Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests
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4768 results found
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Export quality for EMF or WMF
When exporting to emf or wmf formats to get editable vectors into PowerPoint the details in curves or small marks get all messed up. For example the details of a registered trade mark on a logo will be distorted or the curve of a letter o will become choppy. This is a huge issue for us and I'm hoping quality settings like the options provided for exporting and svg would fix the issue.
Thank You
5 votes -
Illustrator 2025 (29.8.7) flatten layers of PDF saved in version 2026 (30.5.1)
Let's say you have Illustrator 2026 (30.5.1) and you save an artwork as PDF preserving editing capabilities, the artwork has layers, some of them are hidden.
When you reopen the artwork in the same Illustrator version all layers are in place and you can continue to edit the artwork.In the save as Ai dialog it appears that the Illustrator file format is the same from 2020, but if you open the same PDF with Illustrator 2025 (29.8.7) or Illustrator 2024 (28.7.10) all layers content collapse to a single layer (Layer 1) and the objects inside hidden layers are lost.
Using Ai as file format you can open the artwork independently in version 2026, 2025, 2024 with the same results, all the original layers in place.
I suppose that the Ai version inside a PDF with editing capabilities is not the same as Ai with PDF compatibility.
Please Adobe fix this.
Let's say you have Illustrator 2026 (30.5.1) and you save an artwork as PDF preserving editing capabilities, the artwork has layers, some of them are hidden.
When you reopen the artwork in the same Illustrator version all layers are in place and you can continue to edit the artwork.In the save as Ai dialog it appears that the Illustrator file format is the same from 2020, but if you open the same PDF with Illustrator 2025 (29.8.7) or Illustrator 2024 (28.7.10) all layers content collapse to a single layer (Layer 1) and the objects inside hidden layers are lost.
…
4 votes -
Smarter Crop tool
If I have an image like a t-shirt with a white background, the crop tool should be able to immediately set boundaries to the edges of the pixels.
Currently it does one of 2 things.
1. I sets the boundary to the edges of the white box which is not useful.
2. it sets boundaries which are completely random which means it's actually faster to just mask the image rather than messing with the randomly placed boundary from the crop tool.In Photoshop, crop is able to intelligently decide to crop to empty pixels, or whatever.
Also, the crop tool should be able to select multiple images, and crop all of them to pixels, and finish by pressing enter. Currently, if I had 10 images to crop, I'd have to do them one by one in Illustrator, each time messing with the random crop boundary, or useless boundary set to the outer edges of the white box. Photoshop is able to intelligently crop to pixels.I'm aware that there's a new AI based tool for cropping but it takes time to do what Photoshop does instantly. I wouldn't want to waste time waiting on the AI tool.
I want it to happen instantly on multiple images.If I have an image like a t-shirt with a white background, the crop tool should be able to immediately set boundaries to the edges of the pixels.
Currently it does one of 2 things.
1. I sets the boundary to the edges of the white box which is not useful.
2. it sets boundaries which are completely random which means it's actually faster to just mask the image rather than messing with the randomly placed boundary from the crop tool.In Photoshop, crop is able to intelligently decide to crop to empty pixels, or whatever.
Also, the crop tool…4 votes -
Allow to select objects as a range in Layers (Shift, Cmd/Ctrl) with proper square markers, not only with Target Appearance ones
I have no idea why the team chose to use specialized Target Appearance round markers and NOT the intended square markers to allow select the range with Shift. This teaches a bad lesson, making users think these round markers/buttons are meant to select objects, while it’s just a side-effect of targeting these to receive new appearance. This makes users believe they Select All in a layer when they click its target marker — and this leads to common 'all my stuff in layer has the same fill'.
My only guess is that that the actual selection markers/buttons, square ones, are basically invisible unless clicked (or objects get selected on canvas).
Anyway — Ai HAS to support selecting ranges with the PROPER markers as well as it does with the improper ones.
