Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
4471 results found
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Allow to set key object inside compound path
When you isolate a group, you can set any part of selection inside this group as key object just by clicking it with Selection tool. This is great — I can align objects inside a group, yay.
But why I can't do the same inside of an isolated compound path?
Why can't I align parts of my compound path using another part of same path as a key object, as I can do inside groups?
Please, fix this.See attached animation.
I try to align squares to the left side of the square hole (I made a guide to show…23 votes -
Pathfinder to work with open paths...
Can you make the pathfinder work with open paths? See attachment for what I am proposing.
23 votes -
Copy/paste color values as text
I often need to list color values in RGB, CMYK, hex, etc for brand guidelines and printing. It would be helpful if there was an easy way to copy all color values as text. Right now you can only select one value at a time which is very tedious. I know there are scripts that exist to do something similar but it would be nice if it was a built-in feature!
23 votes -
Make option to generate compound paths instead of groups when text is outlined
Create simple black-on-white string of text.
Outline it.
AI will make a group of compound paths.I would like to have a non-default option that would make AI generate one big compound path instead of group of paths.
If text has more then one character color within it — only then this option would produce a group, with a colored compounds within.Right now I have to use an Action (ungroup, release compound path, make compound path) and manually run it for every string/area of text before proceeding to next step of my workflow.
I will make a script to…23 votes -
Collapse unfolded actions
When actions is played, they got unfolded.
If you have a lot of actions (not in button mode), you'll have to collapse them by hand, each one.So I propose this:
1. Make 'Collapse all' command in palette menu
2. Make option 'Don't unfold actions when played'And why there is no context menu for Actions Palette?
23 votes -
PLEASE an option to increase the thumbnail size in symbols libraries
Please, any option to increase thumbnail size when viewing symbols libraries , even if it's only limited a 2x more magnified than currently available as the large list view.
This is a necessary accommodation for the visually impaired, and will also drastically increase ease of use for the average Adobe customer23 votes -
Make ability to create Dead (not Live) shapes
I don't always need LIVE shapes. They have different controls, different treat of Control panel, they bite off Transform palette. Sometimes I just need rectangular path, as it was before, not Rectangle. Now I have to use Plain rectangle plugin on common basis, rebound to M hotkey.
I would like to use them if not a bug with Ctrl+Enter in Width/Height fields, while proportion constraint is off (Live shapes don't constraint it with Ctrl+Enter, as everybody else do, — I'm surprised I haven't reported it yet.)23 votes -
Add Preview tick to 'Free distort' effect dialogue window
Using 'Free distort' is very inconvenient, because it works in small dialogue window that doesn't show actual artwork.
'Preview' tick could solve this problem (although I'd rather prefer 4 interactive points.)
AT LEAST! It should be live long ago, without separate dialogue!23 votes -
Visual Keyboard Shortcut Editor, for mapping hotkeys, like Premiere and After Effects have
I just saw YouTube videos of Adobe demonstrating the latest versions of Premiere Pro CC and After Effects at IBC 2017.
Finally After Effects is getting its own mappable keyboard shortcuts like the one in Premiere Pro. But what about Illustrator and Photoshop?
We Photoshop and Illustrator users definitely need this too!
23 votes -
Calculate the bounds in Document Raster Effects Settings automatically
As for today, if you apply a Gaussian Blur or a Drop Shadow effect to a shape — with a large enough value — it often gets cropped.
A workaround exists — to go in Effect > Document Raster Effects Settings dialog and increase the 'Add' value, thus increasing the bounds of the image generated.
...but why is this still a problem that we, users, should take care of, really? Ai knows how large is the blur, it knows the resolution, yet it can’t calculate the tight bounds automatically. Like what, is there at least one user who’d like their…
22 votes -
Create a guide trimmed to an artboard
There is a almost unknown way to create guides limited to an artboards — you have to pick the Artboard Tool first, and then drag a guide out of rulers. The resulting guide will be limited to the artboard’s dbounds.
However, we think about it somewhere in the middle of dragging a guide, using other tools... too late in a process!
