Adobe Illustrator CS4 - Manual (Page 197)

190 USING ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS4
Painting
Convert a gradient-filled object to a mesh object
1 Select the object and choose Object > Expand.
2 Select Gradient Mesh, and click OK.
The selected object is converted to a mesh object that takes the shape of the gradient, either circular (radial) or
rectangular (linear).
Convert a mesh object back to a path object
❖ Select the mesh object, choose Object > Path > Offset Path, and then enter zero for the offset value.
Edit mesh objects
You can edit a mesh object by adding, deleting, and moving mesh points; changing the color of mesh points and mesh
patches; and converting the mesh object back to a regular object.
❖ Edit a mesh object by doing any of the following:
• To add a mesh point, select the Mesh tool and select a fill color for the new mesh points. Then click anywhere
in the mesh object.
• To delete a mesh point, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the mesh point with the Mesh tool.
• To move a mesh point, drag it with the Mesh tool or Direct Selection tool. Shift-drag a mesh point with the Mesh
tool to keep the mesh point on a mesh line. This is a convenient way to move a mesh point along a curved mesh
line without distorting the mesh
line.
Dragging to move mesh point (left) compared to Shift- dragging with the Mesh tool to constrain the point to the mesh line (right)
• To change the color of a mesh point or patch, Select the mesh object, and then drag a color from the Color panel
or Swatches panel onto the point or patch. Or, deselect all objects and select a fill color. Then select the mesh object
and use the Eyedropper tool to apply the fill color to mesh points or patches.
Adding color to a mesh point (left) compared to adding color to a mesh patch (right)