The "fidelity" of Pencil Tool in Illustrator 2025

[gonzalo666]

Hi Adobe Team,

I’m writing to report an issue and suggest an improvement for the new Pencil tool in Illustrator 2025. While I appreciate the new underlying tech and features like smart path closing and straight-line support, the current "Accurate" preset is not accurate enough for many artists and illustrators.

In previous versions, I was able to draw with much more control and fidelity, especially for detailed hand-drawn shapes. Now, even at the lowest smoothing level, the tool over-simplifies strokes, resulting in fewer anchor points but also a significant loss in precision. The tool feels disconnected from natural hand movement.

I’d like to request either:

• The return of the Fidelity and Smoothness sliders, or

• A new "High Fidelity" preset with behavior similar to previous versions (e.g., Fidelity at 1px, Smoothness at 0%).

Also, the inability to lower fidelity below 2.5 pixels is a major limitation for those who rely on Illustrator for sketching or character design. Please consider bringing back more precise settings or offering a toggle to switch to the old engine behavior.

Thanks for listening, and keep up the great work!

[Monika Gause]

Please post feature requests to: https://illustrator.uservoice.com

That's where the engineers read it.