Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
When entering a new feature request, please provide:
- Description
- Why is this valuable to you?
- or
4721 results found
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Faux Italics
It would save time & Photoshop, InDesign, and rich text editors can skew a regular font that does not have an italic weight.
12 votes -
Convert to Type On A Path
The option to convert point or area type to 'type on a path' would be helpful. Also to be able to use the pen tool to add points on a 'point type path' and by doing so converting it to 'type on a path'. This removes the need to draw the path then add the type.
12 votes -
Make the new "Properties" panel optional.
The idea of the properties panel is nice, but it should be customizable. For example, the four pathfinder tools that come up when more than one object is selected aren't the main four that I use, so it would be nice to be able to switch out the default four that pop up.
It would also be nice if there were a way to not use the new properties panel, and be able to switch in the windows drop down menu to using the old properties panel that is in the top bar across the screen. I don't love the new properties panel from the stand point that it takes away so much of my screen. Most of the time, the entire bottom half of the properties panel is empty. I'd rather just lose a little of the view of my workspace with the thin bar across the top of my screen how it used to be, as opposed to how it is now where I gain just a little more of a view without the bar on the top, but lose so much of the meat of the width of my workspace.
Maybe I just haven't played around with this enough, but as soon as I saw this is how it worked, and couldn't figure our a way around it, I was instantly frustrated. If I wanted to use this kind of interface, I would just go use sketch or try out XD. But i feel like illustrator should say the way it is. If its not broke, don't fix it.
The idea of the properties panel is nice, but it should be customizable. For example, the four pathfinder tools that come up when more than one object is selected aren't the main four that I use, so it would be nice to be able to switch out the default four that pop up.
It would also be nice if there were a way to not use the new properties panel, and be able to switch in the windows drop down menu to using the old properties panel that is in the top bar across the screen. I don't love the…
12 votes
Nitish Agarwal
responded
Hi,
If you want to switch the older control panel you can do that in 2 ways:
1. Go to Window > Control and the control panel will be shown.
2. Go to Workspaces and switch to Essential Classic, this will also show the Control panel on the top.Thanks & Regards
Nitish Agarwal
Illustrator Team -
Paint Brush Fidelity
Old illustrator use to let you change the paint brush fidelity with decimal increments. Now there are just 5 options. Can adobe please just change the slider so we can have more options to choose from? The jumps in fidelity options are just too big and it makes drawing a pain.
12 votes -
A hotkey to make the Free Transform tool only transform fill patterns.
When dragging with the Selection or Direct Selection tools, or using the Rotate, and Scale tools to transform an object, you can hold down ~ to only transform its pattern fill. But the Free Transform tool doesn’t do this. Can we get it to do this?
(As with the Rotate, Scale, and Selection tools, holding down the other modifier keys whole holding down ~ should act as they normally do with the Free Transform tool.)
There is a ‘transform pattern only’ option in the Transform panel’s menu, but that’s a lot of clicks far away from the thing you’re actively working on, plus it doesn’t actually WORK. No, really, try it. Make a fill pattern, draw a shape with it, check 'transform pattern only', and watch the entire object be transformed along with its fill pattern.
(Actually it is the ` key, no need to hold down Shift to get a ~; I just usually refer to it as the ~ because that's easier to distinguish from the '/" key in many fonts.)
When dragging with the Selection or Direct Selection tools, or using the Rotate, and Scale tools to transform an object, you can hold down ~ to only transform its pattern fill. But the Free Transform tool doesn’t do this. Can we get it to do this?
(As with the Rotate, Scale, and Selection tools, holding down the other modifier keys whole holding down ~ should act as they normally do with the Free Transform tool.)
There is a ‘transform pattern only’ option in the Transform panel’s menu, but that’s a lot of clicks far away from the thing you’re actively…
12 votes -
Make Spiral as a live shape, editable after it has been drawn
It could be useful to have an option for adding segments, or changing decay, especially if it serves as a path for text.
12 votes -
Pin a document to Home screen
Have the ability to pin a document to the Home screen
12 votes -
Archimedean Spirals
Surely this should just be a default option for spiral drawing, in the current state of design i would imagine regular spirals would be used far more often than logarithmic, the current way to create them is lengthy and cumbersome.
