Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
4699 results found
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Curve length, area, perimeter measurements for Dimension tool
We need a way to measure the length of a line regardless of shape, but at minimum we need a way to measure a basic curved line. It would be especially helpful if we could use the measure tool or some time-saving variant to tell if a curve has the desired length. While we can do a workaround now using the Document Info panel, having to isolate lines in order to do so can get really cumbersome and tedious.
15 votesThe team has started working on this request. As a first step they want to understand the requirements correctly and build the right feature set based on the feedback gathered.
If you are willing to discuss area calculation in a call session, block a time slot here: https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/c1b7ecea1cbd42a2a7068cfeb7861bdd@adobe.com/meetingtype/Fn8tXNebh0eyv4xTnvQ-3Q2?anonymous&ep=mlink
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RAL Swatch Library
RAL Swatch library. We don’t need this for print or screen, but it is necessary to mark a plastic or metal with RAL colour when documentation is sent to manufacturing. Do something about it.
15 votes -
Add DXF/DWG Export To Increased Canvas Size In Illustrator 24.2 (and later)
Would it be possible to add DXF/DWG as an export option for the new expanded max canvas size (Illustrator, 24.2 and forward). The increased canvas size is wonderful, however as someone who will move to-scale sketches from Illustrator into a 3D modeling program, not having DXF/DWG exports at the new max size makes the use of the new canvas size somewhat limited.
15 votes -
Path-to-path collision snapping
It would be incredibly useful to have, for example, two circles snap to each other not only at the anchor points but also at any point along the paths. This would help a lot when using Shape Builder tool, because at the moment most of the time you either get a tiny gap between the shapes (then the Shape Builder tool doesn't work), or the shapes overlap (then the Shape Builder tool leaves unnecessary anchor points which you have to meticulously fix).
15 votes -
Allow Warp Effects to distort linear gradient
When you turn on distorting linear gradients (Object > Envelope Distort > Envelope options: Distort Linear Gradients Fill), AI still won't do it when you use Warp Effects (Effect > Warp). This should be fixed.
I'd even extend this option to treat other gradients types, not only linear.
15 votes -
Delete unused empty layers
Would love to have the possibility to delete unused layers in Illustrator (like you can delete unused colors very quickly).
e.g. when you have 100 layers and only 10 layers have objects on them, but you don't want to delete every layer manually
15 votes -
Make Isolate work for components of a compound paths/shapes
Ai allows you to isolate a single path within document structure, but it only applies to groups. If you want to isolate a part of the compound path/shape — you won't be able to do it.
I fully understand that this requires Ai to decide what to do with art that is created at this isolation level, especially not ordinary paths: type, mesh, brushes... But this can be checked, both creation and pasting and dragging.
Speaking of compound shapes it would also mean that the boolean result will change.
Still, a very welcome feature.15 votes -
Duplicate File
Like in Photoshop, I'd like an option in Illustrator to duplicate the entire file, opening the duplicate in a new tab.
15 votes -
I'd love for the pathfinder to be able to cut up bitmaps, avoiding having so many extraneous paths in a complex file
It would be nice if I could embed a jpeg or some other graphic format and then be able to use the pathfinder tools to change the shape of the image. Seems doable as the graphic imports as a path that happens to be filled with pixels rather than a color or pattern. The main reason I'd rather use the pathfinder for this over a clipping path is to reduce the number of paths in a complex document. When there are many elements in a file, having a lot of clipping paths makes the structure of the file difficult to…
15 votes -
Artboard Dimension Limitation
One of the biggest complaints we hear from our franchisees is the artboard limitation of 227.541". Why is that the limit? Corel doesn't have a limit. Why Adobe? and why such an obscure number? I realize there is a PDF limitation of 200" so that is another issue.
15 votesThe maximal size of an artboard is limited by the canvas, which is limited to a 2^14 = 16384 points (16383, if you count from zero). It equals roughly to 227 inches or 577 millimeters.
Why this value? Because of math and a weighted decision the team had made long ago about storing coordinates, I assume.
Why is this still relevant? Because a lot of other stuff had been built upon this foundation. It’s extremely costly to make changes to this without making everything else crumble.
