Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
4717 results found
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Ability to move Color Groups in Recolor artwork
I just want a simple drag and sort option for Color Groups.
When I goto "Recolor Artwork" I have a lot of color groups there and I just want to drag any with the mouse, thats so simple!Currently they are not moveable at all!
17 votes -
Export from Libraries
Sometimes clients ask for icons and other assets to be delivered separately. If we could export items from the library or drag directly from the library to the asset export window it would be fantastic!
17 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.
17 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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Dimension tool style presets
The dimension tool gives alot of style options for the arrow size, line thickness, offsets, etc. It would be great to save presets that could be switched from a dropdown list in the dimension tool options dialog.
16 votesAdding presets for the Dimension Tool is in the plans.
Thanks for logging the request anyway. Upvote it still if you find it useful.
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Add an option for the Transform effect to use visible bounds of a clipping object
Transform effect is one of the most powerful thing Ai has, compared to whole Repeats functionality. It’s versatile, it works with anything (unlike Repeats).
It has some flaws though, and one of them is the fact it always operates on the overall bounds of the objects, even if it is clipped. It can be useful for some cases, but most of the time we treat objects differently.
Check the image attached.
This combination of effect options applied to a clipped ellipse should produce a result like the green one at thee right... instead, the object is reflected from the right…16 votes -
Rename linked file
If I want to rename a file which is linked to a file (for whatever reason), I have to perform a humiliating process: find a link in Explorer, rename it, return to Ai, wait until it finds out the file is missing, search for the file in a dialog.
When this would be so much faster just to right-click the file (on canvas or in Links panel) and do 'Rename linked file'.
And please consider the other similar request about renaming an embedded image:
https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/47013226-rename-embedded-image16 votes -
Select items in Layers in sync with objects on canvas
We have to work with a strange legacy dichotomy when making a selection in Layers is NOT equal to making a selection on canvas and vice versa.
No other vector application does it like this:
XD, Affinity Designer, Corel Draw, Figma, Xara, Inkscape...Other apps which have layered structures don’t do this also:
Photoshop, Blender, 3DS Max...InDesign and Illustrator are lonely black sheep in the flock of apps.
We need a mode (as an option) to be able to sync both selection methods.
Clicking an object on canvas should highlight the name of it in Layers.
Clicking a name…16 votes -
Make Appearance work for Type objects
More specifically, with type objects, the Appearance palette just says 'Characters', without reflecting the current stroke and fill state of the object. New stroke and fill have to be added to make the Appearance palette useful.
16 votes -
Please allow "ACTIONS" menu to record the SCALE in EXPORT SCREENS dialog for Artboards
Please allow "ACTIONS" menu to record the SCALE in the EXPORT SCREENS dialog for Artboards. I'd love to be able to record ALL the frequent filetypes and associated sizes for each asset and deliver an ACTION to my entire TEAM that makes this efficient for our everyday usage.
16 votes -
Temporarily disable snapping while dragging objects or anchor points
Currently when you move objects or anchor points while you have Snap to Point and/or Smart Guides turned on it is necessary to stop what you're doing and switch them off then switch them back on again when you've finished moving.
This is very disruptive to workflow. Productivity would be significantly increased if there was a modifier key set to disable all snapping while moving an object or anchor.
Obviously all modifier keys and combinations are currently used up for use before clicking an object or starting a process. However the control key (similar to its function in Photoshop) or…
16 votes -
Make Preferences user friendly
These are various recommendation to simplify preferences in all Adobe Applications.
• list groupings (i. e. General, Type, etc.) in alphabetical order
• or list groupings in logical order; example for the first three — General, User Interface, Performance...
• re-review all preference settings and reduce or simplify (Slices has two options?)
