Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
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4470 results found
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The ability to save an appearance of a selected object.
The ability to save an appearance of a selected object to apply to other objects. Much like the copy and paste layer style in Photoshop.
5 votesYou can do that by using Graphic Styles panel: https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/graphic-styles.html
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Allow graphics from libraries in symbol
The ability of using a graphic from the CC libraries in a symbol would be a good idea.
5 votes -
Brushes: anomalous effects
Illustrator 2018 22.0.1
Steps taken: Applying a pattern brush to a stroke, and adding an extra stroke around that in the appearance panel.
Expected result: The stroke should only apply to the visible outline of the brush (see image), and no weird visual anomalies.
Actual result: The stroke applies to both the brush as expected, but also to the original path (which should be invisible). There are also some anomalous gaps between the component parts of the brush, which should not be there.
Furthermore, if you expand the brush you get a group containing the brush sub-paths (totally fine), but each of those sub-paths is further contained within a group within a group (not fine). Neither of those groups is necessary, can cause weird visual effects, and adds unwanted extra complexity to the file.
Illustrator 2018 22.0.1
Steps taken: Applying a pattern brush to a stroke, and adding an extra stroke around that in the appearance panel.
Expected result: The stroke should only apply to the visible outline of the brush (see image), and no weird visual anomalies.
Actual result: The stroke applies to both the brush as expected, but also to the original path (which should be invisible). There are also some anomalous gaps between the component parts of the brush, which should not be there.
Furthermore, if you expand the brush you get a group containing the brush sub-paths (totally fine), but…
5 votes -
Add an Illustrator shortcut to resize my current tool
Please add an Illustrator shortcut to resize my current tool! In Photoshop, if you're on the brush tool, then hold down CTRL and OPT, you can drag up/down to resize the brush. That would be GREAT in Illustrator!
5 votes -
Match display sizes across CC apps already. Please.
- Open AI
- Create new A4 document
- Display @ 100%
- Open ID
- Create new A4 document
- Display @ 100%
- View AI and ID windows side by side
- Compare sizes.
FFS! Please make apps sync real 100% size rendering of documents already. It‘s fundamental for graphic professionals to be able to view documents in real size. Why is this still not fixed.
100% is 100% irrespective of display resolution. Come on, it‘s 2017. Nobody is working on 72 dpi anymore. We all have 5K retina displays.
Please try to keep up, Adobe.
5 votesAi now displays A4 as a proper 210×297mm (if Display Print Size at 100% Zoom option is set in Preferences) — you can check it with a ruler next to a screen.
This messes up 100% for Web-based documents, unfortunately, and this is yet have to be resolved.
InDesign, however, displays it a bit smaller… (this should be asked from InDesign developers).
Photoshop does it almost perfect when you choose View > Actual Size. -
Custom Measured Units for Accurate Drawing
Today I zoom into the pixel level to draw 'in scale' - I would love the option to create custom units of measurement for my drawing and then have Snapping, Grids and Measuring Tools utilize them.
For instance, make a illustration of a floor plan at scale but decide on 50px = 1 virtual foot. I could label this 'Feet' and accurately size lines and objects using this increment of measurement.
Would be fantastic for my furniture and architecture sketching, as well as for many other hobbyists and professionals who know they get a more presentable result from Illustrator than AutoCad.
Today I zoom into the pixel level to draw 'in scale' - I would love the option to create custom units of measurement for my drawing and then have Snapping, Grids and Measuring Tools utilize them.
For instance, make a illustration of a floor plan at scale but decide on 50px = 1 virtual foot. I could label this 'Feet' and accurately size lines and objects using this increment of measurement.
Would be fantastic for my furniture and architecture sketching, as well as for many other hobbyists and professionals who know they get a more presentable result from Illustrator than…
5 votes -
Shapes created in Photoshop should be paste as vector in Illustrator.
Shapes created in Photoshop should be paste as a vector in Illustrator.
