Skip to content

Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests

← Adobe Illustrator

When entering a new feature request, please provide:

  1. Description
  2. Why is this valuable to you?

How can we improve Illustrator (desktop)? Vote or share a new idea — one request per entry, please.

(thinking…)

Enter your idea and we'll search to see if someone has already suggested it.

If a similar idea already exists, you can support and comment on it.

If it doesn't exist, you can post your idea so others can support it.

Enter your idea and we'll search to see if someone has already suggested it.

  • Hot ideas
  • Top ideas
  • New ideas
  • My feedback

72 results found

  1. Sort layers and objects in alphabetical order

    Allow to re-order content in Layers in alphabetical order

    5 votes
    7 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  2. Can we please have layers control of some level in Touch workspace?

    Not having any control over layers in touch mode make it almost impossible to use. Touch workspace already have a nice interface but having to go back and forth from one workspace to another just to change layer makin life hard.
    Thanks!

    5 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  3. Paste Remembers Layer from Indesign To Illustrator

    When pasting from Indesign to Illustrator it would be very handy if there was a remember way to keep layers intact instead of flattening them onto one layer? Maybe a dialogue box that just okays the action?

    5 votes
    1 comment  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  4. "Move to Layer" in right-click menu

    I would love to be able to skip the Layers tab on the fly and right-click an object to move it to any layer in the document. It seems like it would make the most sense for this to live in Arrange? Ideally, the layer list would include colored bullets to match layer labels. This would be a huge time-saver for me.

    5 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  5. Easier way to unlock layers

    I, like most people, work with layers. Sometimes those layers are 5, sometimes closer to 100. Thing is, I don't want to have to scroll through 100 layers to find the 1 locked layer I want to unlock. It would be great if I could just right-click on it, then go through a 2-step process to unlock the layer. At the very least, if I double-click on said locked layer, I wish to be shown immediately in the Layers panel where that layer is.

    5 votes
    2 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?
    Completed (Comments Open)  ·  AdminEgor Chistyakov (Admin, Adobe Illustrator) responded

    In latest versions you can enable 'Select and Unlock objects on canvas ' option in Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display section. This will draw a small lock marker for those objects that are locked in your selection (they won’t be a part of selection box though) — click it to unlock an object. Please try it and comment back about if it works for you.

    Another way to do it is to right-click on the locked object (with or without the option above being enabled) choose Unlock and pick an object to unlock from the list. If you want Ai to highlight these on canvas when browsing this menu, you can upvote this request.

  6. I would like to see the output of the subject created by the generated AI with each part layered by part.

    I would like the subject created by the generated AI to be output with parts divided into layers by part (right eye) (left eye) (outline) (eyebrows), etc.
    This is because I want the puppet to move immediately in Adobe Character Animatror.

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  7. Disable Layer Search in Layers Window

    Illustrator v 27.7

    Mac Studio 2022

    Mac OS 13.5.1 (22G90)

    Please allow for disabling the layer search function. The Layers window search field randomly activates, especially when opening new files from a template and when opening exitisting files to make revisions. This is incredibly frustrating. For example; when I open a file and try to select the type tool by hitting the T key, I just end up typing a line of T's in the layer search bar. When the search function is active it appears as if there are layers missing in the file, making it difficult to find…

    4 votes
    2 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  8. Mark layers/sublayers in the layers panel

    We used to be able to easily tell layers and other containers apart in the Layers panel. Layers/sublayers were marked with a darker or lighter background in the Layers panel.
    This is important for several functionality that can be applied to groups but not layers and vice versa. Particularly when you deal with complex artwork such as puppets for Character Animator, but not limited to them. And you need it when analyzing other peoples' files.

    4 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  9. Hitting Tab To Rename A Layer Targets That Layer

    Thanks for implementing the ability to move up and down when renaming layers!

    Unfortunately, the function has limited applicability for me, because unless I can determine what the layer is, from the tiny layer thumbnail, I don't actually know what to name the layer.

    Consider a geometric character design. Perhaps the ears are circles; the eye whites are circles; the pupils are circles; the glasses are circles, the knees and elbows are circles; the hair is a bunch of circles etc etc etc.

    I need the shapes to be highlighted when I'm renaming them so that I know what to…

    4 votes
    1 comment  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  10. Allow targeting layers with no unlocked/visible paths in them.

    You can target a layer to apply an appearance by clicking on the circle to the right of its name in the Appearance palette.

