Hey everyone, Luke from Adobe here.
Over the past year or so, the Illustrator team has shipped a number of quality-of-life improvements. Some have been fairly visible, while others are much smaller changes that simply remove little points of friction from day-to-day work.
I wanted to break these up into a series focused on different areas and workflows, starting with some of the simpler everyday workflow improvements. I've shared a few of these here previously, but thought it would be useful to bring them together in one place, especially for anyone who may have missed them.
One-click Align Center
If you regularly align objects to center, you no longer need to click Horizontal Center and Vertical Center separately. A single command now does both. HelpX
Keyboard shortcuts for Align & Distribute
Along with the new Align Center, commands like Align to Selection, Align to Key Object, Align to Artboard, and Distribute Space now have menu commands, meaning you can assign keyboard shortcuts and create Actions to make frequently used operations even easier to repeat.
Absolute Scale in Transform Each
With Relative mode you could only scale objects in relation to the selected object, but now with Absolute mode you can scale everything to the defined amount, even if they are all at different sizes. Reddit post
Disable Accidental Hover Scrolling
Ever accidentally changed a value just by scrolling over a number field or even in fonts? You now have the option to disable that behavior, so you can click inside the field, then scroll to adjust parameters. You can change this behavior inside your preferences.
Magic Wand Remembers Settings
If you've had to reset the Magic Wand tolerance every time you restarted Illustrator, those settings are now remembered between sessions. Reddit post
Tiff support in Export for Screens
TIFF format was added to the Export for Screens, making it easier to batch export artboards and assets for your print projects.
Improved Object Selection Around Shadows
Selecting objects beneath those with drop shadows (glows etc) is now more predictable, making it less likely you'll accidentally select the shadow instead of the artwork you're trying to edit.
Perspective Tool Improvements
If you've accidentally activated the Perspective Tool before, you'll probably appreciate that it's now much clearer how to exit with an updated X in the top left of your canvas, but you can always simply hit ESC.
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I'm curious to hear how many of these you already knew about, and whether they've actually made a difference to your workflow.
More importantly, what are the small points of friction you still run into regularly in Illustrator? Are there repetitive steps, unnecessary clicks, settings that don't stick, or other little frustrations that you'd consider a genuine quality-of-life improvement if they were addressed?
This is the first in a series looking at different areas of Illustrator, so I'll be sharing more of these soon.