Working with effects, About effects, Apply an effect – Adobe Illustrator CC 2015 User Manual
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Creating special effects
Last updated 6/5/2015
Working with effects
About effects
Illustrator includes a variety of effects, which you can apply to an object, group, or layer to change its characteristics.
Illustrator CS3 and earlier included effects and filters, but now Illustrator includes only effects (with the exception of
SVG Filters). The primary difference between a filter and an effect is that a filter permanently modifies an object or
layer, but an effect and its properties can be changed or removed at any time.
Once you apply an effect to an object, the effect appears in the Appearance panel. From the Appearance panel, you can
edit the effect, move it, duplicate it, delete it, or save it as part of a graphic style. When you use an effect, you must
expand the object before you can access the new points.
note: Previous versions of Illustrator included filters and effects.
The effects in the top half of the Effects menu are vector effects. You can apply these effects only to vector objects or to
the fill or stroke of a bitmap object in the Appearance panel. The following effects and effects categories from the top
section are exceptions to this rule and can be applied to both vector and bitmap objects: 3D effects, SVG Filters, Warp
effects, Transform effects, Drop Shadow, Feather, Inner Glow, and Outer Glow.
The effects in the bottom half of the Effects menu are raster effects. You can apply them to either vector or bitmap
objects.
For a video on using the Appearance panel and the Graphics Styles panel, see
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Apply an effect
1
Select the object or group (or target a layer in the Layers panel).
If you want to apply an effect to a specific attribute of an object, such as its fill or stroke, select the object and then
select the attribute in the Appearance panel.
2
Do one of the following:
• Choose a command from the Effect menu.
• Click Add New Effect
in the Appearance panel, and choose an effect.
3
If a dialog box appears, set options, and then click OK.
To apply the effect and settings that were used last, choose Effect > Apply [Effect Name]. To apply the last used effect
and set its options, choose Effect > [Effect Name].
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