Explore how fills and strokes help enhance designs in Adobe Illustrator.
Painting methods
Illustrator provides two primary methods of painting:
- Apply a Fill, a Stroke, or both to an entire object.
- Convert the object to a Live Paint group and apply a Fill and a Stroke to the separate edges and faces of paths within it.
A Fill is the interior color, gradient, or pattern inside an object. It adds visual weight, depth, and texture to vector shapes. You can apply a Fill to open and closed paths and faces of the Live Paint group.
There are three types of Fill:
- Solid: Applies a uniform color evenly across the entire shape.
- Gradient: Creates a gradual blend between two or more colors.
- Pattern: Fills the shape with a repeating design or texture.
A Stroke is the visible outline of a path or object. It defines the edge or contour and can be styled to complement or contrast with the Fill. You can apply a Stroke to open and closed paths and edges of the Live Paint group.
When working with the Live Paint group, brush styles can only be applied to edges after adding a Stroke to the group from the Appearance panel.
To customize Stroke settings, select Window > Stroke to open the Stroke panel and adjust these settings:
- Weight: Sets the thickness of the Stroke.
- Cap: Defines the shape of the stroke’s end points.
- Corner: Controls the appearance of corners where path segments meet.
- Align Stroke: Specifies whether the Stroke is aligned to the center, inside, or outside of the path.
When an object is selected, the Stroke panel can also be accessed through the Properties, Control, and Appearance panels.
Access fill and stroke settings
View and adjust Fill and Stroke settings in these panels:
- Tools panel
- Control panel
- Properties panel
These panels allow you to preview and modify the active Fill and Stroke attributes of the selected object or path.
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