Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
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4671 results found
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A key to reverse "object selection by path only" while using selection tools.
Mostly I like to work with this setting off but there are times when it would really be nice to turn it on by holding down a key while clicking in the middle of a path.
I don't know what key to suggest, command swaps selection for direct selection (and vice-versa), alt widens the selection of the direct selection tool and does nothing for selection, shift adds to/subtracts fom the selection. Maybe `?
4 votes -
Perpendicular Line Tool to Path
When I draw a line at any angle with the pen tool, I want to be able to draw a new line exactly perpendicular to that line. The name of the feature I want is "Perpendicular Line Tool". A tool that will ensure that the second line I draw is perpendicular to the first line when I draw a line in any direction, and will find and show me the 90 degree angle to each other. Please add, this should be a default feature in Adobe.
4 votes -
Share for Review - Ability for teams to update links
Currently in InDesign and Illustrator, the person that created a review link is the only one able to update the review link. There are times when another person on my team needs to update a file and send an updated review link, but to do so, they have to create a copy of the file and make a brand new link. This is a bit tedious and doesn't keep the history of comments, which we sometimes need to refer back to. I would like to suggest the ability to allow teams on Create Cloud to be able to work on the same files together and update the same review links.
Currently in InDesign and Illustrator, the person that created a review link is the only one able to update the review link. There are times when another person on my team needs to update a file and send an updated review link, but to do so, they have to create a copy of the file and make a brand new link. This is a bit tedious and doesn't keep the history of comments, which we sometimes need to refer back to. I would like to suggest the ability to allow teams on Create Cloud to be able to work on…
4 votes -
There is no documentation for the vector effects in the Effect menu. Write some, please.
There's three major sections to the Effect menu: Illustrator Effects, Photoshop Effects, and Additional Effects.
Additional Effects is the domain of plug-in effects, and properly documenting these is of course in the hands of whoever wrote the plug-in.
Photoshop Effects is full of bitmap effects. There's a page in the docs that runs down the whole list and describes every one of them with a sentence or three. Great! https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/summary-effects.html
Illustrator Effects, though? Some of it's documented. There's a page about the Scribble effect, which is also for some reason about the Object Mosaic menu item. There's a page about the Drop Shadow, Inner/Outer Glow, and Feather effect. But where's the rest? There's an entirely unrelated section about the new 3d effects halfway across the manual, and nothing about the "classic" ones and the reasons you might still choose to use them now. How do the SVG effects work? What are the various Pathfinder effects useful for? What on earth is Outline Object supposed to do?
Seriously I have been using this thing for 25 years and it is only today that I learnt what Outline Object is for because someone posted a question about this in the Illustrator subreddit; someone else posted a link to a video Monika Gause made explaining this and lemme tell you, I never would have stumbled across what it's useful for in a million years of using Illustrator normally.
I assume there was documentation for this once, but it's vanished in manual rewrites. I know other things that are completely undocumented now like "holding down the ` key while transforming shapes switches to transforming their fill patterns, as long as you're not using transformation tools written after this fact vanished from the manual like the Free Transform tool". So much knowledge of how this program works is now lore passed down from one artist to another and that's really kind of annoying. Please dig up all the old docs you can find, figure out what's gone missing, figure out what menu items and tools have no docs, and write some new ones.
There's three major sections to the Effect menu: Illustrator Effects, Photoshop Effects, and Additional Effects.
Additional Effects is the domain of plug-in effects, and properly documenting these is of course in the hands of whoever wrote the plug-in.
Photoshop Effects is full of bitmap effects. There's a page in the docs that runs down the whole list and describes every one of them with a sentence or three. Great! https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/summary-effects.html
Illustrator Effects, though? Some of it's documented. There's a page about the Scribble effect, which is also for some reason about the Object Mosaic menu item. There's a page about…
4 votes -
Rotate Artboards
Enable artboards to be rotated individually. Simple. Here's an example of my currently workflow: if I have a large map with a winding road in illustrator, and I want each of my 5 artboards to be aligned with that road, I have to make rectangles where I wish the artboards could be, and then make the actual artboards encompass the rectangle. Then I export as an image, and rotate and crop in Photoshop to match the rectangle. This becomes especially annoying if the boundaries overlap, and I have to export artboards one by one, turning off the rectangles of other artboards.
Enable artboards to be rotated individually. Simple. Here's an example of my currently workflow: if I have a large map with a winding road in illustrator, and I want each of my 5 artboards to be aligned with that road, I have to make rectangles where I wish the artboards could be, and then make the actual artboards encompass the rectangle. Then I export as an image, and rotate and crop in Photoshop to match the rectangle. This becomes especially annoying if the boundaries overlap, and I have to export artboards one by one, turning off the rectangles of other…
4 votes -
Please revert to data recovery files being saved as .ai files instead of .aishm files that can't be opened.
