Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 User Manual
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Painting
Last updated 6/5/2015
The types of Brushes that support images are Scatter, Art, and Pattern. Drag an image into the Brushes panel (F5), and
then select either of the Scatter, Art, or Pattern type, to create a Brush. For more information on creating a brush, see
.
Images in a brush take the shape of the stroke, that is, the images can bend, scale, and stretch with the shape and type
of stroke. Also, such brushes behave and can be modified in the same way as other brushes, using the Brush Options
dialog.
Note: Using large images in brushes impacts performance. When you choose such an image, Illustrator prompts you to
allow it to rerasterize the image to a lower resolution, before proceeding to create the brush.
For example, the leftmost image (below) is the original image. When used in a brush definition, the three images on
the right could be drawn. Each stroke uses different scale options, specified the Brush Options dialog:
A Original image B Image in a brush, stretched to fit stroke length C Image in a brush, scaled proportionately D Image in a brush, stretched
between guides
Considerations
There are some considerations for the type of images that you can use for Illustrator images:
• Using large images in a brush impacts performance and speed negatively.
• Bitmap images cannot be used directly.
• If you are using one bitmap image, Illustrator first rasterizes the bitmap image to grayscale, before using it in a
brush.
• If there is a bitmap image among multiple images used to create a brush, Illustrator prompts you to convert to
the bitmap image to grayscale mode. You can attempt to create the brush again, thereafter.
For more information, se