tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post6319622029670970153..comments2024-03-14T00:48:28.113-04:00Comments on Real World Illustrator: Dear Adobe - A quest for the perfect feature requestAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01795570164435872662noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-26544217489741354042009-09-26T17:46:33.632-04:002009-09-26T17:46:33.632-04:00I seems obvious that #4 requested the ability to d...I seems obvious that #4 requested the ability to draw simple symmetrical arcs. I am amazed this capability wasn't included. So perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that Adobe can't grasp the request.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-72734205187799164742009-02-05T15:36:00.000-05:002009-02-05T15:36:00.000-05:00One thing I see on Illustrator posts nearly ubiqui...One thing I see on Illustrator posts nearly ubiquitously: references to Freehand and it's perceived points of superiority. Maybe I notice it more because I too am a Freehand user who struggles to develop a positive relationship with Illustrator (so far no luck). Rather than rant, gripe, or try to enumerate the ways in which I find Freehand superior, which tend toward questions of usability (i.e. features that improve workflow and/or strike me as more logical and intuitive--where sometimes Illustrator's equivalent borders on extreme non-usability), I'd like to ask this simple question: how many latent Freehand users are you likely to find with similar sentiments, and why can't Adobe conduct a comprehensive survey of users who can demonstrate--literally, in person--the ways in which Illustrator might shine on par with the now-dead Freehand (sniff)? Living in Seattle I'd be happy to swing by their offices and do just that. It's the least they can do for killing a superior application and monopolizing this market sector. That or bring Freehand back to life.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-22695652868918795892008-12-30T16:55:00.000-05:002008-12-30T16:55:00.000-05:00I would GLADLY post more detailed requests on the ...I would GLADLY post more detailed requests on the Dear Adobe site, IF they wouldn't limit me to 200 characters. Why they do this I do not know, seems rather counter-productive to me.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-38451190683755656892008-11-27T08:00:00.000-05:002008-11-27T08:00:00.000-05:00What I'd really like to get an answer to is the co...What I'd really like to get an answer to is the cost, why does cs4 cost more than a second hand car? And why does it cost £1000 more to buy it in my country than in the US? The pricing is just insanely greedy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-33804818344584988122008-10-27T21:24:00.000-04:002008-10-27T21:24:00.000-04:00I have left comments on the Bug Report / Feature R...I have left comments on the Bug Report / Feature Request list many times at the Adobe website. I am amazed at how often I have gotten a response from someone at Adobe within 2 hours. They really do pay attention. One time I responded to the email response with "Call me" and the phone rang 30 seconds later. We spent a half hour on the phone.<BR/><BR/>They say not to expect an answer, and you shouldn't. But they will read it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-48278091168250948262008-10-15T23:34:00.000-04:002008-10-15T23:34:00.000-04:00I agree with the units bug, I hope it's fixed with...I agree with the units bug, I hope it's fixed with cs4. It's annoying to keep going into document setup every time I switch from a print project to a web project.<BR/><BR/>isometric grids would have been nicedadakohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09353752230462633650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-33813375720872128332008-10-15T23:05:00.000-04:002008-10-15T23:05:00.000-04:00Let me add one more thing to that first comment of...Let me add one more thing to that first comment of mine:<BR/><BR/>The trouble with my little icon was years ago, and I'd never rethought it before, but obviously all I'd have to do is skew a rectangle, flip it, align vertically, and distribute vertically with a spacing of zero.<BR/><BR/>I don't know whether I was just an idiot before, or whether there was some aspect of my problem I can't remember. What I do vividly remember is two pairs of anchor points that I couldn't align perfectly with each other, and even when I came close, that didn't help me keep the angles of their line segments parallel.