Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
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4745 results found
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Remove Local Overrides button for Paragraph and Character Styles
InDesign has it, Illustrator should too.
Just a single local change, like font colour, and the text looses its paragraph style. The link might still be active since there is a + shown in the paragraph styles window, but changes in the style does not effect the locally changed text anymore.
Maybe this is wanted, but I would love a Remove Local Overrides button like the one in InDesign. It resets all local changes and forces the paragraph style back on the text. Even with multiple textboxes with multiple styles selected.
8 votes -
Why cant a save as a pdf with the option so scale down?
Why cant a save as a pdf with the option so scale down?
if you are working on a shop design and you have the art-board at full size (5666) or whatever it is. I cant save it as a .PDF because its out of range and I cant see a option to scale it down. and we cant print as a PDF anymore...... why are you making proofing so hard?8 votes -
Swap names for Reflect commands
Transform / reflect / horizontal-vertical
function is incorrect
8 votes -
Selection panel - supercharged customisable selection options
- A new Select panel.
*User-defined search permeameters with logical operators, and access to all relevant properties and object types in the document object model. Ability to extend and refine a search by multiple parameters.
*User-defined labels for objects, with which users can create their own custom searches (eg. ”figure”, ”house”, “red team”, “platform” etc.).
This would make me A Happy(er) Bunny.
8 votes -
Numerate / Numbering / Sequential numbers / Number sequence / Auto-serialize
As a function of the transform tool, or perhaps a tool in it's own right, a feature to numerate copies in sequence and/or apply fully scanning bar or QR codes. E.g. raffle tickets, concert tickets, coupons, vouchers, etc.
This would be invaluable as a time-saving measure, and allow an artist/designer to keep something like tickets completely in-house. I've been working with Illustrator for 15 years, and to my knowledge there's no feature that does anything like this. When I design concert or raffle tickets I have to use a 3rd party vendor, pretty much just for the bar code and sequencing. The ability to number things seems like a natural extension of the Transform tool.
MAKE IT SO!
Spok, out.As a function of the transform tool, or perhaps a tool in it's own right, a feature to numerate copies in sequence and/or apply fully scanning bar or QR codes. E.g. raffle tickets, concert tickets, coupons, vouchers, etc.
This would be invaluable as a time-saving measure, and allow an artist/designer to keep something like tickets completely in-house. I've been working with Illustrator for 15 years, and to my knowledge there's no feature that does anything like this. When I design concert or raffle tickets I have to use a 3rd party vendor, pretty much just for the bar code and…
8 votes -
Allow more than 100 artboards
Artboard limits should be a "soft cap" of 100 or more dependent on the user's PC specs. The user should then be able to, at their own risk of performance, increase the cap of artboards to whatever number they feel is necessary, whether or not that is unlimited is up to the user. There was a suggestion to remove this cap over 5 years ago, I believe it is time to make the change.
I need currently 120 and it's really AWKWARD to create a new file and put resources there. I 100% need all my images in one file with multiple artboards!Artboard limits should be a "soft cap" of 100 or more dependent on the user's PC specs. The user should then be able to, at their own risk of performance, increase the cap of artboards to whatever number they feel is necessary, whether or not that is unlimited is up to the user. There was a suggestion to remove this cap over 5 years ago, I believe it is time to make the change.
I need currently 120 and it's really AWKWARD to create a new file and put resources there. I 100% need all my images in one file…8 votesHi,
We are pleased to inform you that your request is available in the latest release of Illustrator version 22.0.
Visit your Adobe Creative Cloud Application and update. If you do not see an update on the application please check for update from the flyout options on the application after clicking on three vertical dots. For step by step process please visit: https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/download-install-app.html#CheckforupdatesWarm Regards,
Ashutosh Chaturvedi | Sr. Quality Engineering Manager – Illustrator
Adobe. Make It an Experience. -
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 -
Make Select Art button more evident
I periodically see designers, with serious (albeit cheerful) faces, boldly clicking the 'round button' in Layers to 'select everything on the layer.'
And while the button indeed 'selects' everything on a layer, it also selects the layer itself — targets it really, for applying a layer-specific appearance.
Take a look at this GIF attached.
If I select Layer 2 (with the green squares) like this, and then apply the Round Corners effect, all the new squares in the layer will have round corners.