After all Photoshop and Illustrator belong to the same family, So at-least we users expect this little ability to have this ease of use.
Please do include this capability.
Thanks.
Jaydev5 votes -
"Replace" automatically selected
Everytime I place an image I have to check if "replace" is clicked. If I have a picture selected and then "place", it means I want to replace it. Please fix this, it's very annoying and have been there for ages.
5 votes -
Recent files list - right-click menu with "Open folder"
In Illustrator (and also other Adobe apps): when the program is started but no document is opened there is a list with icons representing the recent opened documents. My suggestion: Add a right-click menu on those icons with an option to open the document's folder in Windows Explorer.
5 votes -
Presentation screen mode
Add presentation screen mode, similar to InDesign
5 votesIllustrator today offers dedicated View > Presentation Mode
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Locked files on SMB shares (macOS)
There is a weird file-locking problem when files are opened and saved from/to smb volumes mounted on macOS. If files are saved and closed there is still a locking on the files. So colegues are not able to delete/replace this files. There is no problem if the afp-protocol is used. For this reason we had to disable smb-sharing on our server, because macOS uses smb as default if available. (Illustrator 21.1.0 - but at least from version 19 on)
5 votesThank you for the information. i am moving this a feature request to support network drives.
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Convert Text in After Effects
The ability to trace text in After Effects and to remain as text rather than having to copy and paste from Illustrator (just like you can convert Photoshop text to After Effects text)
5 votes -
Dynamic link between Illustrator and After Effects
Please make it easier to make to have changes made to illustrator files reflected automatically in after effects instead of having to re-import.
5 votes -
Copy parts from multiple layers into multiple layers
I work with a lot of parts that I need to keep separated for output. A simple example is a complex, compound shape with 20 elements. I have 10 on a "cut" layer and 10 on a "print" layer. If I copy and paste them, I can only paste them into one layer. I might want them to go back into the same layers or into 2 new layers. I never want them in the same layer. I now have to go in and separate them all into the proper layers.
This is important because the layers tell our output machines what to do with the files.
I work with a lot of parts that I need to keep separated for output. A simple example is a complex, compound shape with 20 elements. I have 10 on a "cut" layer and 10 on a "print" layer. If I copy and paste them, I can only paste them into one layer. I might want them to go back into the same layers or into 2 new layers. I never want them in the same layer. I now have to go in and separate them all into the proper layers.
This is important because the layers tell our output…
5 votesYou can enable Paste Remembers Layers in the panel’s menu to make Illustrator remember layers your objects were copied from and insert them on layers with same name when pasted. If these layers don’t exist, Illustrator will create them. Be careful and disable it when not needed, if might make a mess when not needed. Also note that with this option enable everything copied from an isolation mode creates a separate 'Isolation mode' layer, which is stupid — vote here if you think this should be addressed: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/37935496-paste-remembers-layers-bug-with-isolation-mode -
Brush Groups
I would like to be able to select several brushes in the Brush palette, then press a 'make brush group' button on the palette.
I would then be able to choose this brush group as if it were a brush. Drawing with this brush group would choose a different brush in the group at random for every new path I created.
I might have a 'brush group options' dialogue box wherein I could choose the relative frequencies of the different brushes in the group, switch it between random choice and cycling between brushes in order, give it a name, and... whatever other features seem to need to be in there once it starts taking shape, really.
Ideally, I would be able to have a brush in multiple groups. I would also be able to have brushes of different types in one group - if I wanted to mix an art brush with a scatter brush, for instance, I could.
And ideally, altering the brush group would alter existing paths drawn using the brush group. This might be a choice similar to how changing the settings of a brush that's in use asks if you want to apply the changes to all existing paths that use it.
I've been dabbling with a more 'natural media' look in Illustrator. For my purposes, art brushes seem to be working best, but I'll often start to notice the same repeated features of an art brush sticking out of my drawings. If I could make, say, ten "dry brush" brushes, and have Illustrator constantly swapping between them, this would make the illusion of real media a lot easier to keep up.