Can we get a modifier to hold while a guides is dragged out to toggle the global/local guide mode on the fly? Alt is taken to switch horizontal/vertical (and it’s cool), but Shift and Ctrl/Cmd are free and do…
22 votes -
Batch apply action to selected items
It strikes me as absolutely bizarre that you can't apply an action to multiple objects in turn. You can batch apply actions to files. You can apply actions to selected objects. You can apply actions to a selected group of objects I think? But you can't batch apply actions to groups of objects. I have about 300 really short little lines in an infographic that I need to be the same length. They're fairly spread out and any anchor selection based approach would take 2 hours. What an incredible hassle.
22 votes -
Text editing - missing keyboard shortcuts
Some text editing shortcuts would be very welcome:
Ctrl + End: go to the end of the text
Ctrl + Home: go to the beginning of the text
Ctrl + Delete: delete all characters of a word to right
Ctrl + Backspace: delete all characters of the word to left22 votes -
Bulk import of SVG files to artboards
We have the ability to export a series of artboards to individual files, this is great for working on e.g. an icon library, or even a font.
But going in the opposite direction seems to require repeated copying and pasting, there's no trivial "bulk import" facility. This makes it painful to work with a pre-existing folder of SVGs.
22 votes -
Make an option to disable auto-selection of artboards, when clicked inside
AI now selects artboard whenever mouse is clicked within in (with any tool). While it's a great general behaviour, I'd like to be able to disable it.
I have to work with overlapping artboards (which, by the way, sometimes prevent AI from correctly selecting the artboard clicked—it depends on artboards' order). When object is copied, AI remembers it's coordinates. Then, when I go to the object I need to place my copied art over and press Ctrl+F, AI pastes the object in the same coordinates. Sounds OK, but when I clicked that underlying object, AI moved the focus from initial…
22 votes -
Keyboard shortcut to fit artboard to selection
Currently you must have content selected to fit it to art board in focus. This workflow adds extra interaction cost by having to remember to first select before hitting the drop-down menu to fit it. Selecting the content and art board and striking a key command would make this a lot more efficient.
22 votesIllustrator has two commands to fit artboards.
One of them, 'Fit to Selected Art', requires a selection — obviously.
The other one, 'Fit to Artwork Bounds' — does not, but works for the entire artwork.
You can insert the one that you need in an action, using the 'Insert menu item...' command from the Actions panel’s flyout menu, and assign a hotkey to the action.
However, I believe the request is not about a hotkey, but a way to let Illustrator to 'Fit to the contents of artboard' command? Please comment back to make it clear.
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Show how many artboards are selected
Since we can have multiple artboards selected and this selection isn't very noticeable (which should be fixed too), why not to show how many artboards are selected?
Just say how many in empty 'Name:' field, since it shows nothing when more is one artboard is selected, in brackets or different color.22 votes -
Increase contrast between selected font and other fonts in Font list in Character palette
Not long ago the contrast between current font and other fonts in list in Character menu was quite sufficient (see image 1). Now it's barely visible (image 2). It makes locating current font in list rather difficult.
Please reconsider colors chosen.
22 votesThe contrast is much better in recent versions
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Last used script
Please, add a command inside File > Scripts (above the line) to execute last accessed script. A have tons of these and not all of them are bound to shortcuts and smarty palettes. Sometimes I have to apply same script several times and have to dig in all 4-5 folders inside to get right one.
And, please, make it shortcut-able.
22 votes -
Keyboard Shortcut to select locked objects
When needing to move a locked object, you currently only have the option of "unlock ALL" whereas sometimes you may have many things locked that you do not want unlocked - only one or two things you want to move.
It would be helpful if by holding a button (Say Alt or control) this would allow you to select locked objects, move or alter the object, and once you deselect it continues to be locked.
22 votesIn latest versions you can enable 'Select and Unlock objects on canvas' option in Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display section.
This adds small lock icons for each locked object you can toggle right there without the need to unlock everything first.
This is not exactly the solution you asked for, no hotkeys involved (and there are no modifiers left to allow this), but it does the job.
Does it work for you? Please leave a comment.
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