Fills and Strokes

Illustrator wouldn't be incredibly useful if it were capable of creating only shapes with white fills and black strokes. It's time to splash a bit of color on the topic of applying fills and strokes to objects in Illustrator.

You can specify colors for selected objects in Illustrator by using the Color palette. When expanded fully, the Color palette contains a fill and stroke indicator, color sliders, and a color ramp (see Figure 7.67). To specify a color for the fill of an object, you have to click on the fill indicator first. Likewise, to specify a color for the stroke of an object, click on the stroke indicator.

Figure 7.67. The fully expanded Color palette.

Did you Know?

The keyboard shortcut to change the focus between the fill and the stroke is the X key. Learning this shortcut will save you many trips to the Color palette. A fill and stroke indicator also appears in the toolbox.

The Color palette can define colors in Grayscale, RGB, HSB, CMYK, and Web-safe RGB colors modes. To switch among these color modes in the Color palette, choose from the list in the palette flyout menu (see Figure 7.68). Alternatively, you can Shift+click on the color ramp to cycle through the different supported color modes.

Figure 7.68. Switching between color modes in Illustrator.

Did you Know?

Even though you can specify colors in any of several color modes, after those colors are applied to objects in your document, those colors are converted to the document-specified color space. So it usually makes sense to specify colors using the color space that your document is using.

You can store saved colors in the Swatches palette (see Figure 7.69). To create a swatch, simply drag a color from the stroke indicator or the fill indicator in the Color palette into the Swatches palette. Illustrator also ships with numerous swatch collections, which you can access by choosing Open Swatch Library from the Swatches palette flyout menu.

Figure 7.69. The Swatches palette.

You can create basically three kinds of swatches inside Illustrator: solid colors, gradients, and patterns.

Solid Colors

Solid colors are simple and are really prerequisites for the other types of swatches. You can define a solid color just as mentioned previously, by specifying a color in the Color palette. However, you need to be aware of really two types of solid colors: process colors and spot colors.

Process Colors

A process color, by definition, is a color made up of a mix of colors. In the print world, a process color is one made up of different values of CMYK. In the Web arena, Illustrator would also consider an RGB color a process color.

You specify a process color for jobs you'd be printing in four-color process or publishing on the Web.

A variation of the process color, called a global process color (see Figure 7.70), enables you to easily track and update colors throughout your document.

Figure 7.70. The Swatches palette with the Large Thumbnail View option chosen from the palette flyout menu. Global process colors display with a white triangle in the corner of the swatch.

Spot Colors

A spot color is a predefined ink color that you can either specify on your own or choose from a list such as Pantone, Focoltone, or Toyo. Spot colors also are referred to as custom colors. They are standard colors that have been designated to ensure color accuracy.

Spot colors have a single value, or a tint value, that determines the strength at which the ink will be printed. Spot colors are usually specified when you want to print a specialized ink (a metallic color, for example) or when you want to save money by printing a two- or three-color job (instead of having to print a full-process-color job).

Illustrator ships with many standard custom color libraries, all of which you can load by choosing Open Swatch Library from the Swatches palette flyout menu.

Gradients

Gradients are a powerful feature in Illustrator, enabling you to specify a fill of different colors blending with each other. Illustrator can create a gradient between just 2 colors or up to 32 colors. Gradients can be used to achieve cool shading effects or to add dimension to objects (see Figure 7.71).

Figure 7.71. Using gradient fills to achieve cool effects.

You can apply a gradient to a selected object simply by selecting a gradient swatch from the Swatches palette. To create or edit a gradient, however, you need to open the Gradient palette. With the palette expanded fully, you will find a gradient swatch, an option to make the gradient linear or radial, fields for Angle and Location, and a gradient slider (see Figure 7.72).

Figure 7.72. The fully expanded Gradient palette.

Defining a Gradient

You create a gradient in much the same way you create a color. First you define the gradient, and then you click the New Swatch icon in the Swatches palette. After you create the new swatch, you should double-click it and give it a name. Illustrator gives your creations the names New Gradient Swatch 1, New Gradient Swatch 2, and so on, which don't really offer any insight into what they are.

Click on the Gradient swatch in the Gradient palette. Notice that under the gradient slider are icons that look like little houses. They are color stops, indicating the points at which a color is used in the gradient. To create a new color stop, click anywhere beneath the gradient slider. When a new color stop appears, you can drag it to the left or right. You can also drag any color from the Swatches or Color palette onto the gradient slider to create a color stop in that color. To change an existing color stop, either drag a new color directly on top of it, or click the color stop icon to select it and choose a new color in the Swatches or Color palette.

Did you Know?

To delete a color stop from a gradient, simply drag the color stop off the bottom of the Gradient palette, and it will disappear.

Notice also that little diamond-shape icons appear on top of the gradient slider. These indicate the location of the midpoint of the gradation. In other words, wherever the icon is, that's the place where 50% of each color appears. You can drag the midpoint indicator left or right to adjust where the midpoint should be (see Figure 7.73).