Also, notice how filtering Layers breaks this feature, allowing to target-select within uninterrupted range, as reported here:
Shift-clicking in Layers doesn't select range if filter is used
http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/51241408The original request to allow select ranges in Layers: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/19196674
I have no idea why the team chose to use specialized Target Appearance round markers and NOT the intended square markers to allow select the range with Shift. This teaches a bad lesson, making users think these round markers/buttons are meant to select objects, while it’s just a side-effect of targeting these to receive new appearance. This makes users believe they Select All in a layer when they click its target marker — and this leads to common 'all my stuff in layer has the same fill'.
My only guess is that that the actual selection markers/buttons, square ones, are…
4 votes -
Dithering for Freeform gradients
Dithering to freeform gradients is missing but very handy to have. Esp as this is now the only gradient type without it. Dithering in linear and radial gradients is great so having the same option for freeform seems a logical feature.
4 votes -
Turntable feature is not available for Intertwine objects
Quoted from Victoria White:
When I use the Intertwine tool, the turntable feature is no longer available. It would be very helpful if the turntable remained active after Intertwine is applied.4 votes -
Group color handles in the Recolor panel’s Edit mode
It would be great if we could select colors in the Edit mode of the Recolor dialog and group them together so they will be linked and move as one.
Right now, they're all linked, and we can unlink a single color from the rest, but there's no way to dynamically group sets of colors. In this example, for instance, it would be nice to group a bunch of them by hue (the reds, the greens, the purples) or by value (the light green & pink as one group, the dark purple, red, and green as another group, etc), or by saturation (the mid and light purple + the light green as the low saturation group, and the rest as the high saturation group). This could also be used to group colors by what part of the image they're being used for (e.g.: a person or a shoe or whatever you're drawing!)It would be great if we could select colors in the Edit mode of the Recolor dialog and group them together so they will be linked and move as one.
Right now, they're all linked, and we can unlink a single color from the rest, but there's no way to dynamically group sets of colors. In this example, for instance, it would be nice to group a bunch of them by hue (the reds, the greens, the purples) or by value (the light green & pink as one group, the dark purple, red, and green as another group, etc), or…4 votes -
Keep the Spacing value active when you have 1 artboard in New Document dialog
I often start with 1 artboard only in a new document (and I create these using classic dialog, because it’s faster than the modern one). There is a bug with the value used from a previous session (like 20 mm I love) looses precision (becoming 19.999 mm)... I reported this problem here — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/51116116
But even with this bug fixed, I don’t see why this field should be disabled.
I can see why Columns is, and other options in these section... but the Spacing GETS used when you create a new artboard LATER — and Ai offers now way to set one (and I requested to be able to here: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/43218936)The only way to tweak this value after a document is created is to Rearrange... and it’s allowed only with at least 2 artboards. So I have to create one with a wrong spacing first, and then perform rearranging I don’t need, risking to ruin my layout and design and grid, only to change a value?
This is stupid.
I often start with 1 artboard only in a new document (and I create these using classic dialog, because it’s faster than the modern one). There is a bug with the value used from a previous session (like 20 mm I love) looses precision (becoming 19.999 mm)... I reported this problem here — http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447/suggestions/51116116
But even with this bug fixed, I don’t see why this field should be disabled.
I can see why Columns is, and other options in these section... but the Spacing GETS used when you create a new artboard LATER — and Ai offers now way to…4 votes -
In the Font Palette, under Filters, please add English, or Latin, or Western European Roman. PLEASE!!!
The lack of a Western European or Roman filter is insanely stupid. The way it works now, if I want to work in Burmese, I can have a nice short font list. But if I want to work in English, I have to show ALL LANGUAGES, so I wind up with a list of 400 fonts, most of which are unusable. This seems prejudicial, if not negligent. Why on earth was this obvious filter item excluded????
4 votesAs per the team, they do understand that it’s an issue for folks working across multiple languages.