Hope this makes it!12 votes -
Quick Apply in Illustrator (and all major Adobe apps)
There’s a neat and extremely useful feature in InDesign called Quick Apply (and I wonder why is it only there). It’s a quick and convenient way to find, select and perform any desired action whose name I know but am unable to find (within myriad of menus and submenus of panel options). Please add the same feature to all major apps.
12 votes -
Add Transform Again Individually / Transform Sequence Again / Sequence Again Individually commands, as in InDesign
Illustrator has Transform Again command (and it’s rather useful), but InDesign has three additional commands:
Transform Again Individually:
Applies the last single transform operation to each selected object individually, rather than as a group.Transform Sequence Again:
Applies the last sequence of transform operations to the selection.Transform Sequence Again Individually:
Applies the last sequence of transform operations to each selected object individually.
As described here: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/transforming-objects.html#repeat_transformations
Here is a video demonstrating the difference between these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4gLe9LeRKI
Sure, we have Transform Each as a workaround, but it doesn’t support custom pivots as tools do, and these are just faster.
If you like this request, take a look at these two as well:
— Rotate, scale, skew, transform selected objects separately: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/46268581
— Add a Step and Repeat Feature:
http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/39044275Illustrator has Transform Again command (and it’s rather useful), but InDesign has three additional commands:
Transform Again Individually:
Applies the last single transform operation to each selected object individually, rather than as a group.Transform Sequence Again:
Applies the last sequence of transform operations to the selection.Transform Sequence Again Individually:
Applies the last sequence of transform operations to each selected object individually.
As described here: https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/transforming-objects.html#repeat_transformations
Here is a video demonstrating the difference between these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4gLe9LeRKI
Sure, we have Transform Each as a workaround, but it doesn’t support custom pivots as tools do, and these are just faster.
If…
11 votes -
Treat groups as a result of Unite and not Intersect when using as a clipping mask
If we put a group on top of some art, select them together and create a clipping mask from this top group and the art below, usually we won’t see anything, as if it does not work.
We expect Illustrator to treat the group as a result of Unite operation, but actually it is Intersected instead. This is hardly useful. and if we wanted to use an intersection of parts, we’d clip with a compound intersecting shape probably.
Please give us a way a to choose the default treatment for a group used as a clipping mask. I assume it should be an object-level preference, controlled in Attributes panel, to keep it compatible with existing cases.
If we put a group on top of some art, select them together and create a clipping mask from this top group and the art below, usually we won’t see anything, as if it does not work.
We expect Illustrator to treat the group as a result of Unite operation, but actually it is Intersected instead. This is hardly useful. and if we wanted to use an intersection of parts, we’d clip with a compound intersecting shape probably.
Please give us a way a to choose the default treatment for a group used as a clipping mask. I assume it…
11 votes -
Oval Radial Repeat
It would be very useful to be able to adjust the radial repeat to an oval radial repeat. Just like how you can change a radial gradient from a circular shape to an oval shape. Opens for lots of more possibilities and will be a huge time saver. Doing this manually is hard.
11 votes -
Add an option to measure gaps between objects in Objects on Path by their bounds, not between centers
Objects on Path needs more options and in its current setup is very limited in its usefulness. This tool feels like it's still in beta. Whilst it's good at doing the one thing it's designed to do, it's missing a lot of useful capabilities.
If the objects are different sizes it doesn't space them evenly. Spacing currently is determined only by the center points of the objects rather than its bounding box. At least make it an option.
- Objects on Path needs an ability to keep orientation of objects relative to page/path, similar to blends — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/48984890
- Allow to nudge or rotate individual elements along the path for Objects on Path — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/48987899
Objects on Path needs more options and in its current setup is very limited in its usefulness. This tool feels like it's still in beta. Whilst it's good at doing the one thing it's designed to do, it's missing a lot of useful capabilities.
If the objects are different sizes it doesn't space them evenly. Spacing currently is determined only by the center points of the objects rather than its bounding box. At least make it an option.
- Objects on Path needs an ability to keep orientation of objects relative to page/path, similar to blends — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/48984890
- Allow to nudge…
11 votes -
Display artboard captions when exporting artboards
Every time when i have multiple artboards and hit Save As, Ii don't know exactly which artboards i want to include, cause i don't know the specific number.
