Illustrator appearance panel
fidel (279 points) | Tue, 2009-10-27 14:29I read about people having problems with Illustrator.
There was a forum item about filling live text with a gradient and not being able to do so. Changing an effect on an object, putting a stroke at the outside of a character, and so on
Often all those problems can be solved with the "Appearance panel". This little devil is one of the most powerful panel tools that you have in Illustrator.
It is like looking through a magnifying glass.
When you select an object you get information about the status of the selected object, and also how it has been constructed.
It is similar to layers but completely different.
See it as a stacking mode looking from the top to the bottom. What's on top hides what's under it. So by moving elements in the stacking order you can achieve nice things. Or from the panel itself you can apply an effect to a stroke or a fill, change the stacking mode and so on.
A few examples:
Adding a gradient to live text
Select your text with the black arrow, go to the appearance panel and o the three little lines at the top right of the panel. Choose "add new fill" and then go to the gradient panel and create a gradient fill. Simple as that...
Multiple strokes around an object or text.
Select the object with the black arrow, go ot the appearance panel and on the three little lines at the top right of the panel. Choose "add new stroke", select the thickness and color, now drag the stroke under the characters, Apply several times with different weights of the stroke and you create easily a college t-shirt effect on your object.
Change an effect appearance.
Apply an effect to an object, if you want to change it's behavior, go to the appearance panel, double click on the applied effect and change it.
Make the appearance panel one of your basic panels in Illustrator and it will help you find solutions.
Good luck
Thank you.. I have been using the appearance panel for years now, but I never managed to apply those effects on live text. It seems to be more of a bug than a feature, only being able to access this effect through the menu.
Again, thank you.. This will be a timesaver I'm sure :)
it is really a thing that you should focus on.
In CS5 the panel will be even more important.
And it isn't a bug, it is just a way of seeing things. I don't always agree with the way Adobe want's you to work, but they make the software and we have to live with it and be smarter.
That's why we get paid for.
In the layers-palette you can create a new layer by either clicking on the 'new layer' icon or by using the dropdown menu (the first item on the list). The same icon in the appearance panel means 'duplicate selected item', while you'd expect it to create something new in stead. This is the thing that confused me and it still seems a bit inconsistent to me. But I agree it is a way of seeing things :)
We get paid to create art. Adobe should conform to the manner artists work - not vice versa. They need to get some graphics professionals on their staff to work with the programmers. This has a been a problem with that company forever. It's not like they can't afford a couple extra salaries given all the upgrade money they ask for every other year.
poor reply, if you buy a brush you must learn how to use it to make a painting
The graphics industry was around before Adobe - it is Adobe that chose to make software to serve the graphics industry. Ergo, we do not need to conform to THEM, they need to conform to the industry standards that were around long before they arrived. But it goes well beyond that - not only do they create software that is counterintuitive to the graphics industry (or just plain WRONG from a production angle) - they change standards that THEY created themselves if it serves to sell more upgrades for them.
On another note, I always find it strange when someone blindly defends a corporation. Even if you work for Adobe (and it sounds like you might), you should keep in mind the first rule of business... the customer is always right. That's another ball Adobe consistently drops.
As always... jmho.
I am not working for Adobe and the customer isn't always right.
There is always a learning curve, whatever tool you use.
By the way your status of working or your discomfort with a way of working, maybe only your problem, other people my just like it the way it works now.
And your uprgrade money item is just laughable.
If your chinese brush is too old to use, do you ask a new one because you already bought a brush and they didn't make it everlasting, or do you buy a new brush...
I just wanted to explain something to the community, your remarks about Adobe software are known to the community.
So I won't bother anymore.
Good luck
I'll just say, if it aint broke - there's no need to pay $149 for more program bloat.
Thanks for your input.
what confuses me a lot is the scissor, eraser tool. it's way up there. i get confused. but the good thing with the eraser tool is that you can erase it but not use the scissor.
The difference between the scissors and the erase tool.
Let's say you want to divide an ellips in different segments, than you use the scissor tool because it keeps the lign segments as seperate vectors.
The erase tool gets rid of segments and you are left only with what you didn't erase.
You people should just stick with MS Paint!
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