In Illustrator, however, the font filtering is based on script, not a simple language grouping. Hence it’s not very straight forward to do for Latin. There is no concrete plan or timeline to make it resolved, but it’s now added to the backlog.
Thank you all for raising this up. Feel free to share more thoughts, do report, request, comment, and upvote — this really helps to steer the development.
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Transparent Glass Effect Options in Adobe Illustrator
Dear Adobe Team,
I hope you are doing well.
I would like to request a new feature enhancement for Adobe Illustrator that I believe would greatly benefit designers and streamline creative workflows.
Feature Request:
A dedicated Transparent Glass Effect option within Illustrator, offering the ability to apply both plain and textured glass styles directly as an effect.
Currently, achieving a realistic glass look requires multiple manual steps involving opacity adjustments, gradients, blurs, and overlays. A built-in effect—similar to other appearance presets—would save significant time and allow for more consistent results across projects.
Why This Would Help:Faster creation of modern UI-style and product-render visuals.
Consistent, professional-quality glass effects without complex layer setups.
Enhanced creative control through adjustable texture variations.This addition would be extremely valuable for designers working in branding, packaging, digital art, and interface design.
Thank you for considering this request. I truly appreciate the continuous innovation Adobe brings to the creative community.Dear Adobe Team,
I hope you are doing well.
I would like to request a new feature enhancement for Adobe Illustrator that I believe would greatly benefit designers and streamline creative workflows.
Feature Request:
A dedicated Transparent Glass Effect option within Illustrator, offering the ability to apply both plain and textured glass styles directly as an effect.
Currently, achieving a realistic glass look requires multiple manual steps involving opacity adjustments, gradients, blurs, and overlays. A built-in effect—similar to other appearance presets—would save significant time and allow for more consistent results across projects.
Why This Would Help:Faster creation of modern…
4 votes -
Move a shape side (edge) without selecting both anchor points
Illustrator currently requires selecting both anchor points of a side to move it.
When working on very tall or large objects at high zoom levels, this forces users to pan away from the working area just to select the second anchor point, interrupting focus and slowing down layout work.Feature request:
Add an edge-based editing option that allows moving an entire side (edge) of a shape by interacting with a single visible anchor point or directly with the edge itself, without selecting the opposite anchor or changing the viewport.This behavior exists in other design tools (Figma, InDesign frames, CAD software) and would greatly improve precision, speed, and usability in Illustrator for branding, layout, and technical vector workflows.
Illustrator currently requires selecting both anchor points of a side to move it.
When working on very tall or large objects at high zoom levels, this forces users to pan away from the working area just to select the second anchor point, interrupting focus and slowing down layout work.Feature request:
Add an edge-based editing option that allows moving an entire side (edge) of a shape by interacting with a single visible anchor point or directly with the edge itself, without selecting the opposite anchor or changing the viewport.This behavior exists in other design tools (Figma, InDesign frames, CAD…
4 votes -
Make UI text size scalable
Allow for scaling of text in the UI, especially the Layers panel.
I have to strain to read the layer descriptions. Since I work a lot in After Effects I have to name all my layers. It would be easier to work if I could just glance over instead of working hard to read the little font sizes. I should note that I have a super high definition screen.Also, make thumbnail size in Layers panel to save between launches: http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/33328054
4 votes -
Support background blur in SVGs exported from Figma
<svg width="367" height="255" viewBox="0 0 367 255" fill="none" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"> <rect x="150.75" y="18.5726" width="216" height="216.897" fill="#7580FF"/> <foreignObject x="-51.0876" y="-51.0876" width="356.218" height="356.218"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" style="backdrop-filter:blur(25.54px);clip-path:url(#bgblur_0_1_16_clip_path);height:100%;width:100%"></div></foreignObject><circle data-figma-bg-blur-radius="51.0876" cx="127.021" cy="127.021" r="127.021" fill="#FF7575" fill-opacity="0.7"/> <defs> <clipPath id="bgblur_0_1_16_clip_path" transform="translate(51.0876 51.0876)"><circle cx="127.021" cy="127.021" r="127.021"/> </clipPath></defs> </svg>(I'm sympathetic that general
<foreignObject>support is nigh impossible 🙂 Figma uses this only for background blurs and angular gradients)4 votes -
Exact ARC export in DXF
Illustrator internally represents curves as Bézier paths, while CAD/CNC workflows rely on true ARC entities (constant-radius circular arcs).