<BR/><BR/>My point is still valid, even if my example wasn't: Making any remotely complex figure symmetrical is a tremendous pain in Illustrator. I haven't used Corel Draw in years, but even back in 2001ish it was way easier than it is in Illustrator today. (Among other reasons, Corel Draw has a way to specify an anchor point as symmetrical.)75th Trombonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08679998633997706832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-12026802767371298372008-10-13T19:59:00.000-04:002008-10-13T19:59:00.000-04:00Also, keep in mind that not everyone posting to De...Also, keep in mind that not everyone posting to Dear Adobe had any idea their issues would actually get addressed or responded to by actual, real-live Adobe folks. When I wrote that gripe #4, it was mostly to other people who had the same frustration, not necessarily literally to Adobe (yes, I know the site is called "Dear Adobe", I was taking it figuratively back then). If I'd been addressing Adobe directly, I would've probably been a lot more specific and/or helpful.75th Trombonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08679998633997706832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-21338037583638804162008-10-13T19:50:00.000-04:002008-10-13T19:50:00.000-04:00I'm the guy who wrote #4 (which has since moved up...I'm the guy who wrote #4 (which has since moved up to #3) and I would like to reiterate what spottheblogger said earlier:<BR/><BR/><I>One thing to keep in mind if you can't figure out exactly what the user is complaining about, is that these requests didn't make it into the top 25 list by being incomprehensible to other users. Clearly, many Illustrator users know what other users are talking about when they complain</I><BR/><BR/>I would think that you would make some sort of special mental effort to grasp the meaning of a gripe that's in the top 5. But let me explain it to you:<BR/><BR/><STRONG>It is nearly impossible in Illustrator to make a perfectly symmetrical curve that is not an elliptical arc.</STRONG><BR/><BR/>In fact, this doesn't apply to only curves; making any kind of geometrically precise figure that isn't a simple polygon is eye-clawingly difficult. <BR/><BR/>Take <A HREF="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/57792999/avatar_bigger.png" REL="nofollow">my personal, trivial little icon</A>, for instance. Check out the part of that icon that's not the circle.<BR/><BR/>All I wanted was for it to be perfectly symmetrical; for each pair of sides to be perfectly parallel; and for the anchor points at the outside and inside of the point to be perfectly aligned. <STRONG>That took me hours of work to accomplish</STRONG>, and it was only possible with the help of a third party plugin that exposed precise coordinates for each anchor point and segment angle AND even beyond that I had to use hand calculations on paper!! And it seems like every time I sit down to design something, I'm confronted with this exact genre of problem.<BR/><BR/>Now, I grant you that my Illustrator-fu is low. Perhaps there's a magical method to assure geometric precision that I'm unaware of. But apparently at least 135 other people to date are also unaware of it and are as interested as I am in a solution.<BR/><BR/>I'm not asking for Illustrator to become a CAD program, but I would desperately like to see some accommodations in Illustrator for those of us — and apparently there are quite a few of us — who like precision in our art.<BR/><BR/>I apologize for the all-caps and snarkiness in my gripe, but this is in my way every time I try to use Illustrator, and I was wrestling with it at the very moment I discovered Dear Adobe. My request to you is that you not let people's attitudes affect your ability to comprehend the meaning of their words, as I think you've done here.75th Trombonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08679998633997706832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-48913831701833051052008-10-10T02:22:00.000-04:002008-10-10T02:22:00.000-04:00You know I kid Mordy ; )You know I kid Mordy ; )Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-39277261523073183372008-10-10T02:21:00.000-04:002008-10-10T02:21:00.000-04:00Please Adobe, add all the features I want and none...Please Adobe, add all the features I want and none that I do not. Fix the current bugs and do not introduce new ones. Make it faster, bigger and smaller. Automate everything but allow complete user control. Remove the bloat but pack it to the seams with features. Make it do what I tell it to do but have it protect me from myself.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-28853614107461088882008-10-09T19:50:00.000-04:002008-10-09T19:50:00.000-04:00#14 was my mine actually, so thanks for the respon...