Have the data recovery files save as .ai files that you can actually open and work on, rather than .aishm files that are unopenable.
What's the use of data recovery files that you can't open?
4 votes -
Play actions WITHOUT expanding them in the panel
When playing an action, it expands.... so that it visibly "walks" through every step.
I have the Playback Options set to "Accelerated", so the walking is rapid, yet the action expands and I see the panel highlight every single step of the action as they are quickly walked through.
I want to click play, and the action runs while it stays collapsed. I only need an action expanded in the panel if I intend to edit it. I find myself collapsing, now open, actions over and over and over.
In addition re Button Mode:
I don't use button mode specifically because Button Mode lists every single action individually, from ALL sets. With even the default actions set loaded, that's a lot of panel-filling buttons. If Button Mode honored sets, where I could collapse a set, and leave a button set expanded that I'm using, then Button Mode would be okay.
When playing an action, it expands.... so that it visibly "walks" through every step.
I have the Playback Options set to "Accelerated", so the walking is rapid, yet the action expands and I see the panel highlight every single step of the action as they are quickly walked through.
I want to click play, and the action runs while it stays collapsed. I only need an action expanded in the panel if I intend to edit it. I find myself collapsing, now open, actions over and over and over.
In addition re Button Mode:
I don't use button mode specifically…
4 votes -
Allow to use raster images with Mockup
(Not sure exactly what category this request falls under...) The mockup tool as it is now is pretty limiting. If you have a raster image as part of what you want to mock up, the mockup tool doesn't work. I design food packaging, most of which has an image of the item in the package. Being able to mock up packages that include images would be a godsend!
(And if anyone has a workaround, please share! I use the legacy 3d tool for cylindrical objects. But for things like pouches I haven't figured a way to do it. Thanks.)
4 votes -
Make it possible to select objects using a path.
It would be very useful to be able select individual objects in a document using a path which touches each of those objects or lies entirely within the path, or both, with each option being selectable by the user.
4 votes -
Introduce a tolerance for Snap to Grid / Pixel, so that snapping happens only when points are close enough to grid intersections
When Snap to Grid is enabled, the snapping is hard — a dragged point is always constrained to the grid intersections. While sometimes it’s handy, at other times is just too rigid, especially if you zoom in and try to make tiny adjustments. Paired with the fact we can’t toggle snapping temporarily on the fly, this makes it into 'try, curse, undo, disable, try again' routine. Same applies to Snap to Pixel.
Compare how Affinity Designer handles it (the turquoise GIF) with the way Ai uses (the orange GIF).
4 votes -
Allow to create Swatch Info object using a hotkey
Currently to create a Swatch Info object you need to dive into the Swatches panel’s flyout menu and locate a command. We need a way to assign a hotkey to this.
Actually, we need a way to assign hotkeys to ALL commands hidden in the panel menus — here is a general request about this: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/46432486 (and even a larger request to hotkey everything at all: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/31609237)
More of it, we need to be able to create Swatch Info objects with drag-n-drop (as Von Glitschka originally requested: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/40192993).
There is now a separate request specifically about this, to evaluate the real need, please upvote this as well —Currently to create a Swatch Info object you need to dive into the Swatches panel’s flyout menu and locate a command. We need a way to assign a hotkey to this.
Actually, we need a way to assign hotkeys to ALL commands hidden in the panel menus — here is a general request about this: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/46432486 (and even a larger request to hotkey everything at all: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/31609237)
More of it, we need to be able to create Swatch Info objects with drag-n-drop (as Von Glitschka originally requested: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/40192993).
There is now a separate request specifically about this, to…4 votes -
Project Turntable
Project Turntable - This option is not available even on the latest version of illlustrator 29.3.1 and the latest illustrator beta 29.4.73. How can this be activated in my account? This would really help fast track the projects I'm currently working on
4 votesThe development of this is in progress, the team is working on the feature. Stay tuned for more information.
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4 votes
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Create a symbol without replacing art with the symbol.
I would like a switch in the New Symbol dialogue to allow me to leave the original art on the canvas instead of replacing it with a symbol.
Also it would be nice to be able to make a symbol out of the entire contents of a layer nested in another layer without the entire layer being replaced by the symbol.
I use symbols in weird ways and both of these behaviors annoy the heck out of me.
4 votes -
Knobs.
Just more knobs. There should be a knob next to every input that takes an angle value. The Scribble effect has one. The Gradient palette doesn't. The Transform palette has one but it could use another one along with a couple of text input boxes as an option to move an object a specified distance along a particular angle instead of moving it in X and Y. The angle value in the transform section of Properties doesn't have a knob. Scatter brush options have two horizontal sliders and no knobs. Put a knob next to each of those sliders.
