Questions

When I create a new document or open a document I already have, I can't interact with anything in Illustrator at all. Not the tools, the items on the page, nothing. When I am in the home menu, Illustrator works and I can do things like select create new doc or go into the preferences. I just can't do anything when a new or previous doc opens. Photoshop, InDesign, and Premiere Pro have been working fine and Illustrator was fine not a week ago. I have uninstalled and reinstalled Illustrator. I tried new and old versions of it. I checked for updates and there were none. I restarted my PC. I don't know what to do. I'm stressed because I have important files in Illustrator for my job. I'm stumped on what to try next. Thanks in advance.

Hi all, I’m hoping there are some whizzes on here that can provide a smarter way to achieve the outcome I am looking for. I am developing sock designs, and as such, any design that overflows over the left of the rectangular shape needs to connect with the right edge design - to ensure it is a seamless and continuous image. I am trying to do this for a text fill, where the text may change for future designs (i.e. different word and number of letters). Currently the process I use is to use the type tool line by line, creating the outline and then ensuring the left overflow letter is centred over the edge at a similar position to the right edge - to ensure it matches up when applied to the 360 sock design. Then I apply a clipping mask. I have previously just created a grid with a text fill per block - the issue is when the word changes, so I would need to create a template for each variation of different word lengths. Any help or smart suggestions on how to automate or improve this proces

After I updated illustrator, when clicking “save as” there’s no longer a pop up asking if I want to save to creative cloud or onto my computer. It now only saves to my computer files. How can I fix this ??

I saw this post a few weeks ago but now that the community page has updated it’s MIA. When copying and pasting a gradient mesh in Illustrator, the mesh is rasterized. I tried exporting as an SVG, EPS, and Ai file and placing those in the document, but those get rasterized too. There is currently no way to transfer a gradient mesh from one document to another.

Hi everyone!Could someone please tell me what this is and how I can turn off this annoying red square? I guess it's some kind of AI tool or AI tip that's ruining my scrolling and navigation in my Illustrator file.

Tilde key to move a pattern within shape not workinghen using a Mac, the tilde key works properly for moving or scaling patterns, whether in Chinese or English input mode.However, when I use Windows, the tilde key doesn’t work as expected. I’ve tried switching the keyboard from Chinese to US English, but it still doesn’t function.That said, holding down the tilde key to create trailing patterns works without any issues.

I opened a recently saved file to find that much (but not all!) of my text has been pushed up off the artboard. Path type items seem to be linked to phantom linework in their original locations. Other type has no such connection. And not all text was shifted. What is happening here, and how to prevent? Updated to AI 2026 a month or so ago.

Another adventure with Illustrator this morning...   The color swatch tiles will disappear (hide, not show, go away, whatever) from the swatches panel when switching between open documents. The List and Thumbnail view buttons are grayed out.   What does show when switching documents is apparently new feature of Recent Colors.   The swatch library is loaded. Don't take me down the path of how to load a swatch library.   Accessing the panel drop down menu and selecting something like thumbnail view size will cause them to reappear. Until you switch to another document, then the swatches disappear again. We repeat the process..   Old documents. New documents. Worked fine yesterday.   MacOS Sequoia 15.6 Illustrator 29.7.1   <Title renamed by moderator>  

Okay so I am learning Illustrator, the steps that the teacher make is : Open freepik, download the rose; extract it, then opens the PSD file in Photoshop. hides the background, clicks Command + A (i am with windows so i guess its Ctrl???)then Command + C; opens illustrator, Command +  V This is what it looks And this is what happens to me  I am stuck at this point for hours and i get mad because i cannot continue if i cannot solve this problem… Thank you !! 

Made a logo in illustrator and it looks totally fine - I want the first version to be transparent for web and print. I’ve only tried exporting as png for web ( export as & export for web) both saved files give me the first picture attached which is a white background pink(?) graphics and black text that is all grayed out. (I haven’t even tried vectoring for print yet) but when I airdropped that file to myself on my phone in my gallery it’s looks fine until I open it then it looks like the dark version attached. However when I upload it to this thread from that same file on my phone (third image attached) it’s totally fine? I believe it’s my error idk if I just made it wrong or if I’m not tidying up loose end before exporting but any help is appreciated thanks! 

My Illustrator (30.1) doesn’t show everything that’s in the file. When ai file is opened with some other application or printed, there is some odd duplicated objects. I have to reopen and save the file in Illustrator to get rid of those unwanted shapes (they are not visible in Illustrator when I open the file again either). Has anybody else had this weird problem? Below is same ai file opened in Illustrator and Photoshop. In Photoshop you can see some duplicated lines which don’t appear in Illustrator.    

