no one will take any action in order to fix this.

Dear Raj Nagi, this will not solve the problem.

Once units are changed in preferences they need to stay as preferred... (why is it a preference then ?)
Automatically switching back to points for some mysterious reason is pretty annoying.

Right-click on the ruler Bar. Select units. This will sort out your problem :)

Yes, this isn't great. It never used to be like this, and then Illustrator decided to change this behaviour. Surely the presets can have whatever they like in their document, but when you make a NEW one based on that preset, it should translate the internal document units to your preferences value, e.g.
Letter 612pt x 792 pt => open as new => Letter 8.5" x 11"
A4 841.89pt x 595.27pt (wtf?) => open as new => A4 210mm x 297mm

Depending on if you are setup as mm or inches.
PS. USA is the only metric hold-out for consumers - most of the industries have already switched or have accelerated their switch to metric after the Hubble Space Telescope metric/imperial disaster for NASA. LOL!

I am also frustrated with not being able to set my own personal unit preferences in AI. This absolutely used to work - both under CC and CS - not sure why the developers felt it had to change. It isn't as if CC is an open source/free package with no support. We all pay good money for this suite of applications and should expect basic functionality such as having our personal configuration preferences remain stable from document to document and session to session WITHOUT having to jump through hoops or using some "obscure trick" that someone stumbled upon that happened to work.