Changing Stroke Settings in Illustrator

I'm gonna show you something else nifty in Illustrator.

You can change the way letters and objects are stroked.  You'll find those settings here:

You'll notice those 6 little boxes next to the stroke weight drop box.

A stroked pen path will show us the effects of the top three options.  The first box is the default setting.  The line terminates in a "Butt Cap" that ends in a flat line at the last point:

The second option rounds off the end of the line and is appropriately called "Round Cap":

The third option is flat like the "Butt Cap," but the end juts out from the end of the last point.  This options is called "Projecting Cap."

The bottom three options are best illustrated with stroked text.  The default option is called a "Miter Join."

The second option is called "Round Join."  The effect is that all the corners become rounded:

The third option is called a "Bevel Join."  The effect is that the corners terminate as angles:

There are many applications for these stroke options.  I mostly use different settings to fix text that is exhibiting a weird stroke.  For example, suppose you need a huge stroke on some text, but the lines end up looking like this:

A good way to fix this is to change the stroke settings to "Round Join."  This is what you end up with:

You could place this behind unstroked text to create a nice stroke effect that doesn't eat into the letters.

Enjoy :)

Know Your "Place"

There is a handy-dandy little function in Adobe Illustrator called "Place."

You can find it here:

If you haven't tried it, allow me to introduce you.

Suppose you want to bring an image into Illustrator, but you anticipate that the picture may change.  For example, I was recently working on a piece of concept art for a contest.  I scanned the drawing and fixed it up a little in Photoshop, but I wanted to add some text.  I like Illustrator for text, so I saved the drawing as a .PSD (Photoshop Document).

I placed the .PSD in the Illustrator file and added text.  After adding the text, I decided to alter the drawing.  I made changes to the .PSD and saved.  Once the .PSD is changed and saved, Illustrator recongnizes that the original placed file has changed and automatically updates the image.

This function is fantastic for certain types of work.

And now you know how to use it.  Enjoy!

BTW, here is the concept art i was working on:

5 Super Useful Shortcuts for Illustrator Users

I'm a Graphic Designer, which means I use Illustrator a lot.

In an attempt to help my fellow budding Graphic Designers, here is a short list of 5 super useful shortcuts.

1)  Do you click on the General Selection Tool when you want to deselect something?  Why bother?  Hit Alt-Ctrl-A instead and you will magically deselect everything.

2)  Maybe you need to select the stroke on an entire line of expanded text.  You could click on every stroke, or you could move up to your toolbar and hit Select > Same.  You can choose to select all objects with the same fill, stroke, stroke weight, etc.  Super time saver.  Seriously.

3)  Relating to the Select > Same function is the Hide command.  Suppose you want to select all objects that are filled with red, except for one lowly graphic outside the art board.  Select the offender and mash Ctrl-3.  Voila, the object disappears.  When you're ready for it to reappear, just push Alt-Ctrl-3.

4)  Perhaps you have some text you want to edit on top of a shape.  If you try to drag the selection tool you will select the background shape and the text.  Solution?  Select the shape and push Ctrl-2.  Your selection will lock, which means it can't be selected until it's unlocked.  You unlock it by smacking Alt-Ctrl-2.

5)  If you want to copy a shape, rather than selecting copy and paste, just hold Alt while you drag the object.

There you go.  5 useful shortcuts.  Enjoy!