Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
- or
734 results found
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Allow to customize colors for handle controls, anchors, and paths edges (permanently and context-based / on the fly)
It would be helpful if you could make the color of pen tool handles distinguishable from the anchor color, even just a slight difference would be helpful.
13 votes -
Ability to toggle snap on/off while moving individual points
I want snap to be on almost all the time. I only need it off to move a point or two.
I would like a single key to hold down that would turn off snap while I move that single point.13 votes -
Tools to edit paths to make straight lines, sharp corners, and smooth curves for faster vector trace clean up
Attached are three tool examples I would like implemented into Illustrator to speed up the process of cleaning up vector paths. A lot of times when you do a vector trace the corners of text or objects will not have a sharp point or areas with straight lines will become jagged or distorted. To clean these areas up requires a lot of single clicks on points and anchor points to get the right result. Implementing these types of tools into illustrator will allow for these changes in as little as three clicks vastly speeding up the process. On top of…
5 votes -
let me interact with the artboard while having appearance-effect dialogues open
As soon as a dialogue from the effects panel is open (e.g. 3D extrude & bevel or drop shadow, etc. ...) I cannot interact with my artwork anymore as the dialogue box hogs the focus. This is really annoying as you often want to adjust the size or position of your object when editing the effects to better see if everything meshes well together
2 votes -
Play actions in Button mode
If it would be possible to add a shortcut, or a way, to press "Play" button in action tab, from button mode.
Having multiple actions is easier to handle in button mode, but it is unable to use more complicated actions for example with stops, because there is no play, and way to adjust shortcut for it, so you need to be in standard mode.2 votes -
Is it possible to custom CSS classes? not Id's (so layers)
Like in Inkscape where we can see the SVG output and modify it before export.
I know there is Graphic Styles etc.1 vote -
Improve User-Friendliness
I would enjoy Illustrator a lot more if I had the option to make the UI that of Photoshop's. It allows me to easily and quickly manipulate the layers, unlike in Illustrator. In illustrator, if I wish to change the opacity of a layer and solely a layer, I've found it to be impossible, since the opacity slider changes the opacity of my brush tool for future use, even if I manipulate its opacity back to 100%. Why is the desktop version of Illustrator so much less user-friendly than the free iOS and Android application versions? The only reason that…
1 vote -
Add option when creating New View to opt out from changing zoom level
The custom Views is a godsend for complex artwork, but sometimes it would be nice to keep the zoom level and toggle only the Layers settings (visibility, lock status, etc). So either an option when saving the custom View, or a program-wide preference setting would be highly appreciated. In this way, the request for a layer visibility toggle shortcut could also be partially addressed.
2 votes -
Support for More Keyboard Shortcut Modifiers
I want to map shortcuts using the option/alt modifier key. Illustrator won't let me do this natively, nor through macOS's Keyboard system preferences. Please consider changing this.
11 votes -
Cluster / group small increment edits like nudging as one "move" in History to undo
In Photoshop, when a user nudges an object by holding down an arrow key for an interval of time, PS clusters that series of nudges as one "move". Then the user can undo all of the nudges at once with one "Undo move" command in the History panel. Since Illy doesn't have a History panel (and why is there no History panel? Don't like it, don't use it.), it's impossible to undo all of the nudges with one "Undo". Please make Illy treat nudges like PS does.
18 votes -
Align to Key Object using Direct Select
Double clicking on an object while having direct selection active does not cause the object to become key object. This is possible only when selection tool is active
Recommendation: allow double clicking to select key object while under direct selection tool
2 votes -
Generate a full calendar design with a text prompt from a custom template
I think this will be the next level of GenAI
The idea is to generate text using AI recognition from the customized template and add multiple artboards with Gen AI.For example:
If we have a calendar design for January 2025 with editable text.
We input the prompt like "generate remaining months of 2025"
The GenAI feature should recognize the template, colors, and text within.
The GenAI should make additional artboards with the remaining months and accurate data keeping the template and the colors consistent.1 vote -
In Appearance calling alternative color UI is done with Shift and not obvious Alt
For some we have to hold Shift while clicking a fill/stroke square in Appearance panel to call the alternative pseudo-panel.
Alt = Alternative. Sure, Macs have Option instead, but it also fits.Also, the hint has the 'Shift' and 'Color' written in lower-case: 'Hold shift key to bring up alternate color UI'... and I have no idea why 'alternate', why no alternation happens? Who wrote this hint?
13 votes -
Customizable splash screen
Adobe marketing team decides what to display as splash screens. Sometimes the choice is great, and sometimes is not, much more often, to some of us.
And since the Illustrator splash screen is what we see often, and it obviously influence our thought and mood, we’d like to have options to customize it.
We can access the image ourselves, all of them are stored along with other version for different resolution screens at
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 2022\Support Files\Contents\Windows\aiccsplash.png (on Windows)
and packed in the application in Contents\Resources\ (on Macs),
but this feels like a hack.What if…
18 votes -
Shape Distribution Tool
A tool you can use with selected objects, that would distribute those objects, in layer order, around the outline of the designated shape, most likely a circle/oval, square/rectangle, triangle, star, or custom shape.
This would be a great layout assistant for placing, scaling, and rotating different kinds of objects at once. A time-saving and more accurate way to create many types of layouts.With this tool, you could:
- distribute different types of objects (shapes, text, symbols, etc) around a shape
- scale the shape and objects independently
- auto orient rotation to the center or the line segment in…5 votes -
Allow custom color profiles to be saved to the CC libraries
Creating CutContour swatch and Color Process colors (because Pantone+ colors are not available) lose their values once saved to CC libraries.
1 vote -
Paint mode like in Adobe Animate / Flash for Illustrator
- I used to work with Adobe Flash (now Animate) for years and loved how the vector tools work there. I would like to have exactly this "drawing mode" in Illustrator! I know there is already something quite close to it, but it still doesn't have the same features and you have to remove overlapping areas and so on .
- I think having the "quick n dirty" design tools like the flash/animate brush AND the sophisticated tools already available in illustrator in the same product, that would boost productivity!
1 vote -
Allow us to set a custom scale instead of having only one 1/10 through Large Canvas
I know there is already a massive discussion around this topic, but I had an idea this morning. The "Large Artboard" that is now available as far as I can tell is not truly a new massive artboard. It's just doing 1:10 scale math for you automatically. I see underneath the hood when using my vinyl cutter for example. A file sent to the cutting software sees everything at 10% size. Another example is when copy/paste from large artboard to a normal board, it will come in at 10% size.
Here's my suggestion: Instead of having a single large artboard…2 votes -
Allow to use point-specific controls when all points of a path are selected: Convert to Smooth / Corner, Show / Hide Handles, Cut
There is a limitation in Adobe Illustrator with aligning anchor points.
When using the Direct Selection tool to highlight anchor points on a path the options to align anchor points disappears in the Align palette if all points on a path are selected.
That can be a problem if I'm trying to align two points on a simple two point path. I either have to add additional points or manually align the path using smart guides. It would be really nice if one anchor point could have key object like behavior and stay locked in place. Certain rival vector graphics…14 votes -
Restrict Pan to work only Horizontally / Vertically with a Shift modifier
I'd love if there was a key we could hold down to restrict the hand tool to only pan perfectly vertical or horizontal. Would make it easier to develop for web — you could quickly get a sense of how a site would work when the user scrolls.
11 votes
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