Adobe Illustrator : What Needs Improving?
Okay,
Started this thread after spending the last couple of days over at Adobe's suggestion forum for Illustrator. The AI crowd isn't filled with quite as many pompous asses who feel that they need to tell you HOW DESIGN IS DONE.
What would YOU improve in Adobe Illustrator as it heads toward version 11 this year?
My suggestions are:
1. The addition of a Photoshop-esque toolbar at the top (that's coming, natch).
2. A Font Management palette that communicates with Adobe Type Manger (for OS X). Like the brushes palette, it lets you see your type collection represented in their actual, graphical nature. WYSIWYG. Activate/Deactivate font sets. Grab the thunder of apps like Font Reserve, but add a very graphical, very navigable interface to your font collection.
3. Integrate Streamline into the application. Streamline hasn't changed since version 4.....ages ago. Integrate it.
4. Integrate Adobe Dimensions into the app.
That's my first pass......hey, didn't we do this recently? Well, if so, I'm doing it again!
Started this thread after spending the last couple of days over at Adobe's suggestion forum for Illustrator. The AI crowd isn't filled with quite as many pompous asses who feel that they need to tell you HOW DESIGN IS DONE.
What would YOU improve in Adobe Illustrator as it heads toward version 11 this year?
My suggestions are:
1. The addition of a Photoshop-esque toolbar at the top (that's coming, natch).
2. A Font Management palette that communicates with Adobe Type Manger (for OS X). Like the brushes palette, it lets you see your type collection represented in their actual, graphical nature. WYSIWYG. Activate/Deactivate font sets. Grab the thunder of apps like Font Reserve, but add a very graphical, very navigable interface to your font collection.
3. Integrate Streamline into the application. Streamline hasn't changed since version 4.....ages ago. Integrate it.
4. Integrate Adobe Dimensions into the app.
That's my first pass......hey, didn't we do this recently? Well, if so, I'm doing it again!
Comments
Why the PS toolbar? Waste of useful screen space. Illustrators tools are less dependant on filling in dialog boxes--for the most part.
Font management==seperate app. What happens when you switch to PS or InDesign or a text editor?
More FSCKING SPEED. I swear I am losing money when I work in Illustrator 10 its that slow.
Adobe codes an OSX version that has all the speed and features of Illustrator 8 and I pay full price to upgrade to that.
But, customization is best of all. Let you set yours up the way you need it and let me set up mine the way that I need it. Improvements to the functionality of the tool is almost as important to me as the speed....where I find myself agreeing with you. ALWAYS make it faster.
Here's another suggestion....
Adobe needs to do some spring cleaning in the damned preferences dialogue. There are some things in there that should be integrated into tools...like the corner radius dimension. What's up with that being a preference? And that darned pop-up window that hops up whenever you miss point you're trying to delete? I only --just-- found out that you can shut that warning box off....the check box never grabbed my attention before now (shame on ME I know).
So there are some interface refinements I'd like. I'd also like to set the pathfinder tools to automatically "expand" when I implement them....the way that they used to do. Maybe that's in there.....<sigh>...time to pull out the manual and read about all the things I -could- have been doing on this last project.
Oh well, you can't learn it all at once.
Anyway, let's here what some other folks think....
Another feature I'd like would be a palette with a slider that, as you slid it left or right, the corner radius or a rounded-corner rectangle would increase or decrease interactively.
Talk about a time saver!
I have more, I'm sure. I'll add them here as I remember them (it's late and I'm getting foggy, but I'm constantly in Illustrator going "man, wouldn't it be cool if I could..."
Make it faster.
Speed.
It should be less slow.
All the rest doesn't matter. We got pretty much all we need.
? Fix the bug where it would crash if you mouseover a layer and a tooltip pops up (been there since 9.0, but no longer brings down the whole system, yay!).
? Make the size of the bezier points a preference, working at a high reolution can be a pain the third time in a row you miss the tiny 4x4 px circle..
? IMPLEMENT A FILL BUCKET! Having to colour outlined objects by connecting each individual dot is INANE. Flash has it, so you know it can be done.. grrrrr
Including Dimensions and Streamlining capability would be great as I have to boot into OS9 or classic to use these useful lil apps.
I like the suggestion of a slider to control the corner radius.
