Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
- or
1705 results found
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Option to have Anchor and/or Control Points always visible in Preview and/or Outline modes
Sometimes it would be nice to see the anchor points of other objects, when drawing a new object. It would be nice if you could add an option to the outline mode that would not only show all lines but also every anchor point, no matter if the a path is selected or not.
7 votes -
Add hotkey (key command) option for panel flyout menus
There are a number of (small) requests for specific items in flyout menus — I’d like to consolidate that, here, into a GENERAL request in the hopes that it will get a larger response. You may not care if Cmd-J (Ctr-J for PC folks) will duplicate a layer as in Photoshop, but maybe you want to be able to create a new swatch with the key press of your choice.
Hotkey users of the world, unite!
5 votes -
Recolor multiple layers panel layers at the same time
In Photoshop, you can select multiple layers, and add a color marker at the same time to all of them. I often use the colors of layers in Illustrator for UI and packaging design to separate visually which layers are finished (green), and which ones I still need to work on (red). But I have to double click each layer one by one in order to change the color.
8 votesYep, there is a way to change the color of edges for a selection of layers — 'Options for Selection' command in the Layers panel’s flyout menu.
But perhaps the original poster meant colored backgrounds to mark layers? Like Photoshop allows to and like we can do with actions in button mode?
If yes — please make a separate request about this.
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Option for "Don't collapse panel"
I never want Layers panel to collapse completely when I enlarge other panels. Other panels are less important to my workflow and I don't mind what they do, but I'd like to have the option to lock open a heavily-used panel so I'm not constantly having to expand it.
2 votes -
Trim paths
Like in After Effects the option to trim a line. When you have an extra line on an object, the one above can be trimmed. Ending with a line with two color ends.
No more stacking multiple lines and having to edit them all if the shape changes.4 votes -
Knobs.
Just more knobs. There should be a knob next to every input that takes an angle value. The Scribble effect has one. The Gradient palette doesn't. The Transform palette has one but it could use another one along with a couple of text input boxes as an option to move an object a specified distance along a particular angle instead of moving it in X and Y. The angle value in the transform section of Properties doesn't have a knob. Scatter brush options have two horizontal sliders and no knobs. Put a knob next to each of those sliders…
4 votes -
Allow to quickly enable or disable all Text Options for cards in Swatch Info objects
Text cards for Swatch Info objects can have a lot of items displayed.
I found that I either need all of these or none often. The only way to choose between these two major modes is to patiently toggle each one manually.
...meanwhile in Asset Export we can easily choose to use All or No Artboards with dedicated buttons. Perhaps there should be a way to do the same thing here?
It should be allowed both when creating and when editing a Swatch Info object.4 votes -
Could you please allow to move the color control pop up menu, when adjusting the gradient point?
Have the option to move the pop up menu to different location. Not right on top of the artwork you're trying to fix?
2 votes -
Bi-color contour brush
I want to suggest to the Adobe Illustrator developers the creation of a brush that allows for precise adjustments of both the line width and the outline width in millimeters, and that, when lines intersect or overlap, it combines the elements and creates a continuous outline around them. This would allow you to create patches for milling machines.
2 votes -
Non-breaking space (NBSP) should work
AI ignores NBSP when it's places as symbol. 'No break' option is an option but ridiculously hard to be applied quickly. Anyway NBSP should work
42 votesWhile NBSP works in the general build now, the symbol it uses is still not consistent with InDesign. AFAIK, it was done to quickly push the fix to users... but it’s been 2 years since.
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Ability to edit a graphic style in Graphic Styles
If I want to edit an existing and saved graphic style, I have to apply it to an object, go to Appearance, make changes, open Graphic Styles palette again and Alt+Drag object with style over style thumbnail (or dig into the menu to redefine it). This is very long way.
If I just select a style and go to Appearance and make changes — the link between style and appearance will just vanish (the name of style vanishes), these changes will apply only to new art, and style itself won't be changed (unless I redefine it immediately).