There is another request, now marked as completed, 'Remove Canvas Limit' — https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/20395555-remove-canvas-size-limit. To make it work, the team added an internal scale factor which allows 10x larger canvas, by removing one decimal space — which makes sense, since a user probably won’t need to deal with ten-thousands when working in tens of meters.
However, this request is still valid — but please…
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Make Ligatures OFF by default and have a checkbox in Preferences > Type
Please make it possible to turn off all ligatures within the Preferences > Type dialog box, then make it Off by Default.
15 votes -
Chinese text hyphenation alignment for punctuation marks in Illustrator text box
Punctuation marks justified alignment on textbox.
Need to automate the text alignment in the textbox for Chinese characters.
Because it is very time consuming to do manual kerning for each characters reiteratively, whenever there is amendment to the text in the box.15 votesAs per the comment within, this can be resolved like this:
1. In Preferences > Type > enable Show East Asian Options
2. In Paragraph panel choose Avoid Head and Tail, Strict
Please comment back if it works or not for you.
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Libraries - Add Ability to Drag-and-Drop Swatches from Library Panel to Swatches Panel
Add ability to drag-and-drop a color swatch from the Library Panel to the Swatches Panel.
The functionality exists in the Library Panel Menu, but can't be executed by drag-and-drop. Drag-and-drop swatches is a age-old UI convention in Illustrator and it feels broken that a user can't currently do this.
15 votes -
Copy the 'Indent to here' command from InDesign
'As it says on the tin'
So many times you start out creating a graphic and you're in two minds whether to use Illustrator for it's superior vector tools, or InDesign for its superior type control.
When I need to quickly add a couple of bullets it would be so much easier if I could fake the tab stop of the first line with an em dash and then an 'Indent to here' (Ctrl+) so that any wrapped text is quickly brought into line.
15 votes -
Make guides to be like in InDesign
Certain features of the guides are very disturbing. The fact that the guides are movable in the counter intuitive directions (horizontal guides can also be moved sidewise and vice versa) create situations when "objects" are being moved out of the canvas, which prevents curtain actions. Basically, the fact that guides behave like objects is a problem. Guides always get mistakenly grouped with objects, which leads to deleting objects when attempting to delete guides. Guides are being copied with objects when objects are chosen in hide guides mode - bad news. The feature of being able to align guides with objects…
15 votes -
Please give us a way to disable newbie help
I know the "Tour" window goes away if you skip it 3 times, but this is professional software we should have a way to disable ALL automatic help features. Also this doesnt need to reset when a new version of illustrator is sent out.
15 votes -
a way to nest objects on art board for sign makers
Idea: Take multiple objects, such as multiple copies of a logo or elements and nesting them within the artboard and a feature to say how much space you want between each object.
Reason: When it comes to signs or sending a print job to a plotter. Sign makers want to maximize the number of objects on a vinyl. Sure we can manually move objects or even use the distribute tool. but this takes to long and sometimes when selecting multiple objects you can not use the distribution tool to distribute both vertical and horizontal at the same time or objects…
15 votes -
Allow Illustrator scripts to run in background
I use a script to package a lot of ai files at once. Currently, the Illustrator window needs focus to run the script, or else the script will pause. If Illustrator could do this by itself in the background, it would eliminate the need to wait for the script to finish.
15 votes -
Set export options to default to the same folder the native is housed in
Set default export or save as locations to start in the same folder as the native Ai file as opposed to previous locations. It can be rather cumbersome when switching to an entirely new project, then exporting that project and having the 'save as' default to the entirely other project's recent save.
15 votes -
Metadata enhancements for artboard to invidual file (save/export)
Wish - Metadata enhancements
1) Document level metadata to be exported and added when artboards are exported as individual files
2) Ability to add overrides at artboard level for metadata, which on export is carried forward into the individual files generatedScenario:
I often create a series of images by using arboards, as they are related and worked on as a mini-project (e.g. series of icons, part of online learning story-boards, series of progressive diagrams etc.). I export these for use by individual staff, who use graphics in PowerPoint, Word, LMS, InDesign projects etc.
Note: InDesign docs are converted to…15 votes
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