Improving productivity and efficiency is a vital part of the design process. Adobe constantly listens to how you use their applications, so they can iterate and tailor them to your needs. Your voice is what drives the improvements they introduce on a regular basis. The latest release of Adobe Illustrator therefore includes some innovative features that are based on popular user requests.
These new capabilities help you work faster and more accurately, so you can spend more time on your creative vision and ensure your artwork is as precise and beautiful as it can be. Let’s have a look at what’s new.
Introducing the Dimension tool
The Dimension tool quickly became a user favourite when Adobe launched it in beta in December, as it streamlined the manual process of labelling the dimensions of product designs. Now generally available, this new feature enables you to effortlessly and precisely measure and plot dimensions such as distances, angles, and radii in your artwork. In addition to packaging design, it will be especially useful for adding precise dimensions to technical graphics, interior and architectural design, and fashion and textile design.
You can customise a variety of settings for the dimensions you plot and easily adjust their position. And to view your design without the plotted dimensions, just hide them at once. This latest update also incorporates user feedback, including the ability to choose custom units, and dimensions now scale as you re-size your artwork.
What else is new in Illustrator
In addition to the Dimension tool, Adobe is also enhancing their generative AI features in Illustrator to bring extra joy to your design process and introducing a range of new features that will boost your productivity and make every day creative tasks faster and easier.
Text to Vector Graphic (beta) refinements
Text to Vector Graphic (beta), powered by Adobe Firefly, enables you to create a wide array of fully editable professional vectors — including icons, scenes, subjects, and patterns — in a magical new way, all with a simple text prompt.
Since Adobe announced this new feature at Adobe MAX, they have been enhancing the visual quality of the outputs and made it easier for you to control the level of detail you get from your outputs with an updated detail slider in the Properties Panel.
The latest refinements also include the ability to perform various actions on multiple selected variations at once (e.g. rate good/bad and deleting multiple variations, which was a top user request). Adobe has also updated colour controls for patterns, and you can now specify up to 12 colours (up from 5).
Star as a Live Shape
This new feature (which already exists in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator on iPad and in Illustrator on the web) enables you to dynamically adjust the Star Shape, including its size, position, and the inner and outer radius of its points, using the on-shape control widgets. As a result, you’ll save a significant amount of time that you’d otherwise spend on manually adjusting the shape.
Enclosed Rectangular Marquee Selection
You can now select objects more precisely with the new Enclosed Rectangular Marquee Selection. Only objects that are fully enclosed will be selected, and the default marquee selection selects objects that are partially included in the marquee.
This feature, which allows for more precision, will be especially useful in intricate and crowded artworks.
Keyboard shortcuts for text formatting
Everyone loves keyboard shortcuts, and based on user feedback, Adobe has added them to text formatting — including Bold, Italic, and Underline — to help you get your work done faster.
Explore enhancements inspired by your feedback
Try all the new features, including the new Dimension tool, and experiment with them in your workflow by updating Illustrator to the latest version today. And to request new features, track, and even vote on them, go to Menu > Help > Submit Bug/Feature Request directly in Illustrator or head to illustrator.uservoice.com.
With Illustrator and generative AI, anyone can create logos, packaging designs, web graphics, and more – contact the Dax Data team to find out more.