Please, make a…42 votes -
Add an option to disable the Windows 11 Modern Print Dialog
Merci d'ajouter une option pour désactiver la boite d'impression moderne de windows 11 et accéder directement à la boite pilote d'impression de nos machines
3 votes -
"Notes" text field on the "Swatch Options" dialogue
It would be a huge help to have a "notes" text field on the "Swatch Options" dialogue so we could include notes and other meta data about a given swatch to convey to other designers or collaborators.
1 vote -
Allow to add dithering to gradients to reduce banding / improve quality
We have banding when printing gradients from exported TIFF-files.
I have to open them in Photoshop, search a way to select areas with gradients and apply noise in channels needed.
I can apply Grain effect to gradients where I need, but this makes everything run very slow.
What if you add dithering as an option to gradient swatch? or to fill?
So it could be displayed in screen space, applied to current level of zoom, and would export as raster images as well? without slowing down?60 votesDithered gradients are now available in the latest 30.0 general build.
Toggle the option in the Gradient or Control panels.
Read more about it in this help article.
As stated there, important notes are:
- Dithered gradients follow the resolution set in Document Raster Effect Settings. In fact, this dithering is a raster-based effect, same as Gaussian Blur. It should stay live as long as you keep Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities option enabled (be mindful of this when you save your work in a PDF).
- Dither at the moment works only with gradient fills, not strokes
- Gradients added to CC Libraries don’t support Dither — PDF format know nothing about dithered gradients as a concept, it’s something only Ai does
Note also, that some clipboard managers or extension would interfere in copy/pasting these, similar to how it happens with perceptual gradients, as reported here.
Please test it and comment…
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Option to "protect" Type when Scaling/Rotating/Mirroring etc
Please add a "protect" button in the Type-menu. That way, when scaling, rotating, mirroring or similar, only the position point of the Type will be affected, but all other type-measurements (size, horizontal scale etc.) will remain unchanged.
See attached before / after-image with this option turned on.
(This is already a great feature in Adobe's Data-illustrator App.)
3 votes -
'Exclude stroke width' option in Transform effect
When I apply Transform effect to a stroked object, Illustrator includes stroke width and the resulting effect isn't aligned to the main object's skeleton. Consider that I want to mirror a shape and what I expect is the paths to perfectly align to each other. But what happens is that Illustrator treats strokes like they are expanded paths. I usually have to move the effect to correct it.
There should be an option in Transform effect that let the user exclude stroke width from effect. That would resolve this issue.
3 votes -
Add performance scripting options
Currently the options to increase scripting performance are limited. Please add ...
- the ability to process documents without openingen them visually. The documents should remain hidden during processing
- an option to disable screen redraw
- an option to minimize the application windowThese scripting options would be useful ...
8 votes -
Please bring back the slider for the gradient angle adjustment!!!
There used to be a slider for the angle adjustment of gradients. It was great because I didn't have to know the angle or the direction in numbers, (which designers are notoriously bad at, by the way) I could freely adjust the angle based on how it looked. The way it is now, with a textbook and a dropdown menu, is so much more work and SO FRUSTRATING. I don't want to have to type in increments and figure out if I need to make it a negative angle.
PLEASE GIVE ME THE SLIDER BACK!!!!!!!!!
Thank you!
Maia8 votes -
Option to retract handles or leave in place when converting a curved anchor to a corner anchor
When changing a curved anchor to a corner, the handles retract. Would be nice if the handles did not retract, or if there was an option to choose retract or leave the handles where there are.
5 votes -
Add a forced 'lowercase' option in the Character panel’s menu, similar to one InDesign has
InDesign has a way to force a selected text to be always displayed in lowercase.
Illustrator does not offer this option, as the attached screenshots show.
This option would be useful for cases when a font relies mostly on lower-case characters, using its upper case for emphasis, rather than a traditional usage of it, for starting sentences and given names with capitals — not uncommon in comics.
A current workaround is to run the native Type > Change Case > lowercase each time a text gets pasted (or setting up a custom routing with third-party apps to change the…6 votes
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