I'm fairly new to Illustrator, but I'm working on this vector:    Right now this is accomplished by circle paths, white fill color, and also two strokes. The blue stroke is 4px and then there is a white stroke of 6px under that, which is how I'm getting the gap between the circles.  I need to ultimately have the image be transparent, with no fill, and the white stroke gone. How is it that I can cut out the need for the white stroke and fill?  My first thoughts were to try and do each overlapping circle separately and do a "Minus Front", but this doesn't work because the blue is a stroke and will just redraw along the line of the overlapping circle that cut the bottom path.  Second thought is that if there was a way to turn the stroke into a path with a fill instead of a stroke on a circle, that this would be possible. I Found Object &gt; Path &gt; Outline Stroke which does this, and I can kind of get it working, but then the steps to accomplish would be:   Edit &gt; Expand Appearance each circle Edit &gt; Path &gt; Outline Stroke each circle Copy/PasteInPlace a overlapping circle and subtract the copied circle from whatever is beneath it. (for each overlap!! So I'd have to do this 7 or 8 times!?) Reorder layers (because each path merge messes with the layer order?)   And those steps would work, but it takes a hell of a lot of time to do that, and I'd have to save the file before all of these steps because if I want to change the image after this (ie stroke size), I'd have to do it and re-do all of these steps again.   So is there any way to accomplish what I want to do without that mess?
112779
Been lurking awhile but this is my first post.   I've always wondered what this effect is called and I'm almost certain there's an easier way to doing it than how I do it. I'm talking about the "empty" stroke around overlapping parts of icons.   In this case I would put a stroke that's the color of the background around the first character. I know this is bad practice for many reasons, but I haven't found a way to use the pathfinder to do this.  I'm looking for a way to do it that would effectively cut away the shapes smoothly in a X amount of pixels around a certain shape instead of covering it up so I can save the icon and use it over whatever colored background I want to.  I'm guessing I'm not the first person to ask this but I have no earthly clue how this effect is called so my research has returned nothing relevant.
87842
Can some one tell me how to use Brushes in Illustrator so that when I draw complete paths such as Rectangles and Circles the stroke doesn't taper off like it does here:
82513
I am using the TikZ package to show a set of complex numbers where those I want are in the outer part of a circle with a radius 2, and where the circle with radius 1 is not in the set:   I want to let the inner circle be white, with the axes showing completely, but I am not able to find out how. I am using two circles with semi-transparent fillings. Is there any way to make only the outer part filled? Relevant code below.  (This is where I got most of the code: )  \begin{tikzpicture}     \begin{scope}[thick,font=\scriptsize][set layers]     \draw [-&gt;] (-4,0) -- (4,0) node [above left]  {$\Re\{z\}$};     \draw [-&gt;] (0,-4) -- (0,4) node [below right] {$\Im\{z\}$};     \iffalse% Single     \draw (1,-3pt) -- (1,3pt)   node [above] {$1$};     \draw (-1,-3pt) -- (-1,3pt) node [above] {$-1$};     \draw (-3pt,1) -- (3pt,1)   node [right] {$i$};     \draw (-3pt,-1) -- (3pt,-1) node [right] {$-i$};     \else% Multiple     \foreach \n in {-3,...,-1,1,2,...,3}{%         \draw (\n,-3pt) -- (\n,3pt)   node [above] {$\n$};         \draw (-3pt,\n) -- (3pt,\n)   node [right] {$\n i$};     }     \fi     \end{scope}     \draw[solid] (0,-1) circle (1);     \draw[solid] (0,-1) circle (2);     \path [draw=none,fill=gray, fill opacity = 0.1] (0,-1) circle (2);     \path [draw=none,fill=white, fill opacity = 0.7] (0,-1) circle (1);     \node [below right,black] at (1.2,1.2) {$A=\{z\in\mathbb{C}:1\leq|z-(-i)|\leq2\}$}; \end{tikzpicture}
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I purchased a stock vector design.   I want to change the preset colors used in vector art and leave everything as it is. The object is made up of bunch of shapes.   As I try to change the colors instead of it looking nice and blended as it did when I have bought it. All I see is the shapes with no gradients or blends.  Since I am new, I do not know the simplest way to change the color "theme" without messing up the way it looks right now.   Is there an easy way to change colors of an exiting Illustrator file?
109054
I need to open a white PNG shape in Illustrator. I want to convert it into vector and change the color. In CS6 is very simple to do this. Can you help me to do this in CC?
97406
Hey guys I've got years of experience with Photoshop but I'm new to Illustrator.  I've followed this simple tutorial to create this logo,    I want to flatten the image and make only the black lines my vector shape. Is there any way I can do this?  I've tried using the pathfinder but the entire shape goes black, possibly because its reading the White as part of the entire shape? Please advise!
