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Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests

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646 results found

  1. Find and replace graphics

    One of the greatest features of Freehand, and something I miss greatly in Illustrator, is the "Graphic Find And Replace" tool. I use the text find and replace a lot and bringing the same tool set to the graphics side would help with production greatly.

    Some of this functionality can be found with "select same as ..." but is more limited and requires extra steps. Or working with symbols but that's less flexible.

    5 votes

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    1 comment  ·  Tools  ·  Admin →
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  2. Export or save as SVG

    Please improve dramatically the save as or export option to SVG file!
    As many people have already requested, please simplify the code.
    But my request deals with SVG export with indic languages: IT JUST SIMPLY DOES NOT WORK AT ALL, even if all corresponding options (Parameters / Text / Indic and Asian line by line composer) have been selected in Illustrator!!!
    I attach two screen shots: the first one is Illustrator screen, the second the SVG result. You will see that the devanagari text is completely different.
    For your information, I have already mentionned that problem on or two years…

    4 votes

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  3. Allow to control font for Swatch Info objects

    Well... if one wants to choose font size for text in Swatch Info objects while making one — tough luck. We can only set the color chip size.

    Since Preview is completely missing now (here’s the request about it: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/49681244), it’s hard to evaluate if text would be large enough to accompany them.
    Even if you change the font size after the Swatch Info is created — won’t do, each text line is a separate type objects, their leading won’t be adjusted, the card background rectangles won’t adapt!

    One can think this font is based on the [Normal Paragraph…

    4 votes

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  4. Break link to paragraph style

    Simple option to break a bit of text from paragraph style. Just like we can in InDesign.

    2 votes

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  5. Arrange all artboards reference point

    I don't understand which is the starting point of the arrange all artboards, I thought it was the 0 (zero) of the global rulers, but after the arrange all commands the top left artboard is not align with the rulers.

    Is there any answer to this or is it a bug?

    1 vote

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  6. UI Font scaling like Photoshop has now

    Can we get illustrator to have the same type of UI scaling capabilities that Photoshop 2019 has now? I saw that illustrator added the ability to have small, medium and large interface but can we also have text scaling separately as well like small, medium, large so we can change that independently? Right now I have illustrator open and the icon size is ok but the text is too small now. So if you wanted to have the interface as small but the text as medium, that's what I'm talking about.

    2 votes

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  7. Give as a choice when pasting something that uses an existing definition in the current document

    When pasting art with different definitions for an existing style name, users should be given a choice to apply the document style to the pasted text, redefine the document style based on the pasted text, or just ignore it (as it does now).

    It applies to text styles and graphic styles.
    Today, example given, if I paste an artwork that uses 'My Style' from document A into document B that already has 'My Style' defined, Ai would just make it into 'My Style 2', silently.

    Thanks to Rick Johnson for raising this up.

    2 votes

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  8. Allow to hold Shift to force Aligned (orthogonal) Dimensions

    Ai now tries to smartly detect a relative position of the cursor to a dimension being created and choose if it should be parallel or oblique.

    This sound like a smart solution, but in practice is SUCKS.

    Take a look at this small GIF.
    1. The dimension between two objects is live, and responds to the object being moved up and down fine
    2. But if I choose to move it to the right, it says 'hey, I am a dimension between two points, I’m switching to be slanted'
    3. OK, I delete it and try to create anew. STRUGGLING,…

    3 votes

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  9. Pattern brush can be created while viewing preview as in pattern edit mode.

    Creating tiles and checking whether the seams are aligned is hard work.
    I think that it is convenient to have a function that can create a pattern brush while watching the preview as in the pattern edit mode.
    It seems that the efficiency of pattern brush creation will be greatly increased.

    (Translated to Japanese)
    タイルを作成し、つなぎ目が揃っているかを確認する作業は大変なので、パターン編集モードのようにプレビューを見ながらパターンブラシを作成できる機能がほしい。
    制作時の作業効率が大幅にUPすると思います。

    18 votes

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  10. Search field in Graphic Styles palette

    I draw comics, and use Graphic Styles a lot. They let me give names to anything from flat fills to complex appearance stacks with multiple fills, strokes, and effects.

    But once I've loaded in the styles for a full page, with multiple characters, background parts, and whatnot, the Graphic Styles palette starts to get pretty unwieldy. The attached screenshot is the entire height of my laptop screen; note how small the slider handle is!

    I've put effort into giving all of these sensible names. It'd be lovely to be able to use that by having a search bar at…

    6 votes

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  11. Add a quick way to toggle the alignment of a stoke (Center, Inside, Outside): with Opt/Alt-click and/or a hotkey

    There are many modes, states, values in Ai that require precise clicking in a tiny button or a field to toggle or change. We need faster ways to access these.

    A keyboard shortcut to quickly toggle how the current stroke is aligned would be nice to have... for those who prefer clicking, Opt/Alt could be added to avoid precise aiming, just to loop through the modes.

    4 votes

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    0 comments  ·  Strokes  ·  Admin →
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  12. Add Distribute Spacing in Control and Properties panels

    Distribute Spacing is for me the most used alignment option. Unfortunately, it doesn't show in the Control panel, so I always have to use the full alignment panel, just to use this one button while all the other alignment options are right at hand at the top of the screen. It would be great if it would be added there - maybe optionally.

    8 votes

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  13. Set "Registration" (and/or other library color) to Dimension tool

    I would like the ability to set the size color in "Registration" on the lines and text. Unfortunately currently (version 28.1) it is possible to freely set the colors but it is not possible to set the Registration color or other colors present in the document samples. This would be very useful for me when printing color separations for different uses.

    4 votes

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  14. Show 'Can’t join a path' message as a soft one

    Modal dialogs are very dated. They grab attention, they interrupt workflows, they yell at you. Most times we don’t need these as loud as they are — a whisper is nice.
    And Ai actually now has these, 'soft' messages, like the one we get when we modify a live shape — 'Shape expanded', at the top of the view, in a gray rectangle. Calm, non-intrusive, with auto-destruction timer. Nice!

    But there are other, legacy warnings and screams.
    The most annoying for me persoanlly is the one I get when I try to join a closed path (just in case, to…

    10 votes

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  15. Press Alt while creating a radius / diameter dimension to toggle these two mode on the fly

    Currently Dimension tool requires you to orient your cursor when creating a radius or diameter: inside of the clicked shape to create a diameter or outside to make it a radius.

    This is very nifty, sure.
    But:

    1. The tool hardly tells you about it when you draw. The only hint Ai give us is a blue bar (that we all tired of seeing, because everything in Ai now pops and shouts and distracts — I’m speaking about use, Text To Vector!) — I attach the screenshot of it for those who blinked and missed it.

    2. If I work with a…

    9 votes

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  16. Restore previous default Stroke alignment to center, or add a preference option for default alignment.

    The default stroke alignment used to be centered in previous versions.

    1 vote

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  17. Pulling content (text, etc) from a database into a layered template

    Ideally, it would be advantageous to manage a database of content (like SQL) that could then be linked to content in Illustrator files. In that way, changes to the database such as address could then automatically change in the associated Illustrator files. I don't know if this is something already developed and if so, I'd love to hear more about it. I've heard about the Datamerge function, but I don't quite know all of its capabilities. I'd appreciate any comments on whether that is a viable solution. Thank you.

    1 vote

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  18. Share for review needs rotate tool in the web cooperation mode

    I use the share for review usually for the very complex packaging designs.

    In many cases the package has text on all sides and that means that the texts are sometimes 180 or 90 degrees rotated. Its very inconvenient for the client to comment those texts. So the web interface definitely needs a simple 180-90 degrees rotation tool.

    3 votes

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  19. Font stack (like CSS)

    As a user who frequently works with CJK texts, I often encounter challenges in managing fonts for multilingual documents. Currently, setting different fonts for mixed-texts is a cumbersome process.

    When I work with mixed texts, it is common to set CJK texts in one typeface and English text in another, as it is usually the case for many brands. To do so, I have to set the fonts of the text twice (first English, then find all characters whose font is unchanged and set them to the CJK font). Sometimes, if the chosen CJK font…

    3 votes

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  20. Guide Colors to match Layer Colors

    Guides are already assigned to different layers. When a layer is locked, that guide is locked, even if you "Unlock Guides".

    It would make a lot of sense, and be very helpful, if guides were the same color as the layer they are attached to.

    I run into many instances when guides are very close to each other and I'm not sure which guide I should be trying to align to, so I have to take the time to figure it out. It gets frustrating quickly, especially when trying to edit multiple layers together. If guides were the same color…

    3 votes

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