So i go back out of the save as dialog, pick the Artboard Tool and save again, now able to see which numbers i want to include. I would be less time consumption if it would show the numbers of the artboards always no matter which tool is selected, when there is a save as or export dialog started.11 votes -
Round Corners effect works wrong with curved paths
The native Round Corners effect (not the corner widget!) can work well only with all-straight segments.
It doesn’t round anything for points connecting straight and curved segments, straightens up curved segments, and hardly fit rounded corners within original paths.This is embarrassing. Fix it!
11 votes -
Allow to make sharp transitions using Width Tool
Width Tool allows us to set width markers on a path, to make its stroke’s outline blend between set cross-sections. We have some limited controls over these markers, we can make each side have its own width, we can snap them to points, but that’s it.
What we also need is way to make this transitions sharp, rather than smooth.
Look at the image attached.The path on the top is a stroke with a variable stroke profile.
The path on the bottom is a demonstration of what we want (an art brush actually).Sure, we can fake this behavior duplicating an existing marker close the the original (fighting the Ai’s urge to merge them). But if we expand these, this fake sharp transition generates a ton of points we don’t need, and it’s not actually a sharp point at all.
At the meantime, Ai has the Curvature tool, that allows to quickly toggle sharp/smooth for points with a double-click or Ot/Alt-click. Double click for Width tool opens Width Point Edit dialog, but Opt/Alt does nothing — make it toggle the transition type.
At the moment we have to build strokes like this with art brushes, which can’t be edited interactively on canvas, it’s a trial and error process. Adding sharp transitions to the Width Tool will make it much easier.
Width Tool allows us to set width markers on a path, to make its stroke’s outline blend between set cross-sections. We have some limited controls over these markers, we can make each side have its own width, we can snap them to points, but that’s it.
What we also need is way to make this transitions sharp, rather than smooth.
Look at the image attached.The path on the top is a stroke with a variable stroke profile.
The path on the bottom is a demonstration of what we want (an art brush actually).Sure, we can fake this behavior…
11 votes -
Can't undo Auto bullets
If I undo the bullets (which came automatic after space bar) the letter disappear.
For example: I can't use (-) at front of text with 1 spacebar.
11 votes -
Buttons in Pathfinder panel should be disabled when nothing is selected
If you have nothing selected, Pathfinder still have all buttons active, despite clicking one will give out an error message.
What’s a point? Why shout? Why not display a shallow message (like the one we get when a live shape gets expanded)?
Why not disable the buttons in the first place when a selection is empty?11 votes -
Sort menus alphabetically when Cmd+Opt+Shift / Ctrl+Alt+Shift, like in InDesign
Illustrator has a lot of things put in menus.
The sorting order in some (like View or Object) can be unobvious for new users (and surely some older ones as well).InDesign allows to sort menus temporarily by holding Cmd+Opt+Shift / Ctrl+Alt+Shift while clicking one — make Ai do the same!
An interesting thing is — helpx.adobe.com does not know about it at all. Another sacred technique :/ Terry White figured it out somewhere, but where did he get it from? ...accidentally?
11 votes -
Hitting Escape while creating a shape, an artboard, while using Rotate, Scale, etc., doesn't cancel the process
When we marquee a selection and hit Escape — it gets canceled.
When we hit Escape while dragging out a guide — it gets canceled.
Dragging out a brush on the canvas — works.
Dragging out a swatch to drop it on a gradient or the canvas — works.
Dragging the appearance form the Appearance panel — works.
...and many other casesEscape does NOT work for these cases:
1. Creating a shape, an artboard, an area text
2. Rotating, scaling, shearing, free transforming...
3. Setting up the width with the Width tool
4. Setting up the gradient with the Gradient tool
5. Building a shape with the Shape Builder tool
6. Using the Eyedropper
...and many other casesHitting Escape while moving an artboard commits it!
Can we get Escape to cancel anything we make/control/edit by dragging?
When we marquee a selection and hit Escape — it gets canceled.
When we hit Escape while dragging out a guide — it gets canceled.
Dragging out a brush on the canvas — works.
Dragging out a swatch to drop it on a gradient or the canvas — works.
Dragging the appearance form the Appearance panel — works.
...and many other casesEscape does NOT work for these cases:
1. Creating a shape, an artboard, an area text
2. Rotating, scaling, shearing, free transforming...
3. Setting up the width with the Width tool
4. Setting up the gradient with the…11 votes
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