Go through the entire UI and look for angle inputs that don't have knobs and give them knobs. And make this knob an easy-to-use component if it isn't one already. Astute's Phantasm Halftone plugin has an angle input with no knob. Make it trivial for them to fix this.
Also there's a bunch of feature requests for varying versions of "you can drag a number input and/or the arrows next to it and drag to change the value". Pick one of those. Make every input box work this way.
Thee's also a pattern where you click on a down-arrow next to a number input and a menu or slider drops down out of it. Sometimes you can drag and hold to go down it - stroke weight's fine for instance. Sometimes you can't - the opacity input box's dropdown gets you a slider, and you have to lift your stylus and click somewhere on the bar. It used to let you just click to bring up the slider, drag to a point on the bar, and release. It should still be doing that but this got lost in the UI rebuild like a decade ago and never came back. Find all of those dropdowns and fix that.
Just more knobs. There should be a knob next to every input that takes an angle value. The Scribble effect has one. The Gradient palette doesn't. The Transform palette has one but it could use another one along with a couple of text input boxes as an option to move an object a specified distance along a particular angle instead of moving it in X and Y. The angle value in the transform section of Properties doesn't have a knob. Scatter brush options have two horizontal sliders and no knobs. Put a knob next to each of those sliders.
Go…
4 votes -
Local saves with Version control
We need an option to create a project file that cannot be saved over. The reason for this is that when working with a client who has many options, we sometimes need to step back in time or recover older versions from unexpected changes.
Similar to an Illustrator template file (.ait), we could have a format like .aiv or .aivi. This way, when I save flyer.aiv, every save will generate a backup file flyer-250204817.ai next to the current file.
It would also be useful to have an option in a settings pane to save a backup every other save and retain backups for a maximum of three days or up to ten saves. Whatever option we choose should control the local .aiv file.
I do store files on my local nas server, where every save gets a snapshot. However, when working on my local system (laptop), I don’t have that function, nor do I always have Wi-Fi. This means working in Adobe Cloud is not an option.
Please provide an option so we do not loose our work or we have the option to recover from edits we desided were not what we want.
https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/save-localy-with-version-control/m-p/15132526#M434461We need an option to create a project file that cannot be saved over. The reason for this is that when working with a client who has many options, we sometimes need to step back in time or recover older versions from unexpected changes.
Similar to an Illustrator template file (.ait), we could have a format like .aiv or .aivi. This way, when I save flyer.aiv, every save will generate a backup file flyer-250204817.ai next to the current file.
It would also be useful to have an option in a settings pane to save a backup every other save and…
4 votes -
Panelize Blend Options, Offset Path, etc.
In pre-2020 Illustrator versions, the Path -> Simplify tool was a window. Post 2020, it got changed into a live panel which, when opened, doesn't halt the focus and lets you change settings while you move around the artboard with the Hand tool or Zoom in or such.
It is sadly the only "classic" Object tool that got this treatment. Other tools, especially Blend Options, Offset Path, Envelope Distort with Warp, etc. would benefit greatly from similar panelisation. It's not a great user experience that I can't zoom or pan while I'm trying to offset my path.4 votes -
Allow to name new artboard copies by incrementing numbers in their names
I often have to make documents with many artboards. And every time when I copy it, Illustrator add " copy" to name.
Common, I name it like "name 01".
I want to in this case the copy of this artboard named "name 02" ...4 votes -
Allow Illustrator to remain in native file mode after saving to PDF
Currently, saving a PDF from Illustrator keeps the saved PDF open in Illustrator. If you edit the file that is still open, you're editing the PDF and not the native Illustrator file. It is difficult to see that you're working in PDF other than just remembering that Illustrator does this (when other Adobe apps do not), and/or to look at the extension on the file tab.
Feature request is to change this function so that Illustrator remains open in the same Illustrator file format instead of switching to working in the saved PDF via Illustrator. This would be similar to InDesign's function of saving PDF, where saving a PDF just saves a PDF copy out of InDesign, and you remain in the native InDesign file. Thanks!
Currently, saving a PDF from Illustrator keeps the saved PDF open in Illustrator. If you edit the file that is still open, you're editing the PDF and not the native Illustrator file. It is difficult to see that you're working in PDF other than just remembering that Illustrator does this (when other Adobe apps do not), and/or to look at the extension on the file tab.
Feature request is to change this function so that Illustrator remains open in the same Illustrator file format instead of switching to working in the saved PDF via Illustrator. This would be similar to…
4 votes -
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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