Illustrator 29.7 | Enhanced Artboards, Colors, Find setting faster, & Improved User Interface

[HARSHIKA_VERMA]

Hey everyone!

With the Illustrator v29.7 release, we’re excited to introduce powerful updates designed to make your design experience smoother, smarter, and more accessible. 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.

Update Illustrator v29.7

Artboards Enhancements!

Work with artboards more intuitively—add or duplicate them right from the canvas. Rename multiple artboards at once. Easily identify the active artboard to stay focused while designing. Check this page for more details.

Colors Enhancements!

Work with color more precisely and flexibly across your designs. Smarter gradients and reusable recent colors make applying and managing color effortless. Streamline your workflow while enhancing creative control. Check this page for more info.

Instant Preferences Search!

The Search bar in Preferences helps you instantly find any setting. Just type a keyword—whether it’s for performance, UI, or tools—and jump straight to the option you need.

Improved Accessibility

Navigate with ease using screen readers, keyboard shortcuts, and enhanced accessibility settings across toolbars, menus, and panels.

Fixed Issues

Illustrator v29.7 also includes several bug fixes. Take a look here.

We’d love to hear from you!

Try out Illustrator v29.7 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!

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[kalen_1925]

In Illustrator 29.6 / 29.6.1, the behavior of Tab has changed in a way that significantly slows down layer‑name workflows. It no longer moves you directly to the next layer’s name while renaming. Instead, it cycles through visibility toggles, lock icons, color swatches, expand/collapse arrows, and panel buttons before finally landing on the next name field — a reversal of the behavior in versions ≤ 29.5.

I frequently rename many layers in sequence, and the old workflow enabled me to:

1. Double‑click a layer name → type the new name

2. Press Tab → immediately start renaming the next layer

This keyboard-only process was fast and essential for my projects. Now, the extra Tab stops interrupt my flow and force me to switch to the mouse multiple times per layer.

Adobe’s admin response on the UserVoice thread noted the change likely stemmed from accessibility improvements, and confirmed it “broke the way this feature works.”

:heavy_check_mark: Suggested solution:

Please add a setting in Preferences (or inside the Layers panel) to restore the classic Tab behavior, where Tab jumps directly to the next layer name. Optionally, let users toggle between “focus full row” (accessibility mode) vs “focus name field” behavior. That would keep accessibility intact while restoring efficient workflows.

Thank you for considering it.

[Anubhav M]

Hello @richardp9891, @kalen_1925,

I'm sorry to hear about your workflow disruption. Would you mind creating a UserVoice for this request (https://adobe.ly/3U8If38) and adding your comments there? Doing this will help us prioritize this request, and you will be notified of any updates.

Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

Anubhav

[Ton Frederiks]

I can reproduce your problem. Instead of a single Tab, you need 4.

It is worth rapporting it here:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/

[Egor Chistyakov]

Here’s the report at UserVoice:

http://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657/suggestions/50052411
Please upvote it to inform the team about the severity of the problem.

[Kuttyjoe]

This is interesting.  I've never used that workflow yet it's one that I would have been using if I'd been aware of it.  Now I'm learning about it right as it's broken.  Small changes like this ruin workflows.  That's what killed Adobe Bridge.  Adobe used to really understand that the details are critical.

[richardp9891]

How do I turn off the stupid change to the preferences bar you've made? I use keyboard increment 100's of times a day when laying AW and now you've slowed the whole process down with the automatic highlight of the search settings bar.

[angelo_4363]

Have re-installed the older version because of this. The addition of the search bar inside preferences has completed upset the ability to quickly change keyboard increment – workflow goes out the window. Also, all units keep changing back to points even after changing to 'mm'. This happens in both preferences and document setup, even after saving. This update seems very buggy and very much a downgrade. 

[Ton Frederiks]

@angelo_4363 yes, when text is entered in the search field in Preferences and you click OK, the units are changed to pt the next time you go to Preferences.

It is reported here: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/601447-illustrator-desktop-bugs/suggestions/50287938-illust...

[MapleGrain195]

Yes, these two bugs are extremely frustrating. 

[jimc58854601]

I second this, I use Command "K" to edit keyboard increments, and now it defaults to the search area, slowing my efficiency. the searchbar is good, but please dont let it default to that text box.

[MapleGrain195]

The new search bar in preferences is such a headache @Anubhav M please create an option to show/hide. 

[liza_9314]

Hallo, of ik zie het nu pas of het is na de update.

Een zwarte dikke rand om een nieuw gemaakt document.

Is dat ergens weg te halen of?!?!?!?!

[Ton Frederiks]

Het is niet uit te zetten, maar je kunt hier stemmen:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/500...

[juancasini]

Every update consumes more memory and resources. We don't need most of this new features, just make it smaller and faster!

[karloverhere]

Nobody asked for 'recently used colours' so turned it off straight away.

Now all my colour swatches keep disappearing while i'm working, until i click one of the view-style buttons in the top right of the palette then they reappear.  Never had this issue before this update.

[Monika Gause]

Can you perhaps make a screenrecording of what disappers where?

[karloverhere]

Colour Swatches panel keeps going black until I toggle the view mode to anything else, then back

[Monika Gause]

I cannot reproduce that.

Which system is it?

Did you reset the preferences when updating?

Did you already reboot the computer?

Does it behave like that when you are in CPU preview mode?

[karloverhere]

Which system is it?

Apple M1 Max, Sonoma 14.7.2 (23H311)

Did you reset the preferences when updating?

No because I want my preferences set as they are, I shouldnt need to reset them every update.

Did you already reboot the computer?

Yes

Does it behave like that when you are in CPU preview mode?

Don't know, I will switch to it when it next happens, though if you're suggesting it wont happen in CPU Preview mode then you're just admitted there is a bug.

[Ton Frederiks]

More about this over here: https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/939477/suggestions/50286393

[Kuttyjoe]

I had this happen as well, but only once.  I thought to myself, that did not look right but it did not happen again so I forgot about it.  I also turned off the recent colors.  I think it's a good feature but I find that I get lost looking at all the color swatch sections and it takes time to figure out what I'm looking for.  Also, when the recent colors is enabled, the spectrum at the bottom of the color panel gets lost, or covered.  Suddenly I notice that the spectrum is not there.  I find that I can resize the panel and maybe bring it back, but it was never possible for it to get lost before and it doesn't happen when this new feature is disabled.

[Carla_Midford]

Same is happening to me!

[JodyRadzik]

They could make a disaster movie for everytime they "update" this software. Who wants to bet it's because Adobe is vibe-coding now?

[karloverhere]

"Chat GPT - update the code to add some colour options nobody asked for, don't worry about testing the code"