Create multiple fills and strokes, Live paint groups, About live paint – Adobe Illustrator CS4 User Manual
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USING ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS4
Painting
Create multiple fills and strokes
You use the Appearance panel to create multiple fills and strokes for the same object. Adding multiple fills and strokes
to an object is the basis for creating many interesting effects. For example, you can create a second, narrower stroke on
top of a wide stroke, or you can apply an effect to one fill but not the other.
1
Select one or more objects or groups (or target a layer in the Layers panel).
2
Select Add New Fill or Add New Stroke from the Appearance panel menu. Alternatively, select a fill or stroke in the
Appearance panel, and click the Duplicate Selected Item button
.
3
Set the color and other properties for the new fill or stroke.
Note: It may be necessary to adjust the position of the new fill or stroke in the Appearance panel. For example, if you
create two strokes of different widths, make sure that the narrower stroke is above the wider stroke in the Appearance
panel.
See also
Targeting items for appearance attributes
Live Paint groups
About Live Paint
Converting your artwork to Live Paint groups allows you to color them freely, as you would a drawing on canvas or
paper. You can stroke each path segment with a different color and fill each enclosed path (note, not just closed paths)
with a different color, pattern, or gradient.
Live Paint is an intuitive way to create colored drawings. It lets you use the full range of Illustrator’s vector drawing
tools, but treats all the paths you draw as though they are on the same flat surface. That is, none of the paths is behind
or in front of any other. Instead, the paths divide the drawing surface up into areas, any of which can be colored,
regardless of whether the area is bounded by a single path or by segments of multiple paths. The result is that painting
objects is like filling in a coloring book or using watercolors to paint a pencil sketch.
Once you’ve made a Live Paint group, each path remains fully editable. When you move or adjust a path’s shape, the
colors that had been previously applied don’t just stay where they were, like they do in natural media paintings or
image editing programs. Instead, Illustrator automatically reapplies them to the new regions that are formed by the
edited paths.
Adjusting Live Paint paths
A. Original B. Live Paint group C. Paths adjusted, Live Painting reflows
A
B
C