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taozhanggui

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  1. Stroke / Fille indicator sometimes in not in sync occasionally

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    0 comments  ·  Illustrator (Desktop) Bugs » User Interface  ·  Admin →
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    taozhanggui shared this idea  · 

  2. Absolute mode that always sets a fill a single click and stroke with the Alt+click/right click

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    4 comments  ·  Illustrator (Desktop) Feature Requests » User Interface  ·  Admin →
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    taozhanggui commented  · 

    I am requesting a way to apply a color to the stroke that does not depend on which paint is currently active - either a right-click context menu entry on a swatch, or a modifier-click (Alt / Ctrl / Cmd) on a swatch that always targets stroke. Today every color application in Illustrator routes through one global "active paint" flag, which is a toggle, and a toggle is the wrong control for a production action.

    1. THE INDICATOR IS NOT ALWAYS UPDATED IN REAL TIME

    On Illustrator 30.5.1 (Windows 11), the fill/stroke indicator in the toolbox occasionally renders out of sync with the internal active-paint state. The indicator shows stroke brought to the front, but clicking a swatch edits the fill instead of the stroke. Pressing X two or three times forces the indicator to repaint, and afterwards the behavior is correct again.

    Steps to reproduce:
    1. Press X so that stroke becomes the active paint. The indicator shows stroke in front, as expected.
    2. Switch tools, use the Eyedropper, create a new object, or press D.
    3. Click a swatch (or pick a color in the Color panel).
    4. The fill changes, not the stroke, although the indicator still shows stroke in front.
    5. Press X repeatedly; the indicator redraws and the mismatch disappears.

    This looks like a repaint/refresh issue on the indicator rather than a logic error in the flag itself: the visual state lags behind the actual state, and a forced redraw reconciles them. Two things would help here:
    a. Repaint the fill/stroke indicator synchronously whenever the active-paint state changes, so the indicator can never display a stale state.
    b. Treat the active-paint state as a single source of truth consumed by the toolbox, Swatches, Color and Gradient panels, so that panels cannot disagree with the indicator.

    2. WHY THIS IS A PRODUCTION RISK, NOT AN INCONVENIENCE

    I work in prepress, producing multi-layer label and sticker artwork for CMYK output. Changing stroke colors is a hundreds-of-times-per-job action. A misapplied color that is not caught before output becomes a wrong plate, a wrong separation, or scrap material - a reprint cost. When the indicator can lie, every color application becomes an action that has to be verified, which removes most of the speed the keyboard workflow was supposed to provide.

    3. REQUESTED FUNCTIONALITY, IN ORDER OF PREFERENCE

    A. Right-click a swatch and choose "Apply as Stroke" / "Apply as Fill". This is the fastest possible path and requires no mode and no shortcut to remember. It is the interaction CorelDRAW users have had for decades, and it is the main reason operators who switch between the two applications keep making stroke errors in Illustrator.

    B. Modifier-click on a swatch: - Alt-click (Windows) / Option-click (macOS) applies to stroke. - Plain click keeps applying to the current active paint. - Optionally Ctrl-right-click (Windows) / Cmd-right-click (macOS) as an alternative, for users whose Alt is already heavily overloaded.

    C. Give the Swatches panel its own always-visible Fill / Stroke target pair, the way the Color panel already has. A swatch click could then be directed at stroke without touching X at all.

    D. At minimum: expose "Apply Fill Color" and "Apply Stroke Color" as menu commands inside Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts. Users could then bind a key that is idempotent (set stroke, always) instead of a toggle (switch to whichever paint is not active). A toggle cannot be made reliable; a set command can.

    Any of A, B or D would resolve the problem. A alone would resolve it for everyone without requiring users to relearn anything.

    4. PRIOR CONTEXT

    I previously submitted the suggestion that artboard names be rendered directly on canvas while working in normal (non-artboard-edit) mode. That was implemented as the "01 - Artboard 1" label, and it removed a full round-trip per document from my workflow. That is why I am submitting this one as well: it is a smaller change than that was, and it costs more time per job.

    Thank you for reading.

    Kind regards, a Prepress operator, label and packaging production Adobe Illustrator 30.5.1, Windows 11

    taozhanggui supported this idea  ·