Sure, everything is visible in the Appearance palette.
Sure, everything is written in the pop-up hints.The round ones are for appearance. We need to click to the right of the circle instead, where the square markers are drawn — these are there to mark selection... AND allow selection.
It’s a very common mistake (like confusing windshield wipers and turn signals)...
And I think I know why it happens. I’m convinced that it is psychologically easier to click a circle — that looks more like a button, — than an empty space where a square appears (when clicked).
Recently some accessibility changes were introduced into Ai, and now things we can click in most panels gets highlighted slightly on hover — but not these square-to-be spots! Even when there are square markers there!So please make these more pronounced.
I love appearance dearly, but selecting all in a layer / sublayer / group is a far more common procedure users do. And discovering something called 'appearance' was the source of many problems with art’s colors is not a good way to meet this power.
I periodically see designers, with serious (albeit cheerful) faces, boldly clicking the 'round button' in Layers to 'select everything on the layer.'
And while the button indeed 'selects' everything on a layer, it also selects the layer itself — targets it really, for applying a layer-specific appearance.
Take a look at this GIF attached.
If I select Layer 2 (with the green squares) like this, and then apply the Round Corners effect, all the new squares in the layer will have round corners.
Sure, everything is visible in the Appearance palette.
Sure, everything is written in the pop-up hints.The…
7 votes -
Annoying "learn more"
Your instruction and tutorial always pop up and ask me to "learn more". I know the functions already. It is very annoying and I don't want to use Illustrator anymore if I have any alternative.
I cannot find how to close the pop-up and it affects my efficiency a lot. Disturb me every 5 min. It is a very very poor UX experience.
7 votes -
Pin individual color chips in Recent Colors sections
Recently Ai added Recent Color sections (the request: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/44772598) to Swatches and Color panels (with an ability to disable them — thanks!)
Some choices these remember are more important than others — but not enough to be included into the actual Swatches panel. For example, I have a Magenta global color I sometimes want to be added into certain projects, when needed. Pinning it in Recent would allow me to quickly grab it, without dancing with Persistent panels.
Or I could have pinned a brand color of a client I often work with, and have it there.I’d like to have an ability to hold Opt/Alt or Shift and pin a recent chip with a click.
There is a second related request, about deleting one/all chips, so it can use the other modifier — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/50279421Recently Ai added Recent Color sections (the request: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/44772598) to Swatches and Color panels (with an ability to disable them — thanks!)
Some choices these remember are more important than others — but not enough to be included into the actual Swatches panel. For example, I have a Magenta global color I sometimes want to be added into certain projects, when needed. Pinning it in Recent would allow me to quickly grab it, without dancing with Persistent panels.
Or I could have pinned a brand color of a client I often work with, and have it there.I’d…
7 votes -
Add Black and White color chips in Color Picker dialog in Color Models mode
For some reason, the Color Picker dialog is the default way of setting a color in several color induced effects: Drop Shadow, Inner and Outer Glow.
Most of times these effects are used, we need to toggle between black and white. These are more or less OK to pick quickly, if we change the mode of the dialog to Color Swatches.
But each time this dialog is called when editing a color for the effect, the dialog open in the first mode, Color Models.
And to set black or white in this mode we need to click the spectrum field and drag the point into a corner. You get accustomed to this, and realize you can move the mouse beyond the the dialog, making the precision gesture 'infinite' — and this is what MANY users do, if you watch tutorials or timelapses.But this is bullshit. We just need black and white, without fiddling with the spectrum. More of it, in a CMYK document setting black like this would make it rich black, and not K100 — which one would have to set manually, by typing it.
Since there is a request about adding Recent Colors, perhaps into Swatches or Color (http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/44772598), perhaps we should be given an option to see these in Color Picker as well (a lot of users prefer it to Color+Swatches panels). In this case, just make Black and White always there, as a fixed choices.
Another solution would be just to display the same 'Color UI' used for any other place in Ai, the Swatches + Color Mixer (minus Gradient and Generative Pattern, obviously).
For some reason, the Color Picker dialog is the default way of setting a color in several color induced effects: Drop Shadow, Inner and Outer Glow.
