Select the Live Paint group on the canvas.
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Modify paths
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Manage objects
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Select objects
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Paint and fill
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Learn painting basics
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- About Live Paint
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- Find and close gaps in Live Paint groups
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Apply and edit strokes
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Manage colors
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Modify colors
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Apply transparency and blending
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Design with text
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Add and manage text
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Find and close gaps in Live Paint groups
Last updated on
Jun 26, 2026
Learn how to detect, manage, and close gaps in Live Paint groups.
Gaps are small spaces between paths. If paint leaks through and paints faces you did not intend to paint, you probably have a gap in your artwork. You can create a new path that closes the gap, edit existing paths to close the gap, or adjust the gap options in the Live Paint group.
You can avoid gaps in your Live Paint artwork by overdrawing paths, which means you extend them past each other. You can then select and delete the resulting excess edges, or apply a Stroke of None to them.
Highlight gaps in a Live Paint group
Select View > Show Live Paint Gaps. This command highlights gaps in the selected Live Paint group, based on the gap options you’ve set for that group.
Set Live Paint gap options
Select Object > Live Paint > Gap Options.
In the Gap Options dialog box, specify any of the following:
- Gap Detection: Identifies gaps in the selected Live Paint group's paths and prevents paint from flowing through them.
- Paint stops at: Sets the size of the gap that paint can't flow through. Custom Gaps lets you specify a custom gap size.
- Gap Preview Color: Sets the color used to preview gaps in Live Paint groups. You can select a color from the dropdown menu or select the swatch next to the Gap Preview Color dropdown menu to specify a custom color.
- Gaps Found: Shows the number of gaps detected in the selected Live Paint group.
- Close gaps with paths: Inserts unpainted paths into the selected Live Paint group to close gaps rather than simply preventing paint from flowing through them. Since these paths are unpainted, it may appear that gaps remain even though they have been closed. Close gaps with paths becomes inactive if the selected Live Paint group has no gaps.
- Preview: Gives a preview of the gaps detected in the selected Live Paint group as colored lines, based on the preview color you selected.
Note
Turning on Gap Detection may slow down Adobe Illustrator when working on large, complex Live Paint groups. In this case, you can select Close gaps with paths to help speed up Illustrator again.
Gap settings and behavior when merging Live Paint groups
When you merge Live Paint groups with different gap settings, Illustrator follows these rules to handle the gaps:
- If all the selected groups have Gap Detection turned off, gaps are closed, and Gap Detection is turned on with Paint stops at set to Small Gaps.
- If Gap Detection is turned on for all the selected groups and they share the same gap settings, gaps are closed, and the gap settings are preserved.
- If the selected groups have mixed gap settings and if Gap Detection is turned on for the bottom-most group, gaps are closed, and the bottom-most group's gap settings are preserved. If Gap Detection is turned off for the bottom-most group, Gap Detection is turned on with Paint stops at set to Small Gaps.
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