#14 was my mine actually, so thanks for the response. Views aren't quite as useful as layer comps. My gripes with views is that you are limited to ~25 views, which is understandable because it lives in the menu rather then a palette. Second, it remembers only whether layers are toggled, not individual paths or text frames so I have to wrap everything I want to toggle in an additional layer. Nor would it remember appearance related settings or position like Photoshop. Multiple art boards look useful, but more if you have multiple related but dissimilar designs rather then one design with slight variances to it. (I am of course still very much looking forward to multiple art boards). Finally, while I could probably could create a script that is the equivalent of the PS script "layer comps to files" except for views, I haven't bothered since views don't fulfill my needs in the first place. I frequently have to create 40+ variances on a design and full blown layer comps would be amazingly useful.<BR/><BR/>Apparently enough people agree that it is ~#14.<BR/><BR/>PS: the second part of my dear adobe "organize layer comps into folders" was directed at photoshop but it was submitted before the dearadobe site was broken down by app.<BR/><BR/>PSS: I actually submitted a feature request for this at one point...Donhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07945706076313735078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-26254148745324069002008-10-03T17:59:00.000-04:002008-10-03T17:59:00.000-04:00Can anyone confirm wether or not Command Tab is ba...Can anyone confirm wether or not Command Tab is back to toggle the direct and indirect selection arrow?<BR/><BR/>This one 'feature' that CS3 removed cost me so much time to unlearn after using AI since 88 that I simply went back to CS2.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-40906330645117408762008-10-03T15:41:00.000-04:002008-10-03T15:41:00.000-04:00Halleluja, please tell Adobe the specifics! If you...Halleluja, please tell Adobe the specifics! If you don't have time to explain the problem, then maybe you should wait until you do? A spinning beachball of death can be caused by any of a large number of things. While the frustration is entirely understandable, saying something so vague as 'make adobe stop crashing!' is simply not helpful.Larahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18081539940848147296noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-90216259092592279882008-10-02T14:38:00.000-04:002008-10-02T14:38:00.000-04:00I don't know if this issue was addressed in CS4, b...I don't know if this issue was addressed in CS4, but I haven't heard anything about whether it was addressed. Something that a Freehand user talked about that would be useful in Illustrator: magnetically joining points, ie, if you align two points on different paths on top of each other, there should be an option to join automatically. Or if an entire object is selected with multiple paths, an option to "join all points." To direct select two points and join each pair of paths individually gets to be cumbersome. <BR/>Thanks for addressing so many of the other issues with Illustrator.Changewindshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03916085587953972207noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-41202514474373298652008-10-02T01:22:00.000-04:002008-10-02T01:22:00.000-04:00The two things I'd like changed/fixed/added is bei...The two things I'd like changed/fixed/added is being able to right-click cut/paste and for when i change a photo to grayscale for it to look as it does in Photoshop (or at least close). As it stands now, the grayscale function is pretty much useless in Illustrator when it comes to photos.GoSpinBoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06553285505287580505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-16635702919194209762008-10-01T16:30:00.000-04:002008-10-01T16:30:00.000-04:00One thing to keep in mind if you can't figure out ...One thing to keep in mind if you can't figure out exactly what the user is complaining about, is that these requests didn't make it into the top 25 list by being incomprehensible to other users. Clearly, many Illustrator users know what other users are talking about when they complain "I've been sitting here for the last 5 mins looking through all the bitching and that spinning ball of death is still going for no reason in Illustrator." Maybe we don't have the specifics for reproducing this exact bug, but we obviously have is a trend - a lot of times when Illustrator locks up on different users, with a spinning ball of death, for no apparent reason.spotthebloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02155034944327981450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-82959172229384443222008-10-01T16:11:00.000-04:002008-10-01T16:11:00.000-04:00Nice to hear some feedback from Adobe! I'm sad to ...Nice to hear some feedback from Adobe! I'm sad to see that a lot of these requests are really vague or seemingly based on user error.<BR/><BR/>The one thing I would add is the annoying tendency for Illustrator to cling to the last used units instead of remembering whether inches or pixels are used in a specific file. I float between both screen and print workflows so I'm having to re-assign a document's units a lot.