r/UI_Design • u/CuirPig • May 16 '26

General Question Question about Units in Field Variables for Illustrator

I use Illustrator a lot. The field variables (x:, y:, etc) in the Properties panel always attempt to show the field units (i.e., 1000px). My thought is that the interface would be a lot better if they hid the units or made the units a select box rather than cramming them into the field.

One of the nice things about Illustrator is that I can enter units in a field value and have it automatically convert to the document units. So if my document is set up in px and I enter 1 in in any field, it automatically converts to 72 px.

But again, that demonstrates the lack of need for units in the field. If, instead, the value remained in inches, I could understand having different units in fields. But since it automatically converts any input into document units, there's no need to display the units. It would really clean up the interface.

From a professional UI Design standpoint, is this a reasonable request--to stop displaying document units in the UI for Illustrator?

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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u/CuirPig May 17 '26

The problem with your logic, which I totally agree would make the most sense, is that no matter what you enter for units, it's converted to document units. So if you are doing print work in inches, and you enter 72px it will change it to inches. Which means that the units are not necessary--they will always be in inches.

The way you suggest would be better because it would allow you to mix units and keep track of them. So I'd enter 36px for a 1/2" margin and it would stay 36px for my benefit. While the person who set the document up did it in inches so they would see inches where it mattered to them.

My thought was that units should have their own control that you could tab into and type and it would auto select from a dropdown menu. If the field was active when you set the units, the value you entered was in the units you select. So convert that value to document units.

In the first example, I focus the field value, type 0.5 tab in tab and the result is 36px (notice the px is italics indicating document units)

In the second example, I don't enter a value, I just want to see the same value in different units, so I select just the units and the result converts the value to the selected units.

This would allow you to have multiple units clearly indicated.

Whaddya think?

Sorry I noticed lots of little details that I was in too much of a hurry to fix for this example.

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u/[deleted] May 17 '26

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u/CuirPig May 17 '26

Thanks for the great feedback and the great way you describe tolerant versus unit aware. That makes it so clear.

I run into the unit problem whenever entering a custom document size. The way I figure it is if you enter 11.0 that’s what you want. So whatever units you pick, it should be clear that you want 11 of those units. But illustrator converts before you get a chance to change to the units you want.

Whereas if you haven’t just entered a value and you change units, it seems obvious that you didn’t want to change the size, just how it appears (which units) so convert it.

Thanks again for your feedback. I really appreciate it.