• incorporate a Search function to provide the user the ability to quickly locate a specific preference (refer to Apple's System Preferences Search capability) — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/50114196
• make preference category lists universal in title and order for all Adobe applications when possibleThe reason is, I wish to…
16 votes -
Please turn the eyedropper into a cursor for multiple text formatting
Indesign allows you to drag over multiple words within a text box, or over various different places to apply a text attribute with the eyedropper tool. ie, the eyedropper when hovered over the text actually becomes like a cursor, so you can just swipe over the text to apply the attribute. Please can Illustrator have this same feature. Otherwise we have to use the cursor to locate the word, then shift+arrow right to highlight it, then click to apply. It's a bit annoying and time-wasting. The eye-dropper turning into a cursor when hovering over text is much more useful.
16 votes -
Ability to change the Canvas size after a new document is created (normal to large and vise versa)
The new expanded large canvas size is great, but I think there should be an option to change the canvas size from the standard one to the expanded large one after a document is created instead of having to create a new document.
16 votes -
I'd love for the pathfinder to be able to cut up bitmaps, avoiding having so many extraneous paths in a complex file
It would be nice if I could embed a jpeg or some other graphic format and then be able to use the pathfinder tools to change the shape of the image. Seems doable as the graphic imports as a path that happens to be filled with pixels rather than a color or pattern. The main reason I'd rather use the pathfinder for this over a clipping path is to reduce the number of paths in a complex document. When there are many elements in a file, having a lot of clipping paths makes the structure of the file difficult to…
16 votes -
When outlining dotted lines with "aligns dashes", unnecessary anchor points are generated
When dotted lines with “Aligns dashes to corners and path ends, adjusting lengths to fit” are outlined , unnecessary anchor points are generated in the circles at both ends.
When performing detailed processing to create artwork, I sometimes outline dashed lines. So, unnecessary anchor points are an obstacle in such processing.
Although there are workarounds, I hope that users will get clean outline results without any ingenuity.Workaround:
(A)
1.Double-click anywhere in the stroke with Width tool to add a new width point.
2.Execute “Expand Appearance” , “Outline Strokes” or “Flatten Transparency”.(B)
1.Drawing strokes in accurately calculated length with…16 votes -
Artboard Dimension Limitation
One of the biggest complaints we hear from our franchisees is the artboard limitation of 227.541". Why is that the limit? Corel doesn't have a limit. Why Adobe? and why such an obscure number? I realize there is a PDF limitation of 200" so that is another issue.
16 votesThe maximal size of an artboard is limited by the canvas, which is limited to a 2^14 = 16384 points (16383, if you count from zero). It equals roughly to 227 inches or 577 millimeters.
Why this value? Because of math and a weighted decision the team had made long ago about storing coordinates, I assume.
Why is this still relevant? Because a lot of other stuff had been built upon this foundation. It’s extremely costly to make changes to this without making everything else crumble.
There is another request, now marked as completed, 'Remove Canvas Limit' — https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/20395555-remove-canvas-size-limit. To make it work, the team added an internal scale factor which allows 10x larger canvas, by removing one decimal space — which makes sense, since a user probably won’t need to deal with ten-thousands when working in tens of meters.
However, this request is still valid — but please…
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Make guides to be like in InDesign
Certain features of the guides are very disturbing. The fact that the guides are movable in the counter intuitive directions (horizontal guides can also be moved sidewise and vice versa) create situations when "objects" are being moved out of the canvas, which prevents curtain actions. Basically, the fact that guides behave like objects is a problem. Guides always get mistakenly grouped with objects, which leads to deleting objects when attempting to delete guides. Guides are being copied with objects when objects are chosen in hide guides mode - bad news. The feature of being able to align guides with objects…
16 votes -
Please give us a way to disable newbie help
I know the "Tour" window goes away if you skip it 3 times, but this is professional software we should have a way to disable ALL automatic help features. Also this doesnt need to reset when a new version of illustrator is sent out.
16 votes -
Allow Illustrator scripts to run in background
I use a script to package a lot of ai files at once. Currently, the Illustrator window needs focus to run the script, or else the script will pause. If Illustrator could do this by itself in the background, it would eliminate the need to wait for the script to finish.
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
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