Ai Features That are LONG Overdue

Question

Illustrator is now going on 24 years old and the following features really need to be improved, updated, changed what ever phrase your want to label it as it needs to be done.
- Zoom Ratio: Why limit the ration to 6400%? This assumes too much. If I'm building an illustration for example I have some detail within the greater context that is very small and yet I still need to zoom in on it but I run into this ceiling all the time? The only way around it is to copy out the element into a different file, increase size, make the edits needed, reduce size to original and copy back in. This is unexceptable and a major waste of time. You need to at least double the ratio. This limitation is only compounded by the next common build problem with Illustrator.
- Redundant Points: Illustrator is netorious for adding an ungodly amount of unnecessary anchor point on even simple tasks like expanding a stroke, or expanding a width tool shape. It's just sloppy, no nicer way to say it. But even when you shape build using basic shapes and do so with the pathfinder to create even iconic geometric forms illustrator will add in anchor points that either piggy back on each other or are so close to one another that they behave like they are ontop of one another. I say behave because you can't zoom in far enough to tell and trying to select them is an exercise in futility. And adobe evangelist told me one time when discussing this problem that it's because illustrator is too accurate. Sorry but that is BS. FreeHand NEVER had this problem EVER not one time in the 15 years I used it did it create any redundant (seemingly or otherwise) anchor points.
- Inner & Outer Glow Effect: I'm in the habit of always saving before I go to use inner or outer glow effect because it crashes the app so often it's now just routine to save because more than likely it'll take Ai down when I go to use it. Something about a placed image like a tiff that causes this. I've reported this since CS2 and you still haven't fixed it in CC. Actually using a lot of the effects still feels like beta IMO. Just changing a color on an inner feels like your in a B movie version of Inception. Why can't I just select a layer in the Appearance panel and click a color to change? Is it really necessary to bury stuff so deep I need a bathtub to fall back into to create my art?
- Gradient Blends: When I select a color on a gradient blend why doesn't that color become highlighted in the swatches panel? This is another one I've reported since CS2 and you still haven't fixed it in CC? When ever I select anything that relates to a color being changed it should select the current color in the swatches panel by default all the time. When you have hundreds of colors it's very inefficient to the work flow when I have to slow down because your app is too dumb to tell me what color I have selected in a gradient.
- Type: Make the edges of the actual letterforms interactive with content in it's editable font format. For example if I slide a guide over instead of snapping to type box, it snaps to the edge of the letterforms. Or if I align something it aligns with the displayed letterforms not the type box it resides in. I'm always haveing to make a copy, convert to path and use that to align with or snap to than toss it. It wastes time. Type in Ai is already a huge bag of hurt, but this one thing would help alot. At least make it a preference we can choose to turn on or off. Giving the user the chose is always preferred over enforcing something wholesale on all. FreeHand had a shrink wrap setting for type that came close to this and at least made alignment easier.
I'll post more as I recall them.

Answer 1

i keep thinking about getting hold of the last Freehand just to have a play around. i have an older mac at home with 10.6.8 so i think i can still run it. it was a dodo before i started working professionally, unfortunately. does that make anyone feel old? hah