I am using Adobe Illustrator (latest version). In the Bullets & Numbering dialog box, I do not see an “Add” button to insert a custom bullet character. I want to use a checkmark (✓) as a bullet. How can I do this? I have attached a screenshot of the CorelDRAW bullet numbering style for reference.

Okay, so one of the new flagship features of Illustrator CS6 is gradients on strokes, but you can't use the Gradient Tool with them? I just get a crosshairs pointer with a "no" sign next to it. What's up with that?? I can see why this wouldn't work with shapeburst mode, but linear and even angular gradients (to set the center point) should be no problem.In addition to this, here is another bug I discovered:In earlier versions of Illustrator, you were allowed to use the Gradient Tool to adjust the direction of a shape's gradient even when the shape's stroke was in the foreground. Now that Illustrator can apply gradients to strokes, it is understandable that, if a shape has a transparent stroke, Illustrator will prevent you from using the Gradient Tool on the shape if the stroke is in the foreground.But the opposite should also be true: if you have a shape with a gradient stroke and a transparent fill, Illustrator should prevent you from using the Gradient Tool if the fill is in the fore

Since the latest update (26.4.1) my artboard name does not show up when exporting. Any ideas on getting it back? I checked in Preferences and Artboard Options but no luck.

I updated to Illustrator 2017 earlier this week and I noticed now, when I hold my cursor over a swatch, it doesn't show me the swatch/Pantone name anymore.Does anyone know why and how to get that feature back?Please help.Thanks!

I have just bought a brand new MICROSOFT 13" Surface Pro OLED, Copilot+ PC - Snapdragon X Elite, 1 TB SSD I am trying to download illustrator, however, it will not install.  On my creative cloud, it only shows the online beta version (which is not what I want). When I use the browser to download the app, it downloads the set up file.  After double clicking on the set up file (+ trying run as administrator), it just opens my creative cloud again but doesn't install.  I've had a surface pro in the past (one of the earlier models) and it worked absolutely fine.  Help! 

I placed a .jpg Adobe Stock photo in an Ai template and when I scale it down smaller it becomes pixelated. When I place it and it starts off as the large image the resolution is fine, but when I scale it down smaller it introduces pixelation.

I am creating my artwork in illustrator, my line work both stroke and fill need to be 100% black so I ensure that my CMYK is 100% K, I then save my file.  When I re-open the file in illustrator the CMYK defaults to a dark grey every time.  My output has to be 100% Black.What is going on and how do I fix this. Someone please help.

Hello all,Until now I could easily copy designed tables from InDesign into Illustrator (apple+a >apple+c>apple+v).Unfortunately, this is no longer possible in the latest version of both programmes.Can someone help me urgently.Many thanks in advance!

I believe installing macOS 26.3 beta 3 (25D5112c) was when the problem started. That problem is that Sidebar icons for all external drives are now that of the Creative Cloud application. Icons on the drive in the Finder itself are normal; it is only those in the Sidebar which have the incorrect icon. All external drives are connected via a NVMExpress interface.Mac Studio M3 UltramacOS 26.3 beta 3 (25D5112c)Adobe Illustrator 30.1

Hi, whenever I paste text from word/power point to illustrator, I always get gibberish symbols like these: !"#$%. The object is recognized as characters in the Illustrator, and I can change its font type and size. Pasting chart however works fine. I have tried using different fonts, including those who I have made sure are available in the Illustrator but I still get the same result. I have also tried resetting preferences, uninstalling the program, uninstalling creative cloud, cleaning adobe installation using adobe cleaner tools, yet I am still getting the same problem.  My system is Mac Mojave, with Office 365 Subscription, and Adobe Creative Cloud (trial version) Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi,if i create a File (580,00 mm x 500,00 mm) and export it to png (all possible options), the size is suddenly: 586,063 mm x 506,053 mm. The Problem: i cant upload the print becuase to huge… Testet in v2025 & v2026 - with another file, the size is different, but not same. And if the File ist empty, i got the same error.Also tested: align on pixel, align to grid, lower resolution and higher resolution Thank you for help.mutsch

I created a whole brand book, added images, design elements etc… all good. But when I save it as a PDF there are images added (even though it isn't there on the file) and some design elements get removed. It’s extremely frustrating. Any help is welcome. Thanks.

I created a live mirror using this line as an axis. I selected the line then went to Object> Repeat> Mirror and continued from there to create the photo below. Now I am stuck with no Idea how to get rid of that center line. How do I get rid of it???