Speed up your workflow with the latest Adobe Illustrator features

Improving productivity and efficiency is a vital part of the design process. We know this because at Adobe we constantly listen to how you use our apps, so we can iterate and tailor them to your needs. Your voice is what drives the improvements we introduce on a regular basis. The latest release of Adobe Illustrator therefore includes some innovative features that are based on popular user requests.

These new capabilities help you work faster and more accurately, so you can spend more time on your creative vision and ensure your artwork is as precise and beautiful as it can be. Let’s have a look at what’s new.

Introducing the Dimension tool

The Dimension tool quickly became a user favorite when we launched it in beta in December as it streamlined the manual process of labeling the dimensions of product designs. Now generally available, this new feature enables you to effortlessly and precisely measure and plot dimensions such as distances, angles, and radii in your artwork. In addition to packaging design, it will be especially useful for adding precise dimensions to technical graphics, interior and architectural design, and fashion and textile design.

You can customize a variety of settings for the dimensions you plot and easily adjust their position. And to view your design without the plotted dimensions, just hide them at once. This latest update also incorporates user feedback, including the ability to choose custom units, and dimensions now scale as you re-size your artwork.

Use Dimension tool Options to configure settings for the dimension objects you'll plot.

What else is new in Illustrator

In addition to the Dimension tool, we’re also enhancing our generative AI features in Illustrator to bring extra joy to your design process and introducing a range of new features that will boost your productivity and make every day creative tasks faster and easier.

Text to Vector Graphic (beta) refinements

Text to Vector Graphic (beta), powered by Adobe Firefly, enables you to create a wide array of fully editable professional vectors — including icons, scenes, subjects, and patterns — in a magical new way, all with a simple text prompt.

Since we announced this new feature at Adobe MAX, we’ve been enhancing the visual quality of the outputs and made it easier for you to control the level of detail you get from your outputs with an updated detail slider in the Properties Panel.

The latest refinements that are going live today also include the ability to perform various actions on multiple selected variations at once (e.g. rate good/bad and deleting multiple variations, which was a top user request). We’ve also updated color controls for patterns, and you can now specify up to 12 colors (up from 5).

You can choose from four types to create with Text to Vector Graphic (beta). Picking the right one can save you time and get you closer to what you want.

Star as a Live Shape

This new feature (which already exists in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator on iPad and in Illustrator on the web) enables you to dynamically adjust the Star Shape, including its size, position, and the inner and outer radius of its points, using the on-shape control widgets. As a result, you’ll save a significant amount of time that you’d otherwise spend on manually adjusting the shape.

Enclosed Rectangular Marquee Selection

You can now select objects more precisely with the new Enclosed Rectangular Marquee Selection. Only objects that are fully enclosed will be selected, and the default marquee selection selects objects that are partially included in the marquee.

This feature, which allows for more precision, will be especially useful in intricate and crowded artworks.

Keyboard shortcuts for text formatting

Everyone loves keyboard shortcuts, and based on user feedback, we’ve now added them to text formatting — including Bold, Italic, and Underline — to help you get your work done faster.

Explore enhancements inspired by your feedback

Try all the new features, including the new Dimension tool, and experiment with them in your workflow by updating Illustrator to the latest version today. And to request new features, track, and even vote on them, go to Menu > Help > Submit Bug/Feature Request directly in Illustrator or head to illustrator.uservoice.com.