Create, edit, and fine-tune blends from a single panel in Illustrator, with new easing and color controls and live results on the canvas.
Use the Blend panel to create, edit, and refine blends from one place. Adjust spacing, easing, color progression, and spine settings while previewing changes live on the canvas. For example, create a series of evenly spaced stickers, blend one color into another, or generate repeating artwork along a path.
Open the Blend panel
To open the panel, select Window > Blend.
The panel controls become available when you select a blend or when you select two or more objects to blend. When nothing eligible is selected, the controls are dimmed.
Create a blend
- Select two or more objects on the canvas.
- In the Blend panel, select Make.
Illustrator creates a blend between the selected objects and displays it on the canvas. The other controls become available so you can refine the result. Learn more about how to create blends.
Change the blend settings
Use these controls to change how the blend looks:
Spacing: Choose how the blend steps are distributed. Select Steps for a specific number of steps, Smooth for a smooth color transition, or Distance to space steps a set distance apart.
Orientation: Set whether the blend steps Align to Page or Align to Path.
Direction: Select Reverse Front to Back to reverse the stacking order of the blend.
Ease the blend steps
Easing changes how the blend steps are distributed along the spine, so you can cluster them toward the start, middle, or end of a blend instead of spacing them evenly.
Easing is available only when the blend has a spine. For a blend without a spine, such as one on an open path, the easing controls are dimmed.
Type: Choose an easing style, such as Ease In, Ease Out, Ease In Out or Ease Out In.
Ramp: Set the easing strength from 0 to 100 percent. At 0, the steps are evenly spaced, the same as in earlier Illustrator versions.
Control color acceleration
Use Appearance to control how quickly colors transition across the blend without changing object spacing. Move the Shift slider to move the color transition toward one end of the blend or the other.
Reverse or replace the spine
The spine is the path a blend follows, shown as a colored line through the blended objects. Use the spine controls to change it:
Reverse Spine: Reverse the order of the objects along the spine.
Replace Spine: Replace the current spine with another path that you select.
Learn more about how to modify the spine of blended objects.
Expand or release a blend
Expand: Split the blend into individual, editable objects.
Release: Remove the blend and restore the original objects.
Learn more about how to release or expand blended objects.