Most of times these effects are used, we need to toggle between black and white. These are more or less OK to pick quickly, if we change the mode of the dialog to Color Swatches.
But each time this dialog is called when editing a color for the effect, the dialog open in the first mode, Color Models.
And to set black or white in this mode we need to click the spectrum field…7 votes -
Copy and paste with drag and right click mouse like CorelDRAW
I hope to see in illustrator copy and paste with (drag and right click mouse) like CorelDRAW
7 votes -
Make USEFUL hover hints for ALL the options, fields, menu commands
Clearly the team doesn’t really care about making hover hints to be a learning tool.
Rarely these actually try to say what an option or a field does or controls: like 'Start editing similar shapes together' for the 'Global Edit' button in the Control panel, or 'Click to pick arrowhead to apply to start point of path' in Stroke panel...
But in most cases the hint is extremely rudimentary.
Try to hover the 'W' field in Transform panel — you’d get 'W value'. W?! Weight? Wand? Why not say 'Width Value', or even 'Set Width for the selected objects'?Then again — why do you caption only icons, but not something like menu commands? Why can’t a new user hover over Select > Start Global Edit and get a short explanation (especially with rich tooltips enabled)?
Why Scale Corners in Transform has a decent hint, but Scale Strokes & Effects — none at all?
Why can’t you make hover hints have several lines of text, if needed?
Take a look at how a carefully written hint for a plugin option suffers from being restricted to one line?OK, if you’re afraid of flashing with large cards (the main reason why people hate rich tooltips) — why can’t you make these hints display a shorter version, but give a detailed one after a pause, like the attached GIF shows (from a 3DS Max)? Two second delay is a bit too large, to my taste, but it’s there!
Why can’t every item in Preferences have a hover hint?
Actually I requested this here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/46268617I hope someone in the team just takes time to hover all the UI items in Ai and think a bit. Or scroll through a list you probably can generate... do something, please!
Clearly the team doesn’t really care about making hover hints to be a learning tool.
Rarely these actually try to say what an option or a field does or controls: like 'Start editing similar shapes together' for the 'Global Edit' button in the Control panel, or 'Click to pick arrowhead to apply to start point of path' in Stroke panel...
But in most cases the hint is extremely rudimentary.
Try to hover the 'W' field in Transform panel — you’d get 'W value'. W?! Weight? Wand? Why not say 'Width Value', or even 'Set Width for the selected objects'?Then…
7 votes -
Add a slider to the History panel to quickly review the states of the document
If we want to go back to a certain history state of the current document , we can scroll the History panel and click each step item, guessing the time, judging by the names of these, the scrollbar position (limited by the capped amount of steps)...
It’s a guesswork in most cases, since some steps still have generic names (like always 'Move' and not 'Move Point', 'Move Handle', 'Move Segment', 'Move Path', 'Move Group'...)Can I just grab a slider and scrub with it, seeing all the previous states rendered on canvas — and fast? Today Ai sometimes takes too much time to undo, and it won’t work with scrubbing.
And hey — look, Affinity Designer does this.
If we want to go back to a certain history state of the current document , we can scroll the History panel and click each step item, guessing the time, judging by the names of these, the scrollbar position (limited by the capped amount of steps)...
It’s a guesswork in most cases, since some steps still have generic names (like always 'Move' and not 'Move Point', 'Move Handle', 'Move Segment', 'Move Path', 'Move Group'...)Can I just grab a slider and scrub with it, seeing all the previous states rendered on canvas — and fast? Today Ai sometimes takes too…
7 votes -
Learn to link / place .ai files saved without PDF compatibility (PGF only)
I know, why would you. A PDF-layer is basically a composite flattened layer Ai writes into an .ai document, and just reads it when the file is placed: in Photoshop, in InDesign. Handy, yeah?
Not really. Saving a document without the compatibility is so much faster. The non-compatible files are so much lighter (especially with heavy raster links used within). OK, Ps and InD can’t read PGF (Progressive Graphics Format, the one that’s native for Ai)... but Ai can.
Why not reading linked .ai docs as they are and THEN keep it’s PDF representation within the destination file, if it makes the difference in performance? I don’t mean save this representation within it, just regenerate it on opening, no?