Figure 7.73. Dragging the midpoint indicator of a gradient.

Using the Gradient Tool

The Gradient tool in Illustrator works identically to the Gradient tool in Photoshop. It's used to control the direction and placement of a gradient in an object, or over several objects. After you fill an object with a gradient, select the Gradient tool and, with the object still selected, click and drag across the object in the direction you want the gradient to go (see Figure 7.74). The place where you begin dragging is the position where the gradient starts, and the place where you let go is the position where the gradient ends. If you stop dragging before you get to the end of the object, Illustrator continues to fill the object with the color at the end of the gradient.

Figure 7.74. Using the Gradient tool to draw a single gradient across multiple objects.

Patterns

Patterns can be real time savers. A pattern is a defined piece of art, or tile, created in Illustrator that, as a fill attribute, is repeated over and over again, much like wallpaper (see Figure 7.75).

Figure 7.75. An object filled with a pattern.

Defining a Pattern

Defining a pattern is a little different from defining gradients or colors. Instead of clicking the New Swatch icon, you drag your objects directly into the Swatches palette from the artboard. After you create a pattern swatch, remember to give it a unique name so that you can identify it quickly when you need it.

Did you Know?

If you want to edit a pattern that is already defined, simply drag the swatch itself out from the Swatches palette into your artboard, and Illustrator places the art that was used to create the pattern.

When you're creating a pattern design, remember that your object will be repeated over and over again, so be careful how you set it up. If you need extra space around your art (which is usually the case), create a rectangle and send it to the back of your artwork. Then select your art, along with the empty box in the background (see Figure 7.76), and define the pattern. Illustrator treats a rectangle that's at the bottom of the stacking order as a boundary for the repeat area of the pattern.

Figure 7.76. Creating the art, along with a rectangle in the background, before dragging it into the Swatches palette to define a pattern.

By the Way

In truth, you could probably write an entire book on creating patterns. Designing repeats is an art form in itself, and practicing how to define and apply patterns in Illustrator will certainly help over time.

Strokes

A stroke is the line that's drawn around an object, and you can specify solid colors, gradients, or patterns to color a stroke. The Stroke palette is where you can control the actual settings for how a stroke appears (see Figure 7.77).

Figure 7.77. The fully expanded Stroke palette.

The most-used option in the Stroke palette is Weight. It determines how thick or thin the stroke is. Illustrator's default is 1 point. For hairline rules, most people use 0.25 point (anything thinner probably won't show up on an offset printing press).

The Miter Limit option determines how far the stroke protrudes on a sharp corner. A thick line, for example, needs more room to complete a sharp point than a thin one does (see Figure 7.78).

Figure 7.78. An acute angle combined with a thick stroke needs a higher miter limit to draw the complete point.

Line Caps and Joins

Line caps determine the appearance of the ends of a stroked path (see Figure 7.79). This setting in the stroke palette is used only for open-ended paths. By choosing different caps, you can make the ends either flat or rounded, or have the stroke width enclose the end of the path as well.

Figure 7.79. The three types of line caps (left to right): Butt, Round, and Projecting.

Line joins control how the stroke appears at each corner of the path (see Figure 7.80). You can choose from Mitered, Round, and Beveled options.

Figure 7.80. The three types of line joins (left to right): Mitered, Round, and Beveled.

Align Stroke

By default, Illustrator draws the weight of a stroke on the center of a path. That means a 20-point stroke results in 10 points applied to the inside of the path and 10 points to the outside of the path. However, you can use the Align Stroke buttons in the Stroke palette to specify that the weight of the stroke be applied entirely inside the path or entirely outside the path (see Figure 7.81).

Figure 7.81. A shape with a 20-point stroke applied to it. You can choose to align the stroke to the center, inside, or outside of the vector path.

Dashed Strokes

The last option in the Stroke palette, Dashed Line, can be one of the most powerful. Here you can specify dashed or dotted lines. Depending on what settings you have set for weight, line caps, and joins, you can create a stitched line, a skip line, or almost anything. You control the dash and gap (the space between each dash) by entering numbers into the Dash and Gap fields at the bottom of the palette. If you're using only one sequence, you can enter just the first two fields. Alternatively, you can enter up to three different Dash and Gap settings to achieve complex dash patterns (see Figure 7.82).

Figure 7.82. Several dash patterns, with their dash and gap settings.

Offset Path and Outline Path

For outlining and special effects, Offset Path is a great function. Offset Path creates an object that perfectly outlines, or traces, a selected path at an offset that you specify. To use it, select one or more objects and choose Object, Path, Offset Path. The Offset Path dialog box then appears. Enter an amount for the offset (you can use positive or negative numbers) and click OK. Note that Offset Path always makes a copy of your selection and does not affect the original.

Outline Path is another great feature that converts strokes into filled objects. Found in the same location as the Offset Path command, Outline Path works by creating a filled shape the size of the stroke width.

Did you Know?

The Outline Path command doesn't outline dash information. To outline a dashed stroke, choose Object, Flatten Transparency, and click OK.