At the moment, there is no reliable way to export Illustrator geometry containing circular arcs to DXF while preserving them as exact ARC entities. All curves are approximated as splines or segmented polylines, even when the geometry is mathematically circular.
This creates a serious issue for CNC workflows, where exact radii and true arcs are required for correct toolpaths, tolerances, and part fitting.A highly valuable feature would be:
• Detection of constant-radius Bézier curves
• Optional conversion of those curves to true ARC entities during DXF export
• Or an explicit “Export arcs as ARC entities” settingMany users create simple technical drawings in Illustrator because of its excellent drawing tools, but currently must redraw all rounded geometry in a CAD application to guarantee accuracy.
Enabling exact ARC export would significantly improve Illustrator’s usability in maker, CNC, and fabrication workflows.Illustrator internally represents curves as Bézier paths, while CAD/CNC workflows rely on true ARC entities (constant-radius circular arcs).
At the moment, there is no reliable way to export Illustrator geometry containing circular arcs to DXF while preserving them as exact ARC entities. All curves are approximated as splines or segmented polylines, even when the geometry is mathematically circular.
This creates a serious issue for CNC workflows, where exact radii and true arcs are required for correct toolpaths, tolerances, and part fitting.A highly valuable feature would be:
• Detection of constant-radius Bézier curves
• Optional conversion of those curves to…4 votes -
Share for review needs rotate tool in the web cooperation mode
I use the share for review usually for the very complex packaging designs.
In many cases the package has text on all sides and that means that the texts are sometimes 180 or 90 degrees rotated. Its very inconvenient for the client to comment those texts. So the web interface definitely needs a simple 180-90 degrees rotation tool.
4 votes -
Make arrowheads have a dedicated fly-out palette
Arrowheads are too difficult to select. Having a fly-out panel so I can quickly choose and apply them would be a great addition for technical illustrators.
4 votes -
Allow to display the artboard numbers and names above art
Instead of making a clipping mask, please make the artboard number and name visible on top of art.
4 votes -
Add "Go to Object" in layers panel, not just "Select Object"
Would love "Go to Object" option when selecting an object to find it in the layers panel. Currently, it only has the option to "Find Object" from the menu. I then have to scroll through sometimes hundreds of items within that layer to find the little dot.
4 votesLayers panel has a dedicated button at the bottom, with the magnifying glass — it’s the same Locate Object command. But if you want Ai to automatically select it for you, please upvote this request.
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Line distortion when vector tracing — joins between strokes distort instead of connecting smoothly
When using Image Trace or Auto Trace in Illustrator, the traced vector lines often distort at junctions where two strokes should meet cleanly. Instead of forming a natural join, the curves warp or bulge slightly, creating uneven intersections that break the flow of the line.
It looks like Illustrator is over-smoothing or misinterpreting the corner geometry at those points. A more accurate “preserve joins” or “maintain line continuity” option would help produce cleaner, more natural outlines — especially for minimal line art or hand-drawn illustrations.
4 votes -
Allow to reset the position of a single panel, not the full workspace
Reset Workspace for me is mostly used to get all the panels I torn out from docks to get back in their stables.
But sometimes it’s just one panel, and waiting for Ai to creak and choke just to get one panel back is an overkill.
And putting it back manually is not as simple as sounds — my memory remembers where it should BE, not where it should be PUT in!
So can we get a way to force one chosen panel to be reset? 'You — go home'! I’d use it rather often.4 votes
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