Similarly, I use a lot of scatter brushes for things like trees or grass. It would be useful to be able to have several different 'leaf' scatter brushes and just scribble in a few overlapping strokes that automatically pick between them.
I would also be able to create Graphic Styles that call for the use of a brush group on a stroke instead of a single brush.
I would like to be able to select several brushes in the Brush palette, then press a 'make brush group' button on the palette.
I would then be able to choose this brush group as if it were a brush. Drawing with this brush group would choose a different brush in the group at random for every new path I created.
I might have a 'brush group options' dialogue box wherein I could choose the relative frequencies of the different brushes in the group, switch it between random choice and cycling between brushes in order, give it a name,…
5 votes -
Layer freezing
When doing very complicated artwork, sometimes Illustrator's live preview starts to become impossibly slow. Distorted dense fill patterns, lots of art brushes full of translucent shapes, complicated high-res bitmap effects… I can do some stunning things with these but I’m reluctant to use them, because I need to have fast response time in my drawing tool.
Currently, layers can be locked, or unlocked. I would like to have a third mode: 'frozen', where the layer is locked, and a bitmap of the entire layer is cached. This bitmap is then used for rendering the preview, until such time as the layer is unfrozen.
I imagine this being invoked by shift- or control-clicking on the layer's visibility eye in the layers palette; the eye would be replaced by a snowflake or some other indication of it being 'frozen'.
Frozen bitmaps are not saved along with the rest of the file; they’re regenerated when you load it.
(This idea shamelessly swiped from the late lamented Expression, which let me play around with natural media effects at workable speed back around 2005.)
When doing very complicated artwork, sometimes Illustrator's live preview starts to become impossibly slow. Distorted dense fill patterns, lots of art brushes full of translucent shapes, complicated high-res bitmap effects… I can do some stunning things with these but I’m reluctant to use them, because I need to have fast response time in my drawing tool.
Currently, layers can be locked, or unlocked. I would like to have a third mode: 'frozen', where the layer is locked, and a bitmap of the entire layer is cached. This bitmap is then used for rendering the preview, until such time as the…
5 votes -
Consider End handles
In illustrator we can to adjust start and end point handles in open path, but it have not much sense. What about to consider this handles to adjust shape of the object fill. Not on strait line like usual, but in way like we want. By the way, if we decide to close the path, Ai should make it in that way too.
So, we doesn't need two objects with stroke and shape separately, it will be one object with adjustable end handles.5 votes -
SQUARE blob brush would be great
The blob brush is a really great tool for an illustrator like me, but it would be so much more versatile if Illustrator would made available a SQUARE brush next to the round brush.
(CC Animate provides both round and square brushes and it is just great.)
It would allow us to easily draw by hand things with square angles like windows, buildings etc.
A square brush also makes it possible to draw in a woodcut style.
You would even make me happier if it would be possible to stretch and/or rotate the (both round and square) blob brush.Attached an example of a woodcut-style typography handwritten in CC Animate with a square brush (with pressure sensitive tablet pen).
Thank you!
The blob brush is a really great tool for an illustrator like me, but it would be so much more versatile if Illustrator would made available a SQUARE brush next to the round brush.
(CC Animate provides both round and square brushes and it is just great.)
It would allow us to easily draw by hand things with square angles like windows, buildings etc.
A square brush also makes it possible to draw in a woodcut style.
You would even make me happier if it would be possible to stretch and/or rotate the (both round and square) blob brush.Attached…
5 votes -
Select same fill colour selects text with same fill colour too. Tricky I know
When I hit select same colour and there is any live text box with multiple colours in it it does not select the text. Would be really handy if it did.
5 votes -
Pressure Sensitivity added to Pencil Tool
Variable width strokes are great! What would be even better would be to have variable strokes simply by drawing them in with a pressure sensitive device.
5 votes
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