The "I hate Adobe Illustrator" Club

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  • see_thru2

    I miss Fireworks.

  • since19792

    never!! i will not hate illustrator!!

    • Me neither. It's like a tank. I've rarely found any major issues with it since version 3.2 in the early 90s.CyBrainX
  • shapesalad0

    Anyone here try/use:

    https://www.designer.io

    ?

    Certainly the UI looks better than antique Illustrator.

    • no, but i'm slowly migrating to afffinityhans_glib
    • Looks good. I'm in too deep to leave though.Hayzilla
    • i tried the Affinity Photo 30 days trial. Very good software, I'd switch to it anytimeBennn
    • @hayzilla: me too, but slowly coming up to speed with affinity.hans_glib
  • Continuity1

    I miss Freehand.

    • I remember Freehand in the 90s. It had four different pen tools. That didn't sell me at all.CyBrainX
    • agreeshapesalad
    • Freehand was great.MrT
    • yupGnash
    • At the time, Freehand 5(?) outshines AI because it had multi-page capability cooked in so you could build out brochures etcprophetone
    • there was an archaic AI paid plugin that did this but it was junk, Freehand ftwprophetone
    • was a sad day that an old laptop of mine died that still had a working freehand on it... i literally shaked my fist and shed a tiny tear._me_
  • deathboy0

    i hate it. i swear it doesnt work correctly with my hardware. not sure if its a mobo / gpu issue. But it runs so slow when it shouldn't . 4GB 1080GTX on a 6700 4.5 skylake with 16gb of 2633 ram. plus rotate around anchor point with wacom never worked and has to use astute plugin for. and still keep a cs5 for scriptographer, which actually works better than cc....

  • MrT0

    I think we can get the t-shirts made, CC2019 is a dog. I do a lot of image tracing (placed JPEGs etc). Even before drawing a single point, it would crap itself during every zoom or hand-tool move.

    The following has been a big help:

    – Trash the preferences (if you upgraded from 17 or 18, the old prefs mess up the new version, apparently)

    – Use View > Trim View which hides everything outside artboards.

  • shapesalad1

    Majority of the time, working with a white background in AI...

    New layer, start drawing... can't see my path because new layer has cycled through the layer colours and come to the dreaded 'Yellow' layer colour.... so... double click, change layer colour... sigh... life wasted on this...

    Looked in prefs, no way to set the default layer colours....

    How about Adobe write a little line of code that when a new layer is created it checks to see either the background colour of the largest bottom layered object in scene - or the current stroke colour, and if it's white create layers with darker layer colours, or visa versa.

    • would take less than 5mins to code that.shapesalad
    • haha, Yellow is my water line - if I'm not on my final commit by the time it's popped up, I'm either on a big project, or I've fucked up somewhere.Nairn
  • shapesalad2

    Artboards...

    made a few...

    then error message 'rearrange to fit on screen thingy'...

    right ok, arranged two columns, many rows, 200px gap in the settings.

    add a couple new artboards * but * these new artboards don't follow those arrangement rules, why the f not.

    Fuck sake with it illy... just remember the settings, and add them in the same arrangement.

    • I don't really use multiple artboards too much but does it not take on the characteristics of the artboard currently selected?Nairn
    • Art boards are a messGnash
    • < this drives me nuts, as wellGnash
    • How many artboards do you have. I've never gone more than about 20 and haven't had too many problems.CyBrainX
  • shapesalad0

    https://illustrator.uservoice.co…

    agree with all those on there. still not fixed. barely usable.

  • shapesalad0

    When in Recolor Artwork 'mode' / dialogue...

    There's no eyedropper tool.
    There's no ability to grab a colour from your artwork.

    There's no ability to also grab colour from your 'libraries' dialogue.

    Bloody pile of poop.

    • and the new feature of grabbing colours from an image doesn't work, just closes the tool popupshapesalad
    • The Recolor and Edit Color features are pretty terrible. I gave up on them so long ago I forgot about them.CyBrainX
    • ^ yep this. They're like the UI in Iron Man's helmet.MrT
    • How else to adjust colours globally. say you want to take a grouped, multiple stroke+fill artwork and slightly shift the colours?shapesalad
  • Nairn0

    Current document Setup Units: Millimeters.
    Current document Ruler: Millimetres
    Last new file I set up two days ago, units: Pixels
    Every Document I've worked with since: Millimetres
    .
    Ctrl+K, Set Keyboard increment... PIXELS.

    WHY IS DOES IT DEFAULT TO THE SETTINGS OF THE LAST NEW DOCUMENT MADE, NOT THE FUCKNIG SETTINGS IT'S SET TO? WHY IS THE ONLY WAY TO FORCE ILLUSTRATOR TO ABIDE BY THE SETTINGS I'VE GIVEN IT TO CREATE A NEW DOCUMENT AND SET ITS UNITS TO MILLIMETRES?!

    It's been like this for years. It's profoundly illogical.

    • doesn't it set a default if you change the settings without a document open?kaiyohtee
    • can't change document settings without a document openmonospaced
    • Whenever I create a new document, the default is the last file in the "Recent" section, and that is usually the desired setting I want to use.monospaced
    • I may be misreading, but if you CMD+k without a doc open, when you edit the units and that never changes whatever doc you have open.kaiyohtee
    • if I close all docs, then ctrl+k to change Keyboard increment, it's in px. If I set to MM I close dialog box, then Ctrl+k again, it's whatever MM I set.. in PX.Nairn
    • 'Solution' is to open a new document and set the Units there. Then, no matter what I do with that file, all subsequent Ctrl+k's will be in whatever I set.Nairn
    • So. If now I do that and reset to MM, all good for most of the files I work in. Until I open a document that specifies PX, and I have same prob, but opposite.Nairn
  • monospaced0

    Today, for some reason, Illustrator is now treating space between words differently. This is the same type with metric kerning and optical kerning. This does NOT happen in InDesign with the same font and settings.

