Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
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4782 results found
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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 -
Live Free Distort effect
I would like to see the "Free Distort" effect be extended to work on the actual object, not going through a tiny dialog box that feels like I'm trying to apply it to a postage stamp. It's really difficult to apply a distorted shape to a larger area when I am guessing if a 1-pixel move of a tiny handle is going to make a difference or not. It would be amazing if four independent handles were on the actual art and allow me to move the corners exactly to the spot I want to place them at. It's a handy tool for the work I'm doing but would make my work much easier if it were more user-friendly. Right now it feels like a feature that is 1994-ish (and yes I was using Illustrator before then - still my favorite app of all time!)
I would like to see the "Free Distort" effect be extended to work on the actual object, not going through a tiny dialog box that feels like I'm trying to apply it to a postage stamp. It's really difficult to apply a distorted shape to a larger area when I am guessing if a 1-pixel move of a tiny handle is going to make a difference or not. It would be amazing if four independent handles were on the actual art and allow me to move the corners exactly to the spot I want to place them at. It's a…
11 votes -
Allow us to choose a preferable file format on Export or keep the last chosen one
Please create a hotkey for the "Export as" function. It would also be nice if I could set AI to always remember my preferred filetype instead of always defaulting to png.
11 votesLatest Illustrator builds now remember the chosen file format in the Export As dialog and keeps it between sessions.
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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 -
Change the cursor for Artboard Tool when a click is going to create a new object-sized artboard
When using Artboard Tool, you can do several things with a simple click.
1. Select an artboard under the cursor
2. Deselect an artboard if there is no artboards under the cursor
3. Create an artboard which size is the same as the object you click — but ONLY if the object is inside of the already selected artboard OR if the place you click is not inside of any artboard.This #3 case prevents deselecting artboards efficiently in cases when you don’t have 'naked canvas' inside of the viewport. And clicking is the only way to deselect artboards, since Deselect All command does not conform the mode — you can see details and upvote the problem here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/47070349
And because of that (and not only that), we need Ai to signal a click is going to create an artboard. Ai should modify the cursor to indicate this — and now it does not, AT ALL.
When using Artboard Tool, you can do several things with a simple click.
1. Select an artboard under the cursor
2. Deselect an artboard if there is no artboards under the cursor
3. Create an artboard which size is the same as the object you click — but ONLY if the object is inside of the already selected artboard OR if the place you click is not inside of any artboard.This #3 case prevents deselecting artboards efficiently in cases when you don’t have 'naked canvas' inside of the viewport. And clicking is the only way to deselect artboards, since…
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 -
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 be sure it is closed), but Ai yells at me — 'you caaaaan't' — with a ding and a message and a text... just show the 'Path is already closed' soft message.Perhaps don’t mix all the cases together and display it as a huge page like you do. A user has a compound path within the selection? Tell it, and only if the user really has it. Same for other art types users can’t join.
I see an educational benefit in having it like this now... but look, if I enable 'don’t show this again' checkmark in this alert box, I won’t be able to see if I should join more or is it just enough.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…11 votes -
Allow Transform effect applied to an object to transform its the opacity mask also
If I apply Transform effect to an object with an opacity mask (to move or scale it parametrically, for example), only the object will be transformed — but not the contents of its opacity mask.
This is not consistent with the destructive method, when you actually move or scale this object...The workaround is to apply the same effect to the contents of the opacity mask, but it does not always have the same effect, since the contents can have different bounds, and the transformation points will differ.
There should be an 'Affect Opacity Mask' option in the Transform effect dialog.
If I apply Transform effect to an object with an opacity mask (to move or scale it parametrically, for example), only the object will be transformed — but not the contents of its opacity mask.
This is not consistent with the destructive method, when you actually move or scale this object...The workaround is to apply the same effect to the contents of the opacity mask, but it does not always have the same effect, since the contents can have different bounds, and the transformation points will differ.
There should be an 'Affect Opacity Mask' option in the Transform effect…
11 votes -
Intertwine with Live Paint objects
It feels like a rare thing to do, but no — this is exactly what I needed recently, and it is forbidden, of course.
I had to expand my Live Paint group :(Please make sure all special plugin objects can work with each other.