<BR/><BR/>I know this has come up before and it's not as significant to most, but it does seem like a nice little quirk to button up.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-33769843812207984672008-10-01T12:16:00.000-04:002008-10-01T12:16:00.000-04:00My request didn't make the top 25, but I'm surpris...My request didn't make the top 25, but I'm surprised it doesn't already exist in Illustrator: Add Photoshop's "rubberband" option to Illustrator's Pen tool so the bezier being drawn can be previewed.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07033880929648279758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-49910891759745218242008-10-01T11:24:00.000-04:002008-10-01T11:24:00.000-04:00!Pixels and vectors are different."That was the wo...<I>!Pixels and vectors are different."</I><BR/><BR/>That was the worst possible anwer you could have given. Ever. That aside, I am glad you <B>finnaly</B> fixed that thing. I have spent an accumulated time at over two full time weeks trying to emulate transparent gradients in my projects. Thank you for not wasting my time any longer but in stead adding a 100% markup on the international price.Niklashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11316908880866487621noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-68829115322226643952008-09-30T17:36:00.000-04:002008-09-30T17:36:00.000-04:00Something I'd like to see is folders in the Layers...Something I'd like to see is folders in the Layers Palette like in Photoshop - I'd also like to see it in the Brushes palette and others that can get cluttered - I put this on the dear Adobe site but too late for this version - although I did put it on the user forums for Illustrator sometime ago too...<BR/>Oh yep, its a great post, good focus and lead for everyoneThe Geezerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00548501007500060246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-66285101278219085942008-09-30T13:13:00.000-04:002008-09-30T13:13:00.000-04:0022. Illustrator graphing tool UpdateIt' easy to se...22. Illustrator graphing tool Update<BR/><BR/>It' easy to see where could be the improvements.<BR/>Look at Aabel application and its various graphing options or simply browse through many of those info aesthetic blogs that we enjoy and/or contribute these last years to look for what people want.<BR/><BR/>Adobe Illustrator has way to similar graphing approach as MS Excel and it's lacking some serious creative control. <BR/>I see a dedicated panel for data graphs somewhere in the future, linked with symbols library and full layer structure.Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03519523316923222014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-65575094861128251462008-09-30T01:58:00.000-04:002008-09-30T01:58:00.000-04:00i wish ILLustrator can EASILY paste in an object a...i wish ILLustrator can <B>EASILY</B> paste in an object as easy as <B>FREEHAND</B> does; <I>i.e....cut object, click on pathed object...PASTE in.</I><BR/>FREEHAND still rules. ILLustrator's ok.<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://users.rio.com/bamm/illustrationISM/port.html" REL="nofollow">mark jaquette</A> @ <BR/><A HREF="http://users.rio.com/bamm/illustrationISM/index.html" REL="nofollow">illustrationism</A> & <BR/><A HREF="http://users.rio.com/bamm/BAMmGRAPHICS/index.html" REL="nofollow">bammgraphics</A> !illustrationISM....https://www.blogger.com/profile/11403974279736788715noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-86306470114227702642008-09-29T00:30:00.000-04:002008-09-29T00:30:00.000-04:00Great Post, I too just came across the "Dear Adobe...Great Post, I too just came across the "Dear Adobe" site and was annoyed with the lack of constructive comments.<BR/><BR/>Another interesting item in your post was that you used to provide training and guidance to beta testers. For the first time in my career i was able to get the beta version of the software. I played with it and tried to find out what it could do but was stymied by a lack of help documentation and no clear idea of what or how Adobe wanted me to communicate back.Michael Riordanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00971363183035756700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20113929.post-2403331135007459462008-09-28T21:18:00.000-04:002008-09-28T21:18:00.000-04:00Thanks for the post! As a QA guy, I really like it...Thanks for the post! As a QA guy, I really like it when anyone teaches how to report bugs/features. :-) Oh, btw, if my memory serves me, Freehand early on started doing smart zoom based on selection. ;-) Keep up the sharing!Andrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13269658124355670149noreply@blogger.com