Questions

Adobe Illustrator freezes immediately whenever I open it and becomes completely unresponsive. I am using a Mac Studio with the M4 Max chip.I have already tried installing an older version of Illustrator, but the same problem still happens. This didn’t happen until about 2025 december.Please advise on what might be causing this and how I can fix it?Thank you

Hi everyone,I’m experiencing a visual glitch in Illustrator and hope someone can help.I converted the contents of a top-level layer into a symbol definition. The definition is placed completely outside of any artboard. You can see it in the video.When I hover over the symbol, the object highlight (the outline matching the layer color) appears as a "ghost outline" that is significantly offset from the actual object(s). This misalignment specifically happens and shifts around when I rotate the symbol.Does anyone know why this is happening or how to fix it?Illustrator 30.21 (MacOS 26.0.1 on MacBook Pro 14-inch, 2023)

I’m thinking in 3D and creating too many layers.  I’m missing something fundamental in how Illustrator works, but I don’t know what so I can’t work out what tutorials might help. 

Hi,Is there a way to cut a shape into another shape e.g. circle but keep the gradient as on the example on the left rather than having Illustrator re-applying the gradient into each part of the resulting new shape? Can the gradient despite the new cut-out shape still be continuous as it is on the left? I’ve tried applying a clipping mask with a larger shape with the continuous gradient etc. but nothing has worked. The result turns withe.Thanks.

In Illustrator on Mac, I’ve organized some documents into Projects in Cloud storage.However, on iPad, I can’t see these ProjectsSame issue seems to exist in Photoshop on iPadAm I overlooking something?  or is this not implemented yet?

I want to disable the automatic opening of panels so that they do not interfere with the view, but this option does not work, and after restarting Tlustator automatically turns on again without my permission. I thought that all the settings were not saved, but no, I configured a lot of other things, and everything was saved. But the panel settings do not care. How can I prevent panels from opening?And one more thing, maybe this is the reason. Every time I start the program «««««Adobe Illustrator 2026.app» wants to access data from other programs. If you keep the data of the programs separately, it is easier to manage privacy and security. ≥≥≥≥≥≥≥ It does not matter whether I allow or deny, but still, the next time I start, it asks the same thing again. Reinstalling Illustrator did not help.

Hi everyone, Illustrator keeps crashing at startup. I have tried reinstalling but that doesn’t change anything. I have tried restarting my computer, and it sometimes works, but normally I have to keep restarting up to two or three times before it works and I have to go therough this process everytime I want to open it. It’s really affecting my ability to work. Any help would be much appreciated. Best, Andrew  

While building Ai Command Palette I found a great list of executeMenuCommand() values extracted by Shalako Lee from the 2017 SDK. As you might imagine, some of those commands no longer work, and since I'm about to release v0.2.0 of Ai Command Palette I've been testing them all and keeping track of the results in this Google Sheet.   I'm sharing this here because I figured this might be useful to some of you who write scripts for Illustrator. The sheet includes the Original List of commands from Shalako and a working list of the commands that I'm testing in Ai v26.3.1.   Right now I'm about halfway through the original 506 commands from Shalako's list. So far, I've found about 90 that no longer work. I've also updated any verbiage that may have changed in the menu system (since 2017) and updated the ordering to match Ai v26.3.1.   I also, made a simple script to test the commands below if you want to test any yourself. I'm trying to test each command in con

Hi everyone. I've been having a problem for a few versions of Illustrator. I didn't have this problem before.After linking a PSD file and selecting the option in the settings (FILE HANDLING > UPDATE LINKS - AUTOMATICALLY), Illustrator doesn't update the links; it only does this once every few times.I've checked it on two computers now - the problem occurs on version 29.7.1 and UP and not on version 29.0.1 and below - on this version on the same computers work perfectly.Does anyone have a solution? My computer is Mac Studio M4, system is Tahoe 26.3.1

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I have a series of elements of different sizes and shapes that I need aligned by the top-left edge of their bounds box. But I need the top-left edges to be aligned with the center of the workspace.Currently: Make selectionAlign Center (to Workspace)Align Middle (to Workspace)(aligns all elements to the center of the workspace)Write down the width and height of the top-left most elementAlign Top (by selection)Align Left (by selection)(aligns all elements by the top-left edge of the top-left element)Transform by ½ the recorded width on xTransform by ½ the recorded height on y This is a lot of steps for a relatively simple alignment. Surely there’s a better way? Also, how do you align Element A’s top left corner to Element B’s bottom right corner?Currently,Select Element A, Element BDistribute space Horizontal 0pxDistribute space Vertical :0px I struggle with this every time. Is there an easier way?