Font management should be a seperate app. We don't have any cool Font Management systems that match ATM Deluxe and I pray to the God of Computing every night, hoping that Adobe will change their mind on this issue and bring out something to make managing fonts the simple joy it used to be before Apple decided you could sprinkle fonts all over the place. <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" />
Didn't Adobe say that they're going to go all OS X from here on? If so, does that mean that Illustrator will be all-Cocoa from here on out? Speed increase...right?? RIGHT!!?? Hope so.
BUT....YOU GUYS.....besides speed, there ARE things that could be improved with the interface....what would you change/add/improve BESIDES speed??
I think that customizable contextual menus might be interesting.....
D
Before they add any more crap to Illustrator they should make it faster. Or fork the fcsking app like they did with Photoshop and ImageReady.
K for Paint bucket (place over open or closed path and click)
command=J to join points in a path.
<strong>slider for corner radius (use up and down arrows)</strong><hr></blockquote>
you're right about that one
[quote]<strong>K for Paint bucket (place over open or closed path and click)
command=J to join points in a path.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yes, the paint bucket fills the clicked object with the selected colour. Um, very... useful. Not how a paint bucket should act though. What about several objects? the paint bucket should fill everything within the clicked area that's not already filled with colour (ie, in illustrator it should create a new object!). Try it in photoshop or any other image-editing app created through history to see what I mean.
yes, you CAN use pathfinder and Command-J to join paths, but that literally takes forever. When it should just be a single click.
Look at these pics and ask me how long the colouring took.
<a href="http://www.tokyo.se/jan/bilder/vagskal.jpg"; target="_blank">http://www.tokyo.se/jan/bilder/vagskal.jpg</a>;
<a href="http://www.tokyo.se/jan/bilder/destiny.jpg"; target="_blank">http://www.tokyo.se/jan/bilder/destiny.jpg</a>;
<a href="http://www.tokyo.se/jan/bilder/overlevnad.jpg"; target="_blank">http://www.tokyo.se/jan/bilder/overlevnad.jpg</a>;
The answer: a lot damn longer than it should've had to!
Implement a real fill bucket damn it!
[ 02-04-2003: Message edited by: Whyatt Thrash ]</p>
<strong>K for Paint bucket (place over open or closed path and click)</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yeah, what's up with that? K used to be the painbucket, right? I just upgraded to 10, and I swear, I spent a LONG time looking for it. Hiding behind the gradients?! WTF!!
I'd also like to see transform functions that match photoshop (especially free distort). Even better-- I'd rather see distortion features that match the tools in AE production bundle, but I'm dreaming and I know it.
And SPEEEEEED!!!!
And a way to strip the lame ass color management "features" from all Adobe programs. Yeah, that too.
There are concatenate plugins that will join a series of disconnected paths.
<a href="http://personalpages.tds.net/~graffix/software/plugins.html#concatenate"; target="_blank">http://personalpages.tds.net/~graffix/software/plugins.html#concatenate</A>;
<strong>With any other raster image-editing app you mean. </strong><hr></blockquote>
Uh, no I don't. Check the behaviour of Flash for example.
[quote]<strong>Illustrator is a vector app and the behavior of the paint bucket is perfectly consistent with "painting" behavior in Illustrator. </strong><hr></blockquote>
Yeah, if you distribute primitives perhaps. Not if you "paint" with it. Check above links for example. Why shouldn't those drawings be easily done in illustrator?
[quote]<strong>You paint objects not an area--if you want to paint an area you must create an object that equals the area you want to paint. If you want raster behavior use PS.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Oh, so I have a crippled app because of metaphore? That makes me feel so much better.
Face it , the only reason you like the paint buckets "weird" behaviour compared to all other apps is because you've gotten used to it. The paint bucket does have a worked out metaphore (fill blank space with colour) and I think that ill should at least provide us with that function, if not under that tool then under ANY tool... it's frigging hard work not having it.
Those plugs are cool but not 100%.
Thx for the link though.
Peace.
Streamline.
Contextual palettes
Here's the website:
<a href="http://www.silhouetteonline.com/"; target="_blank">http://www.silhouetteonline.com/</a>;
I may d/l the trial in a week or so.
Short of Adobe themselves rolling a sort of mini Streamline into Illustrator (OR, as mentioned earlier, have it and Dimensions as some sort of separate app that comes with Illustrator, like ImageReady does with Photoshop), I guess a little third-party solution like this, as long as it works, is the next best thing.
However, it's pretty damn expensive. Check out their "buy" page!
:eek: