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HARSHIKA_VERMA
Community Manager
HARSHIKA_VERMACommunity Manager
Community Manager
June 17, 2025

Illustrator 29.6 | Performance enhancements, Generative Expand and Live Pencil tool

  • June 17, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 1748 views

 

Hey everyone!

Illustrator v29.6 is here with exciting performance upgrades, Generative Expand, Preview styles and effects drawn using the Pencil tool in real time. Please check what's new to learn more about this release. 

Update now to experience these improvements and elevate your creativity! 

 

Update the App

Try out the latest Features and Enhancements in Illustrator.

Enjoy a smoother experience!

Calligraphic and art brushes now render faster, and editing actions like scaling, moving, rotating, and duplicating are smoother, making the creative process more efficient.

Generative Expand

Generative Expand, powered by Adobe Firefly, allows you to extend your vector artwork beyond its original boundaries. You can use an optional text prompt to guide the expansion, either for creative exploration or to resize the artboard for various layouts like print or social media. The expanded content can be merged with the original design into grouped objects for easier editing. It also helps fill the print bleed area around an artboard.

Live Pencil tool

The Live Preview feature in the Pencil tool instantly displays styles and effects as you draw, making the process more intuitive and accurate. Additionally, the Live Curve Fitting option adjusts the path's curve in real time, eliminating the need to release the mouse for smoother drawing

Enhancements Inspired by your feedback

  1. You can now repeat your last artboard action, like move, duplicate, or scale — using Ctrl + D or Cmd + D.

  2. It's now possible to paste objects directly onto selected artboards using Paste in Front, Paste in Back, or Paste in Place.

  3. Go ahead and rearrange selected artboards in your document with more precision, helping you streamline your workflow.

 

Fixed Issues

Illustrator v29.6 also includes several bug fixes. Take a look here.

We’d love to hear from you!

Try out Illustrator v29.6 and let us know your thoughts. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need more tips!

 If this was helpful, please click the Upvote icon in the top left corner of this post. Your feedback helps us improve the experience. Thank you!


Have questions? Click 'Reply' below to ask.

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      4 replies

      J
      joelm17138948
      Participant
      June 26, 2025

      Hi, I'm finding the new feature with generative ai prompt to not only be very distracting/an eyesore, but it seems to be slowing down the processing speed as well. Not to mention I'm morally opposed to having generative features included in the creative suite. Please let there be a way to turn this off, as it appears in the top corner of every single art board I'm working on. 

        T
        TVJQZ
        Participant
        June 26, 2025

        Agreed. Im not sure who at adobe was like ... you know what lets make an ai feature that creates bleeds. What creative user doesnt know about bleeds.

         

        Brain dead idea.

          Jimmy Flame
          Community Expert
          Jimmy FlameCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          June 23, 2025

          Loving the live pencil!! Didn't think it'd make that much of a difference until I tried it. Wow!

          - Jimmy Flame
            T
            TVJQZ
            Participant
            June 20, 2025

            How do you turn Generative Expand off? Visual clutter for users who know what bleeds are.

              Dave Creamer of IDEAS
              Community Expert
              Dave Creamer of IDEASCommunity Expert
              Community Expert
              June 20, 2025

              You can turn off the Contextual Task Bar under Windows. Technically, it's not off, but the option won't appear.

               

              David Creamer: Community Expert (ACI and ACE 1995-2023)
              T
              TVJQZ
              Participant
              June 26, 2025

              this is a hit and miss fix so far worked the first time but when i attempt it after a program restart or new board it wont go away.

              K
              KI2987904179ff
              Participant
              June 19, 2025

              Great work! Could Illustrator consider adding a feature? When there are many paths in the document, it becomes very laggy. Could a function be added to improve computational rendering speed by reducing the preview quality of the view? This is very necessary in complex documents, otherwise, I have to click and wait for a long time before it responds.

              Abhishek Rao
              Community Manager
              Abhishek RaoCommunity Manager
              Community Manager
              June 19, 2025

              Hi @KI2987904179ff,

               

              Thanks so much for the kind words and for taking the time to share your feedback. I really appreciate it!

              I completely understand how frustrating it can be when working with complex documents and the performance starts to lag. Your suggestion to include an option for lowering preview quality to improve responsiveness is a thoughtful and valid one.

              While this feature isn't available at the moment, would you mind posting your request on our UserVoice forum here: https://adobe.ly/4nnR8mS? This helps our product team prioritize popular ideas, and you'll also get notified of any progress or updates.

              In the meantime, if you're not already doing so, try switching to GPU Preview and hiding heavy or complex layers temporarily while working. It's not a complete fix, but it might help ease the lag a bit.

              If this tends to happen more with certain files or actions, and you'd be open to sharing one of those files with us, we'd be happy to take a closer look.

               

              Looking forward to hearing more from you!

              Abhishek 

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