    Any suggestions?

    • get affinity?hans_glib
    • I love when people suggest dumping an entire program they've used their whole career because of a glitch that might be fixed by googling in a few minutes.CyBrainX
  • monospaced0

    I was thinking maybe I had a setting wrong in this document, so I opened one where I had the same font and kerning settings and the type looks great, and sure enough, it looks great!

    But ... when I try to edit the text, I get this pop-up:

    If I click "Ok" the type immediately updates and all the spaces are cut in half. Totally insane.

    • It's just this one font, that I can tell (Helvetica Neue LT Pro). If I switch to the system version of Helvetica Neue all is good. Weird.monospaced
    • Fuck, it's happening with most/all fonts?monospaced
    • It's only with Optical kerning. I usually use that by default, because I like how it works. Guess that isn't an option for now.monospaced
    • Uh oh... I've used optical kerning as a default for years. Saves a lot of time and only is an issue with really poorly designed fonts.evilpeacock
    • You do know that the optical kerning ignores the fine measured kerning the font designer implemented?shapesalad
    • I know this and with really nice typefaces disable it. But I'm often tasked with inheriting shit/cheap-ass fonts from existing brands.evilpeacock
    • I know that, but they fine measurement isn’t as fine as they lead you to believe. My point is about how the engine is now changed from previous versions anyway.monospaced
    • In my opinion, based on my career experience, is that even Helvetica Neue needs help. Happy to discuss.monospaced
  • shapesalad3

    I wish that no matter which colour you currently have in the toolbar thingy, that when you went over to the 'Gradient' panel, rather than the default white > black, it did white > Current Colour in toolbar.

    It'd save innumerable clicks and just feel a little more... you know... nice.

    Instead, f*ck illustrator. Daily it gives me more grey hairs and another 100 wacom/mouse clicks closer to arthritis and carpel tunnel syndrome.

    • Also, if you could use inkdropper to change a gradient colour instead of having to make a swatchProjectile
  • shapesalad0

    View > View using GPU ✓
    View > Trim View ✓

    Move one item on artboard = garbage of graphics, items not rendered etc etc.

    Great.

  • shapesalad0

    Probably mentioned it before but selecting anchor points / bezier handles unless you zoom 3000% + is simply impossible.

    No amount of adjusting the preferences for 'Selection & Anchor Display' makes any difference.

    Selection: Tolerance - 1px, 4px, 8px, 200px. fuck sake no difference what's so ever.

    Anchor points/handles:
    Size: Default - - - Max.

    Doesn't matter, it isn't going to be any easier to grab. I have my cursor on top of the max set anchor handle and no.. doesn't like it have to zoom in 6000% before it starts to like it.

    FFS!

    • It's driving me insane. Adobe, please no new features, just tighten up ship. Use it to draw and see how frustrated you get, then fix it. asap.shapesalad
  • shapesalad0

    I wish that when you select a text box etc on your artboard, that when you went to the font panel and click the drop down menu of all fonts - it automatically opened to the font you're using within the big long list of fonts you have installed.

    Instead, you got to scroll all the way down.

    Particularly annoying when you are going down through your fonts trying out ideas, and you have to firstly locate the font you're currently using before proceeding further....

    • It defaults to the previously-used font, no? Also, does it not have the x most recent used fonts at the very top of the list?Nairn
    • just puts me at top of list, with recent used fonts, but i want to be down the list to the font currently in use.... is there a pref?shapesalad
    • I'm not sure, tbh. I've just tried now and it kept three font changes at the top of the list and indeed has two fonts I used a few days ago too.Nairn
    • I mean, i've certainly not flicked any switch to make it do this, and I feel like it's done it by default for a few versions now.Nairn
    • OH, I misread. Yours does what mine does. No, it doesn't do what you want. To do that I'd just hit the dropdown and type the first characters of the font I wantNairn
  • shapesalad0

    How to avoid that glitching at the corners when using a 'Calligraphic Brush' in illy?

    Switching between GPU / CPU doesn't help with the rendering.

    • add more anchor points, expand appearance, unite, smooth tool, clean up, slow hand clap for Adobe.shapesalad
    • Mitre setting maybe? No idea. Never use those brushes.monospaced
    • no Mitre setting for such brushes...shapesalad
    • You might need to use the pen tool to adjust the corner angle or shange the flow direction of the brush in the brush settings with that line selected?PhanLo
  • shapesalad1

    I wish there was one single keyboard shortcut that showed/hid both 'edges' and 'bounding box'.

    Instead... it's:

    Apple+H ... then ... Shift+Apple+B

    I prefer how in aftereffects one shortcut hides the app UI so you can quickly see how your art looks as you move stuff around.

    • How Cmd+H does not hide the Ai window like in every other app after decades of Ai...bruhgrafician
  • shapesalad2

    Artboards... if you need a quick way to rename them, forget about the 'Artboards' panel. Just go to 'Export for Screens...' And rename in there, press cancel, it'll still update the names.

    Problem with double clicking the names in the Artboard panel is it then zooms into that page and just feels clunky.

    If anyone knows how to set the naming so it says 'Page' instead of 'Artboard' that'd be great.

    • Also, when you inherit a file with "Artboard copy1 copy 2", etc. it's no fun.evilpeacock
    • I really want a batch rename for the Artboard names. I'm pretty sure you can't even do it with JS scripts.evilpeacock