    This is not possible, however, if the layer is empty.

    This is also not possible if the only thing the layer contains is empty layers.

    This is also not possible if all the children of the layer are locked. Or invisible.

    There must be at least one unlocked, visible non-layer object in a layer before you can target it.

    I am most often annoyed by trying and failing to target a layer with a bunch of…

    3 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  11. Make custom layers outside of artboards visible in Trim View

    Sometimes when using Trim view I do want to see other items shown. Like Notes or measurements that are outside of the artboard, But I still want the preview of Trim View to hide bleed and artwork that extends beyond. I wish that inside the layer Options Settings. there was a checkbox to show in Trim View, so items on that layer are still visible when trim view is active

    3 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  12. Copy layer from one document to another with effects / appearance

    Wouldn't it be nice to be able to copy-paste a layer from one file to another, including the layer’s effects / appearance?

    Or to have an option to Duplicate a Layer into another file (like in Photoshop).

    3 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  13. Layer Tags, Virtual Layer Groups and Regex Search

    I want to be able to keep layer names simple in projects with large numbers of layers, but I also want to be able to search for those layers in specific circumstances quickly and easily. To do this, I would like to be able to add "tags" to the layer properties (when you double click the layer), and then to have those tags searchable in the layer search.

    Further, I often have to toggle between two layers amongst a longer group of layers at the same level, and right now I have to do a layer search for one, turn…

    3 votes
    1 comment  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  14. グループ内のサブレイヤが非表示でも順序を入れ替えられるようにしてほしい

    たくさんのレイヤのグループを作り、各グループのうちひとつを表示して書き出し、という方法で何枚も図面を作ることが多いです。
    例えば「1990年」というグループ内に、当時の「道路」「土地利用」「施設」等を入れ、同じように「2000年」「2010年」というグループを作る、等です。
    このときに、すべてのグループにおいて「道路」サブレイヤを「土地利用」サブレイヤの上に移動したいとします。
    ところが、現状各グループが非表示だとレイヤの上下移動ができません。「1990年」を表示して、レイヤを移動して、「1990年」を非表示にして、「2000年」を表示して、…と面倒な作業を行わなければなりません。

    移動するレイヤは名前でわかるので、非表示のまま移動できればかかる時間が大幅に減るのに、と思っています。時間短縮のために、グループ内のサブレイヤが非表示でも順序を入れ替えられる機能をつけてほしいです。

    3 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  15. Locate a locked object

    You can’t locate a locked object, when it’s selected, using the 'Select and Unlock objects on canvas' option.

    3 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  16. Easier way to find object in large file with small blue bar above layers panel

    Working in larger files, it's hard to find the exact object selected. What if there was a blue bar that highlighted which way to scroll? (top of the layers panel scroll up, bottom of the layers panel scroll down) to find it rather than looking for the blue box next to the object's layer? When you click on the blue bar, it takes you directly to the selected object. If multiple objects are selected, you could keep clicking the button to go to the next object down the list.

    I've attached a photoshoped mockup of what I am trying to…

    3 votes
    2 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  17. Is there a possibility to activate (highlight/select) layer by clicking on the Eye icon in AI?

    Is there any setup I can do in AI that when I click on the EYE icon at the Layer, the layer is getting selected by that? It is very inconvenient for me to open the eye and then the layer again to activate it...

    3 votes
    7 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  18. Select all objects on same (sub)layer as selected object

    Currently, you cannot select one object and expand the selection to the entire layer, the existing "Select > Object > All on same layers" selects the parent layers as well.
    In case objects have different appearances, but reside on the same sublayer, it is much easier to select one object than to search for the appropriate layer in certain situations (especially on large files).

    3 votes
    2 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  19. Press Alt to do mask as in Photoshop

    3 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?

  20. Add the ability to "freeze" layers.

    Once upon a time, back around 2000, there was a natural media vector program called "Expression", by a studio named Creature House. It did a lot of heavy, complex rendering, yet retained pretty speedy performance on the machines of the time. But Microsoft bought Creature House back around 2003 and ended support for it; "Expression" became a Windows-only tool with greatly limited functionality.

    One of the ways it kept its performance snappy was by having an additional state for layers. Like Illustrator, they could be visible or invisible, and they could be locked or unlocked - but they could also…

    2 votes
    0 comments  ·  Layers  ·  Admin →
    How important is this to you?
2 4
  • Don't see your idea?

Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests

Categories

Feedback and Knowledge Base

(thinking…)