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I very recently started learning how to use Adobe Illustrator (CS6), and just now I noticed something strange. When I add a 1pt stroke to my shape, it gets slightly distorted. This distortion does not disappear if I remove the stroke. (But only if I remove the stroke by setting its weight to 0. Using CTRL+Z does return the shape to its former state.)  After adding and removing the stroke a few times, the difference becomes quite noticable:   Am I doing something wrong? Is it a bug? I can't imagine this being the expected behaviour.  EDIT: I think I figured it out. Appearantly, turning 'Align to pixel grid' off doesn't affect previous shapes. If I turn it off and then recreate my shape from scratch, the problem is fixed.   However, I was wondering if their is a way to disable the effect for existing shapes. In other words, can I 'fix' the shapes I created while 'Align to pixel grid' was still on?
53279
Is there any way to fill grouped objects background in Illustrator?  Below is example how i want it, right now i simply just put white square behind them.
40861
I'm attempting to create a random spread of dots to create a gradient look. I'm getting really close to the effect I want by blending two scatter brushes. The issue I'm having is that the blended brushes creates unwanted lines, and the dots run into each other. I keep adjusting the settings with no luck.  Here's the effect I'm wanting to achieved.    Smooth transition  On Circular path Dots don't converge Scattered at random-ish     Here's how close I'm able to get:   Blended scatters create unwanted lines Dots converge Spacing isn't gradual from edge to center
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I've used "//" and "\" to create this "W", and have made them into outlines, as I'm trying to give the different layers a colour, as well as having a white space where the lines touch and I would like to remove the top of the second "\".   I'm struggling with the white space at the moment and now I've added a stroke, the fill has decreased. Is there another way I could do this?   I've also tried to use my pen tool to remove the top of the "\" but when using "Path Finder" I cannot find an option to "Minus Forward". I'm a newbie so any advice would be lovely :)
66917
How can I align 2 paths perfectly? No matter what I do I get a little space (gap between the 2 paths I create, and they are straight lines not as I saw in other questions with pixel problems)  An example:    Between every triangle is a little space, like in the example. It isn't obvious and it doesn't bother, but if I use the image (as an SVG or something) it is really obvious.
53207
I'm using adobe illustrator and I am putting watercolor effect on my elements. I want it to look like this:   I have added a watercolor background to the element, but then my art looks very plain and flat:     I want to add a thick outline to the art to make it look like the original. Or here are some more examples:
2582
In Illustrator, if you want to fill in areas surrounded by multiple line segments, you can first select all the line segments and use Live Paint Bucket (K) to fill the color. However, if you want to change the opacity of the area, you may find the borders also become transparent, like this:  My question is, is there any way to avoid the border changing its transparency when we change the transparency of its internal area?  Note: there are 3 line segments, with endpoints connected. An extended question, what if one of the line is dashed? This question originally comes from the fact that I want to fill the triangles as the bottom figure shows.
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Is it possible to paint only inside a stroke on illustrator? what i actually want to do is paint the same stroke with different colors in diferent segments of it but i can't do it...   Also... I've seen some tutorials that include editing a gradient but that would be very complicated and so would be to make a new stroke over this one, I just hope theres an easyer way XD  Edit per comment:  thats cool but not really what im looking for, what i want is lets say my stroke has the shape of a burger i want part of i to be bread color and part of it to be meat color... not one stroke over the other... i want something like this, imagine the jelly worm is my stroke:
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I am working on a print for my wall and I am trying to create something like this:      I have already created the letters in Illustrator and now I am adding the colors in Illustrator and then exporting everything to Photoshop and then using the liquify tool to blend the colors to create a similar effect. I also used the healing patch tool to blend in the hard edges.  Is that the right way of doing it? Or is there another way?
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I converted a raster image to vector in Illustrator CS6 using Image Trace then the Expand option, though when I save as an svg the image looks embossed. I suspect it's due to the layer background being white and the paths not lining up, but I'm unsure how to fix it or prove that theory without manually having to adjust every path.   This is how it looks in Illustrator before I export it:    The image looks like this when saved/exported with art optimized option:
3609
How can I shade a path witout filling? In particular, I wand to draw a curved arrow that starts colored blue and ends colored green, where in between it gradually changes its color. I can't find a way to shade a path without filling it.  The following code does not work, as it shades the filling area, although it compiles.  \documentclass{article} \usepackage{tikz} \usetikzlibrary{calc,automata,patterns,decorations,decorations.pathmorphing} \usetikzlibrary{fadings} \begin{document} \begin{tikzpicture}  \draw[path fading=south,very thick,top color=blue!80!white,       bottom color=green!80!white,-&gt;] (0,0) .. controls +(0,-1) and +(0,1) .. (1,-2);  \end{tikzpicture} \end{document}