I don’t know how to explain in detail, to be honest. I’ll paste images.Current Desired (but red is part of the SS and is the same color)I don’t know how to achieve this. Can someone help?

How would you recreate this awesome graphic/pattern in adobe illustrator?  

I just got the brand new mac book pro and reinstalled illustrator and it is running so slow.  Anyone else have this problem of just the app running slow and how to resolve?  I can't find any reason for it to be this slow.   I saw someone else saying something about the Magnet app, but I don't have that on my computer. Any other suggestions?   <Title renamed by moderator>

I recently spent some time working on a file and when I went to go look at recently added fonts, the whole application crashed. However when reopening the file, I clicked “OKAY” when opening my recovery file but it opened the old file, never offered the recovery file and no recovery file can be found at all within the windows folder. Is there anything I can do? I looked at every version of adobe illustration and followed all the instructions.

I keep trying to export my artboard to a pdf and it just says cannot export. The file name does not have any special characters in it. I previously was able to export it. Why won't it let me now? 

I'm a beginner, and I have this design idea I am struggling with for some reason - like my brain won't visualize how to create the effect. I want to make like a lined art number 3 (eventually multiple numbers). I made an initial shape I want cleanly, but I am stuck on making the companion bits so that the whole thing is smooth/clean/cohesive. Will attach an image of the rough idea (red) and my shape (blue)

I have a group of simple shapes with gaussian blur applied. I have used a rectangle to clip the edges however this does not work at all. You can see where the blur is showing beyond the rest of the artwork’s edge below after exporting as PNG. Using Adobe Illustrator 29.8.5. 

Is there a bezier warp tool that will allow me to distort and group of objects by dragging corner handles independently to distort the entire group at once?  Specifically, I have some long rectangles to form stripes, and I want the pinch the whole group at once end and widen it at the other. I also want a slight arc in the whole group, but I was able to use the warp tool with a giant brush to add a slight curve to the whole group, however it doesn’t have a way to do the rest that I need done. Thanks! PS - Can i “apply” the Envelope Distortion so I can further edit the objects? Thanks again!

I have a number of labels created for client in illustrator and now he wants them translated to Spanish.I thought the easiest way would be to take My Illustrator PDF open in Acrobate and select Translate. Which then converts to Adobe Express (it doesn't like text effects and attributes, and have to keep the layers below 200). After trial and error and removing the effects and attributes I was abel to get the Adobe Express conversation o be correct. Then translate that file. But the conversion also changes all the text alignment and breaks a text block into single lines of text that flow too far. My question is: The this still the best solution knowing that I will have edit the translated file in Illustrator to copy and paste single lines of text back into the text boxes so it can be rescaled and reflow correctly and also reply the text effects and attributes. This process has worked very smoothly for a simple text document but seems to be too much for a label design. I've att

I have been receiving files with a white background, which can be set to transparent within the artboard panel dropdowns. When I create a new artboard, the default IS transparent, however when I do so through scripting, it shows up as white.Are there any options to set either the background color of artboards that currently exist, or create a new artboard with a transparent background? From what I’ve read, artboard color is unavailable in the DOM, I’m wondering if it follows similar read only logic of a new document. //Test a new artboard in the current documentvar newAB = app.activeDocument.artboards.add([0, 0, 500, -500]); 

I seem to remember being able to just duplicates selected points on a path, but Illustrator simply duplicates the entire object. I’m using the direct selection arrow to select the points and then option to drag and duplicate.  Running current version of Illustrator. Thanks!

What is going on. with Ilustrator? I'm on the latest version of Illustrator and the Mac OS, on a barnd new M4 Mac MIni and apparantly Illustrator is using 149GB of memory! This is happening all the time. Does anyone know what I can do about this? 

I was working on a 100 page document with mainly simple vector stuff (no complicated fills or brushes). I shut down for the weekend. Monday morning I restart my work and about 70% of all the work has gone. But it's random. Outlines gone on some pages, not on others. Contents of full pages (50 or so pages) gone, with only the frame and page title still there. 8 sketches on one page are ok - with just one sketch in the middle gone. Line sketches gone, leaving just the solid colour fills. Just completely random. It would have taken me 20 minutes to have selected it all and deleted it.In 30 years on illustrator, I have not seen this problem. Corrupted files that wont open, I have seen. But not this random missing stuff. Original document was 830 mb. The bad doc is now 200 mb.Luckily I use apple time machine. So I have a backup from Friday end of the day. Which I have picked up again. All seems fine.So is this just a bad document ? Corrupt preferences file? It's now deleted - but I dont wan

Please see the video: Dropbox - AI deletes asset.mov