I mean, I’m so tired of seeing these 'This is an Ai® file that was saved without PDF...' stamps instead of actual content when I need to link something... instead of generating it right there and now, you force us to import/open the link, resave it and try anew. You can read these! Just read them, please.
I know, why would you. A PDF-layer is basically a composite flattened layer Ai writes into an .ai document, and just reads it when the file is placed: in Photoshop, in InDesign. Handy, yeah?
Not really. Saving a document without the compatibility is so much faster. The non-compatible files are so much lighter (especially with heavy raster links used within). OK, Ps and InD can’t read PGF (Progressive Graphics Format, the one that’s native for Ai)... but Ai can.
Why not reading linked .ai docs as they are and THEN keep it’s PDF representation within the destination file, if it…
7 votes -
Don’t require hitting Find before Replace All becomes active in Find and Replace dialog
Illustrator’s Find and Replace dialog is bad.
One of the issues is that we can’t immediately Replace All after we enter text. We have to press Find first.Why? If it’s nothing to replace — replace nothing (and perhaps show a message, preferably a shy one, not a clunky modal dialog).
7 votes -
Bring back Duplicate button in the Contextual Task Bar
It would be very useful to bring back the repeat / duplicate icon in the Contextual Task Bar -- specifically when selecting shapes. Illustrator 2024 had this feature when a shape was selected. The 2025 update removed this feature.
Please bring this back, or allow users to customize the Conceptual Task Bar in the settings.
7 votes -
Add a slider to Color Guide panel to change the number of steps
Color Guide panel allows to change the number of steps (4 by default), through Color Guide Options dialog, called through the panel’s flyout menu. Buried rather deeply!
Plus the value is reset every app relaunch, and there is a report about it here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/46283755
What if we could have a slider in this panel, to quickly change the number of steps, up to ~20?
Original idea by Tony Harmer
7 votes -
Holding Control key and clicking on a New Layer icon should create a new layer below, as in Photoshop
Originally mentioned by Mohammed Amjed Khan Abro here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/41107321
Layers Panel.
Holding or pressing the Control key and clicking on a new layer icon in Photoshop to creates a new layer below all the layers if no layer is selected, if a layer is selected then you do the same action will create a new layer below the selected layer which really makes sense.
The same thing would be very comfortable in Illustrator if that feature would be added in the Layers and Appearance Panel.7 votes -
Gap Tool and Live Distribute like InDesign has, with improvements
InDesign has Gap Tool — https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/aligning-distributing-objects.html#align_objects_using_the_gap_tool
Also it has Live Distribute —helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/aligning-distributing-objects.html#distributeobjectsusinglivedistribute
These allow us to control a gap’s size between chosen pair of elements (quoted):
—Drag to move the gap and resize all objects aligned along the gap.
— Shift-drag to move the gap between only the two nearest objects.
— Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) to resize the gap instead of moving it. Adding the Shift key resizes the gap between only the two nearest objects.
— Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) to move the gap and objects in the same direction. Adding the Shift key moves only the two nearest objects.
— Ctrl+Alt-drag (Windows) or Command+Option-drag (Mac OS) to resize the gap and move the objects. Adding the Shift key to resize the gap and move only the two nearest objects.
— Start dragging a selection handle and hold down the Spacebar while dragging. Continue dragging to change the spacing between the objects.
Illustrator needs these options as well.
However, we need more than it has.We need a way to numerically set these values too, not only interactively on canvas. The only thing we have now from the box is Distribute Spacing, and it’s rather limited.
We need a way to specify the final dimension of the selection or the final position of the chosen edge (similar to the way this script allows: https://sysys.blog.shinobi.jp/Entry/96/)
We need a way to choose an axis or the path (curves or straight) these gaps follow.
InDesign has Gap Tool — https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/aligning-distributing-objects.html#align_objects_using_the_gap_tool
Also it has Live Distribute —helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/aligning-distributing-objects.html#distributeobjectsusinglivedistribute
These allow us to control a gap’s size between chosen pair of elements (quoted):
—Drag to move the gap and resize all objects aligned along the gap.
— Shift-drag to move the gap between only the two nearest objects.
— Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) to resize the gap instead of moving it. Adding the Shift key resizes the gap between only the two nearest objects.
— Alt-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac OS) to move the gap and objects in the same direction.…
7 votes
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