My Illustrator Wishlist

I’m in the midst of upgrading to CS3, checking out all the latest additions and changes to programs I use everyday in my work. Checking in with Illustrator, I jotted down some notes about what I’d like to see in its next version. The list so far:

Compass Tool

Building complex rounded shapes can be an exercise in ‘point-pushing’ whereby users have to either create then split apart oval shapes, or use the dreaded Arc tool. I’ve tried to use it, but can’t really get the fine-grained control I’d like, and using oval sections is tedious beyond belief. Instead of either tool, I’d love to see Illustrator give users the ability to scribe arcs in a way that’s more intuitive. Currently it’s like building a whole house when you only want one wall.

In geometry class we were given a simple tool called a compass. Place the pointy end on the paper, adjust the arc to the radius you want, then scribe an arc. If we extend that to Illustrator, it would give users a way to create those arcs directly without having to go through intermediate steps of creating a complex object then editing out the parts they don’t want. Here’s how it might look:

Finer Join Controls

It wasn’t until I started reading Von Glitschka’s blog that I realized something I was missing when it came to join attributes. Illustrator allows you to specify joins only for an entire object – all joins for that object are rounded/sharp/beveled, but never a mix. Again, to get around the problem, Illustrator users are forced to create a complex object, then break it down into individual line/arc segments. Now that Adobe owns Macromedia (and FreeHand), I’m hoping that we’ll see a few changes in this area.

At any point in a shape, you should be able to specify what kind of join you’d like – stellated areas of an object could have sharp joins, while truncated areas could have rounded joins. Or vice-versa. Here’s an example:

Of course I cheated here and created this with FreeHand…sorry, Illustrator.

Mirror Join

Most of my current work involves perfect symmetry along one or more axes. My typical workflow is to create half the shape using the Pen tool, then Reflect along an axis, but then I’m faced with having to Select the end points and CTRL-J to join them individually. Something that would save time would be to have a “Reflect and Join” tool where these steps are executed in one action.

The construct already exists in Illustrator with the 3D tools, so putting a 2D version of it in the Pathfinder palette should be fairly straightforward (notice I didn’t say ‘easy’…I do have immense respect for the developers at Adobe).

Symmetrical Editing

Along the same lines as Mirror Join above, being able to take a symmetrical object and edit only one side, then having those changes reflect over would also be a nice addition. Complex designs require tweaking, so being able to move a single point a fraction of a milimeter up and to the left is something I prefer not to do by hand.

If instead I could define a shape as symmetrical (through Mirror Join or using OBJECT–>REFLECT), then edit only one ‘active half’ having Illustrator cascade those changes onto the ‘passive half’, it would save a tremendous amount of effort.

Auto Clip to Artboard

Ok, I’ll admit that I’m lazy when it comes to exporting Illustrator images. I’m very organized with my files, keeping objects in appropriately-named layers and moving my ‘building block’ objects off the art board, but sometimes I forget, finding stray objects in my Preview. I’d love Illustrator to default to clipping to the Art Board to avoid that rather than always having to turn off layers.

Smart Object Edit in Photoshop

Illustrator and Photoshop, for me, are two sides of the same tool, and I love the ease with which they work together via Smart Objects. One thing I’m not thrilled about, though, is editing Smart Objects in their native applications. I rarely have both open at the same time; I’m used to using the Place function, a holdover from using my main tool, InDesign.

When composing in Photoshop and having to edit an Illustrator Smart Object, I’d love it if Illustrator kicked on in the background, opening up an edit panel in Photoshop. The same would go for any Adobe applications that work like this - editing a Photoshop image after placing it in an InDesign layout would get triggered the same way, and I imagine video and Flash tools could take advantage of this as well.

Pass-Through Rendering

This feature would work equally well for most of the Adobe Creative Suite tools - the ability to “hand off” rendering to a second computer. I got the idea for this from working with other software like Rhino, Blender and CAD software, all of which allow rendering on a dedicated machine, and saving the strain on the design workstation.

In my home studio, we’ve set up a third PC as a server for a variety of development and entertainment purposes. When working on large designs (Photoshop files specifically, but Illustrator could benefit as well), I’d love to be able to farm out the chip-intensive processes elsewhere. Even with high-end machines like the ones we’ve built, it still can be a painful process.

Modal Editing

Think of them as “Layer Comps” for Illustrator - being able to create a single design, save it, then save further changes to the file without having to make copies of the original, shuffling them into new layers, then turning off the original layer. This could also save major steps when tweaking a design in other applications like Photoshop by choosing a specific “version” as the Smart Object.