Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
4421 results found
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Command Palette / Panel / Bar
Sublime & Visual Code are text editors that are used to develop applications. One of the favorite functions is "Command Palette" which is activated with the Ctrl + Shift + P keys. This shows a text field at the top, from which almost any program command is invoked, as well as opening files and many other functions. One of the features is that it is not necessary to write the entire command, you can use only the first letters of two words and the results are listed. Visual Code is open source and you can surely study that functionality in…
16 votes -
Don't erase Note in Attributes when image is relinked
I store meta-information about image in Note field in Attributes palette. When I relink images, AI erases Note info. Don't do this. I see relinking as changing path to an image, not replacing image entirely. I need Note to be kept. Now I have to copy note before relinking and paste it back.
16 votes -
Create symbols from Global Edit
Global Edit is great, but it should have a way to make the globally selected items into multiple instances of a symbol. Once you start Global Edit, as long as the individual items qualify as being instances of the same symbol, that option should be made available to you.
16 votes -
Dark mode / Light mode (Automatic)
Now that macOS support a real light/dark mode, it would be really nice to have this option enabled automatically in any Adobe products when I switch from light to dark and vice versa in my system preferences.
It would be even cooler if you added an option to change the interface automatically depending on the time of the day.
16 votes -
Can't select and edit two effects from two separate fills in single appearance
I can't select two effects, applied to different fills in one appearance — AI restricts to select both of them. Therefore, if I have same effect applied to all of my object's fills, I have to edit EACH of them one by one, instead of just Ctrl+click all of them and edit at once.
It means that if I want to change Drop shadow's parameters, scattered across different appearances, no graphic style won't help me. And I already mentioned in separate enquiry that Drop shadow and other color-based effects ignore global swatches.
This is nuts. I waste so much time.16 votes -
Allow Custom Brick Offset Values in Pattern Maker
The 9 fractions included in Brick Offset are not always enough to align patterns properly. When bricking a pattern, to achieve the acquired random look of a pattern, paths may need to be repeated just so it evenly fits within one of the fraction presets. The fractions are sometimes only off by a slight degree, that would be perfectly symmetrical if one were allowed the ability to adjust their own decimal chosen. Part of the confusion may also stem from complex patterns where they are difficult to update, as well as sorted fractions where Illustrator otherwise uses decimals. By size…
16 votes -
16 votes
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Select objects above / below current layer / object
Under the select menu I would like to see added an option to select all layers that are above/below the current layer. In my use case this would be best in the context of the current artboard.
For example, this could be used to select everything about a semitransparent overlay layer in web visuals showing a popup element.
16 votes -
Make Perspective grid tool work with smart guides
I can't set proper perspective grid without controls of grid snapping to specific points in my art.
Setting this up is ridiculous .
There is no 'Preview' tick in 'Define grid' dialogue.
You can't symmetrically stretch symmetrical one-point perspective grid.
You can't custom drag vanishing lines.
You just can't set is precisely.I have to build everything manually.
16 votes -
Live preview of gradient (while dragging)
Whenever I'm using the gradient tool I wonder why I can never see the appearance of the gradient while dragging it. resulting in having to tweak it at least a couple of times before I'm content.
16 votesIllustrator now displays the appearance of the gradient interactively when you drag it, but only when GPU preview is on.
Make sure it is on in Preferences > Performance > GPU Performance, that you View > Preview on CPU / GPU Preview is correctly toggled, and that you are not using Overprint Preview.
If the issue still persists with all these checked — please comment back.
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Make ImageTrace Like CS5 LiveTrace
ImageTrace may use less points but it completely gets rid of any ink bleed when tracing inked line art. The ink bleed was achievable with CS5 Live Trace but once ImageTrace was introduced it's not possible to achieve with any setting.
Please make ImageTrace great again, it was great as CS5 LiveTrace. Unbeatable. At least make CS5 available through Adobe CC subscription if nothing else.
I know I'm not the only one, please upvote if you feel the same way and miss the accuracy of CS5 LiveTrace.
16 votes -
Remember Pathfinder Options across sessions
Currently, the Pathfinder Options are not remembered across Illustrator sessions. This can be tested with the following steps.
- Launch Illustrator.
- Via the Pathfinder panel, use the flyout menu to open Pathfinder Options.
- Set the precision to anything other than 0.028 pt.
- Quit and relaunch Illustrator.
- Reopen the Pathfinder Options. The precision has been set back to 0.028 pt.
It would also be good if the Pathfinder Options were able to be recorded as an action. It seems like a bug that they can not now — recording an action for it appears to work, and there is a Pathfinder Options…
16 votes -
Alt+click on Expand button in Pathfinder palette to release compound shape
I have to release compound shapes quite often. Each time I have to use palette menu, which means two precise clicks.
Why not to change 'Expand' button to 'Release' when Alt is pressed, to revert it's function and let users quickly deconstruct shapes?
It's one of JDI things.16 votes -
Add paragraph return (^p) as a special character in Find and Replace window
Find and Replace text has a shortcut popup for a Forced Line Break, ^n, but not the more common simple Paragraph return, ^p.
A Paragraph return is the normal Return button on all keyboards. A forced line break is Shift/Enter.
Find/Replace understands ^n notation for a forced line break, but does not understand ^p notation for a paragraph return.
16 votes -
Turn a layer highlight into an object selection
It's often simpler to highlight entries in the layers panel than it is to select the objects on the artboard.
e.g. you could just click the first and shift-click the last in order to hightlight many consecutive layers.
It would be really efficient if those highlighted objects could then be turned into a selection on the artboard (for transforming the elements or whatnot).
16 votes -
"Divide objects below" with a group
"Divide objects below" (what I call "cookie cutting") with multiple objects that are from a group, all at once . If I want to cut a pattern (let's say, giraffe spots) out of a shape located below, I should be able to divide the object without having to do it for each individual spot. If the spots are already grouped together to form a pattern, that pattern should be able to divide all at once.
16 votes -
Anchor point smart delete
Deleting an anchor point by default break up the shape of the stroke.
What about smart delete, that automatically adjust nearest handles to save the shape of the stroke.
I dream about it from the cs3 version :)16 votes -
Aligning to a certain object
The Align tools in all Adobe programs is a wonderful feature. However, in Illustrator when you Align objects it changes the position of ALL of them. In other programs, it tends to be the last object you select takes the dominant position - aligning all others to it. In Illustrator it doesn't seem to matter the order you select, it just aligns it to the nearest center point (thus moving ALL the objects). The Lock feature doesn't help as you cannot select a locked object to align with/to.
16 votesYou can align to an object you choose to be the key one.. Click the object you want to use as a key the second time and Ai will use a bolder edge to highlight it.
More details here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miVLI8rwO1o https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/moving-aligning-distributing-objects.html
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Add an option for Pathfinder to make compound paths instead of groups
If you draw a row of rectangles (with gaps) and hit Unite button in Pathfinder — Ai will create a group.
But if you hold Alt, then hit Unite, and then hit Expand in this panel — Ai will make create a compound path!
I almost always want a compound path.
And I hate this workaround, since it requires twice as much operations (yeah, 2 instead of 1!). Another workaround is an action to ungroup and make a compound path — which is still a 2 steps operation!The alternative is to have a panel full of actions for each…
15 votes -
A hotkey to switch gradient types, Linear/Radial/Freeform
Shift + > and Shift + < are not taken.
We’d assigned them ourselves, but guess what — you forgot to expose these in Keyboard Shortcuts. As 90% of all other commands and buttons we have in panels. But hey, we introduce new features... finish old ones already.
15 votes
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