11 votes -
Multiline tooltips
Plugin developers can’t make tooltips go in several lines. Extensive tooltips are forced to be one long line, and it’s hard to read in time.
Comes along with this request: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/4664534811 votes -
Custom exposure time for hover tooltips for third-party developers
A narrow enough request. At the moment developers can’t customize the time each hover tooltip gets displayed. When the text is long, it vanishes too soon.
Comes along with this request: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/4664537811 votes -
Liquid Page Layout (Artboards)
I would love a "liquid Layout" feature like InDesign has for more easily converting artwork and pages sizes simultaneously.
There are many times I create posters on a 11x17 artboard and need to easily reduce the art and page sizes to 5x7 for flyers.
InDesign has had this feature for a long time and I feel it would definitely be useful to my workflow.11 votes -
Make clickable areas for eye buttons in Layers and Appearance as large as their sections
As demonstrated in https://www.instagram.com/p/CmhJOBNo-U3/
Clicking an 'eye' requires aiming, despite the area it is located in is pretty large. What’s a point of limiting the clickable area?11 votes -
Learn to Rearrange artboards with coinciding or nested coordinates
Illustrator will not rearrange artboards that are completely overlapping (that is, have the same dimensions and coordinates) and will ignore nested artboards, moving them along with their enclosing artboard.
It should be able to detect complete copies and give an option to rearrange smaller nested ones.11 votes -
Remake the Tools / Menu Commands dropdown in Keyboard Shortcuts into two toggle buttons
Dropdown lists just from two elements are pure evil.
Illustrator has one in the Keyboard Shortcuts dialog.What’s a point of having it? Don’t you have enough space on the x-axis to display both items at once and improve the discoverability of both options?
As if you were hoping to get another item in that list and never added... in30 years.Remake it into two conjoined toggle buttons, or at list in a radio-group (ugh), but just allow users to see both available options at once.
11 votes -
Display command assigned hotkeys in Discover panel’s search results
When you search for a command in Discover panel, Illustrator gives you the results, but never actually tries to educate a user further with teaching him assigned keyboard shortcuts.
Figma does it!11 votes -
Make Properties panel to have the same width as other panels
Properties is the widest panel among other panels in Illustrator.
While other panels by default have the same width (and some are resizable), Properties is too wide.It gets specifically disgusting whet it get stacked with other panels — they have to conform the minimal width of Properties and start looking ugly.
At the same time, the main content of Properties does not look like it needs all that minimal width — there is a huge gap on the right visible in 'properties_1.png' attached.
Sure, when you have some art selected, it look differently, like in 'properties2.png'... but look at the 'properties3.png' — the Transform panel is not that wide in fact! It’s analog in Properties is just bloated!
Align section can be just reorganized (and include more options and ditch the dropdown, because Align has 3 buttons instead of it now), and this also applies to other sections as well.The only problem is the Quick Actions buttons, which are two in a row.
Some languages use much longer words than English, and these buttons get even longer even, sure.
But it does not mean you have to bloat! Make them reflow and go stacked, when the width is not enough. See, you have a huge Recolor at the bottom, stick to that way!Also, perhaps you want to remove gaps between all bottom buttons in the full Align panel, to make it have the same default width? It got changed when you made Align To options into buttons, and it’s kinda ugly. Buttons are great though!
This request originates form this bug report, about the unadjustable width of the Properties panel, when it’s stacked with other resizable panels: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/32011942
Properties is the widest panel among other panels in Illustrator.
While other panels by default have the same width (and some are resizable), Properties is too wide.It gets specifically disgusting whet it get stacked with other panels — they have to conform the minimal width of Properties and start looking ugly.
At the same time, the main content of Properties does not look like it needs all that minimal width — there is a huge gap on the right visible in 'properties_1.png' attached.
Sure, when you have some art selected, it look differently, like in 'properties2.png'... but look…
11 votes -
Numbered List - Choose at which number we wish to start the list.
Hi, It would be great if we could rearrange the order of lists for Numbered List options.
You choose which "Levels" the numbering is but what if under that you would have the option to select at which number to start, 2...3...4 or whatever number we wish to insert.
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 -
Do Not Disturb / Quiet / Focus Mode Option
No alerts, dialogues or any other disruptions while working.
11 votes
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