Hans, you are correct... but I also need you (and all of us) to tell the team this.
So far this request is 41 votes. I wish it had more... Share this. Talk about this. Ask others to vote, if they need it. UserVoice remains the main platform for the Illustrator team to base they feedback-driven decisions — thanks to all the votes and comments here. I merely help to organize the place, split, merge, reply, promote and help when I can, but the main drive force is VOTES, our unified voice.

InDesign got their Flex Layout panel recently (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/indesign/using/flex-layout-panel-overview.html) — but InDesign IS a dedicated layout app. My personal opinion on Figma’s layouts is that being a web service, they piggyback modern CSS rules. They just offer a wrapper (a good one, but it still uses the might of a browser). Illustrator has its own weight of amazingly different workflows, tied into real-world production. Illustrator is a general versatile tool, I’d say, and the team has to chase many rabbits at once.

Egor, you need to tell the team to start looking at the plugin you're linking to and what Figma is doing and realize you need better tools for layout than doing everything manually. It's 2026. It's time to get with the times.

Figma is gonna win this battle if you don't add auto layout and they keep improving their vector tools.

What happens when Figma reaches illustrator level vector editing and in addition have auto layout? Illustrator will die or will only be used for print-specific jobs.

What happens if Affinity adds auto-layout?

You have no choice but to add it.

Not just for UI; this would also help for laying out multiple sign files for buildings or parks where you are following the same style for each sign! We have some projects where we are creating upwards of 100 signs for large park systems or buildings.

This would be SUCH a game changer. Autolayout would save me so much time and it would make our designs more consistent across our organization. I would vote for this a hundred times if I could.

I am requesting a native "Auto Layout" engine for Adobe Illustrator, similar to Figma’s implementation. This feature should allow groups or layers to behave dynamically, where the content dictates the size and positioning of elements automatically. Key functionalities should include:

Directional Flow: Ability to stack objects vertically or horizontally with defined spacing (Gap).

Dynamic Padding: Define top, bottom, left, and right internal margins that respond as text or objects change.

Responsive Resizing: Options for "Hug Contents," "Fill Container," and "Fixed" for both width and height.

Absolute Position: The ability to keep specific elements within an Auto Layout group but exempt from the flow.

Alignment Controls: A dedicated panel to align nested objects (Top-Left, Center, etc.) within the layout flow.

As a graphic designer, the absence of dynamic layout tools in Illustrator leads to significant manual rework. Every time a text string changes or a new element is added, all subsequent objects must be repositioned manually.

Efficiency: It eliminates "pixel pushing" and manual alignment, allowing for faster iterations.

Precision: Ensures that padding and spacing are mathematically consistent across multiple assets.

Cross-Platform Workflow: Having a consistent layout logic between Figma and Illustrator would make the transition between tools seamless and reduce errors.

I remember this:
https://github.com/WestonThayer/Bloks
Old, crude, complex to setup, but it was before Figma

Illustrator really should adapt AI in another way, personally i used and loved illustrator for a decade. But when comparing to figma, i really miss features like auto layout which help with aligning and just make life as designer so much easier. Instead we get recolour features, i can hardly imagine anyone really wanted that. For example take photoshop, their ai tools make life easier. and so should illustrator.

This isn't just a feedback dump, it feels like my last stand to stay with illustrator, which is kinda crazy, seeming that i love illustrator a lot.

Really hoping to see this coming to Illustrator! Designers are constantly working across tons of sizes and formats, and AI has real potential to make that process faster and smarter. Tools like this actually support the way we work and is way more useful than the gen AI stuff that spits out messy, so-called “finished” artwork and cuts the creative process out.

Yeah this would be a game-changer for Illustrator and needs more attention.

Adding responsive behaviour in the form of an auto-layout function similar to Figma.

Allowing users to create designs that automatically adjust and align elements based on resizing.

Making workflows more efficient and design consistency easier to maintain.

This post needs a bump for real.

This could change a lot of people's daily lives 🙏

I switched to Figma, just because Adobe Illustrator lacks all these vital features for creating advanced layouts

I agree this is really missing in Illustrator, where so much things have to be placed manually one by one. Even in InDesign you can insert objects within a text box or hack something out with tables.

Reference implementations:
– Flex in CSS
– Flex layout in Penpot
– Auto layout in Figma
– Smart layout in Xd

Similar to this request:
Liquid Page Layout (Artboards)
http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/46611841

Stefan, can this solution help your team?
http://westonthayer.com/writing/2016/07/27/layout-experiments-in-adobe-illustrator/
This is not exactly what you want, but it’s free and it’s there.
Some report it doesn’t get launch on Macs... I suppose you can address the developer if the tool suits you.
Please comment back.

This feels like a job for a layout or web front-end app. Next step would be 'now gimme the code of it' and we get Frontpage :)
However, you ask for a thing like this and give no examples.

Hi!

I would like to have a new tool: a kind of semi-elastic placement aid. Our team designs packagings and often has to adapt layouts to new die cuts, so objects often have to be moved, but must not change in size themselves. Sometimes a logo exists in three different sizes, which must be chosen depending on the total height. In addition, they must adhere to minimum distances, which may also not be scaled. However, the design often follows a grid, e.g. a logo must be on the vertical at 5/13 of the total height. So I imagine a kind of grid that, when scaled, adheres to a set of rules. With options if and how as well as how far something is scaled or not.
Although this is all logical and mathematical, we currently have to create it manually. A new "magic grid" would be a great help here.

I look forward to feedback and ideas,

Thanks!

Would love this. Illustrator is great because of the many effects it offers, but it lacks this 1 feature that would make it great for UI mockups.

Ex: I create a button that consists of a rectangle with the text "submit" centered in it. No matter how wide or tall I make the rectangle, I want "submit" to remain centered horizontally and vertically within it.

Sketch allows this via "pinning". I can set a parent object-- in this case, the rectangle-- and tell a child object---in this case, the text-- to maintain a certain distance from the top, left, right, and/or bottom of the parent object, or to remain centered to the object at all times, regardless of how the parent is scaled.

In addition, multiple objects can be pinned to the same parent-- for example, if the button said "submit" followed by a checkmark icon, I could tell "submit" to maintain X distance from the left edge of the parent, and the icon to maintain Y distance from the right edge of the parent.

This would be a HUGE time saver for those of us who do UI work in Illustrator. I'm sure it would be a lot of work to implement, but if doing so is at all feasible its inclusion would be amazing.

Thanks!

It would be great to have the possibility to constrain object dimensions and distances inside groups according to their parent or the whole canvas. This function is a basic setting in many UI/UX applications (responsive behaviour for layout, buttons, etc.)

https://vimeo.com/182383488