Stroke an object – Adobe Illustrator CS3 User Manual

Page 160

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ILLUSTRATOR CS3

User Guide

154

Stroke an object

You use the Stroke panel (Window

> Stroke) to control whether a line is solid or dashed, the dash sequence if it is

dashed, the stroke weight, the stroke alignment, the miter limit, and the styles of line joins and line caps.

Strokes panel

You can apply stroke options to an entire object, or you can use Live Paint groups and apply different strokes to
different edges within the object.

See also

“Workspace overview” on page 14

“Select items in Live Paint groups” on page 161

“Paint with the Live Paint Bucket tool” on page 163

Apply a stroke color, width, or alignment

1

Select the object. (To select an edge in a Live Paint group, use the Live Paint Selection tool.)

2

Click the Stroke box in the Tools panel, the Color panel, or the Control panel. Doing so indicates that you want

to apply a stroke rather than a fill.

Stroke box

3

Select a color from the Color panel, or a swatch from the Swatches panel or Control panel. Alternatively, double-

click the Stroke box to select a color using the Color Picker.

If you want to use the current color in the Stroke box, you can simply drag the color from the Stroke box onto the
object. Dragging does not work on Live Paint groups.

4

Select a weight in the Strokes panel or Control panel.

5

If the object is a closed path (and not a Live Paint group), choose an option from the Stroke panel to align the

stroke along the path:

Align Stroke To Center

Align Stroke To Inside

Align Stroke To Outside

Note: If you try to align paths that use different stroke alignments, the paths may not exactly align. Make sure the path
alignment settings are the same if you need the edges to match up exactly when aligned.

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