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Blend objects on the iPad

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Learn how to blend objects and shapes to create impressive illustrations, logos, and designs.

Illustrator on the iPad lets you evenly blend and distribute one or more objects of various shapes, patterns, and colors. When creating designs, you can add blended objects to a path using blend options.

Blend objects

Follow the steps below to blend objects:
  1. Draw an object using shape or drawing tools.
  2. Use fill and stroke tools to add colors to the object.
  3. Tap the Selection tool  , select an object or drag to select multiple objects. 
  4. Tap the Repeat panel   on the taskbar and select Blend tool   to blend objects.
  5. Modify blended objects using on-canvas controls.

Blend objects

 If you try blending objects that are not supported, the following message displays on the iPad: Can only make blends with paths and group of paths.

Modify blended objects

Change the instances of blended objects

  • To change the blend instances, tap the blended object and drag the Instances control on the canvas.
  • To move the blended object, tap the blended object and drag.
  • To increase or decrease the size of the blended object, tap the blended object and drag the bounding box.
  • To change the path of a blended object, select the object, tap the Direct selection tool     , and drag the anchor points of the path.
  • To use Blend options, select the blended object and tap the Properties panel   on the taskbar.

Customize blend options

Now that you have blended objects, you can set the following properties:

A) Tap the drop-down, select one of the following options:

Smooth: Auto-calculates and applies the number of steps between the blends.

Steps: Controls the number of steps between the start and end of the blend.

Distance: Controls the distance between the steps in the blend.

B) Value: Modify the value to  control the steps and distance between blends.

C) Align to canvas: Orients the blend perpendicular to the x-axis of the canvas.

D) Align to path: Orients the blend perpendicular to the path.

blend options
Blend options

E) Reverse front to back: Reverses the stacking order of the blended objects.

F) Reverse spine: Reverses the order of blend on its spine.

G) Replace spine: Replaces the spine with a blended object, see Replace spine.

Replace the spine with a blended object

A spine is a path along which the steps in a blended object are aligned. When creating logos, patterns, illustrations, or banners, the Replace Spine option lets you add blend along the path of the object.

Replace spine

Follow the steps below to swap the spine with a blended object:

  1. Create a spine using shape or drawing tools.
  2. Tap the Selection tool   and select the spine object and the blended object.
  3. In the Blend options, tap Replace spine   . 
  4. Tap Reverse spine   to reverse the order of blend on its spine. 

Tips and tricks

  • To select multiple objects, tap and hold the center of the touch shortcut icon and select each object one at a time.
  • When you select a blended object, a widget with controls display on the canvas. Use the controls to duplicate, ungroup, lock, move, or expand blended objects.
  • To replace the spine with blended objects, slide to the outer edge of the touch shortcut icon and hold. Drag the blended object to the spine.

To learn how to create and release blended objects using keyboard shortcuts, see keyboard shortcuts for Illustrator on the iPad.

What's next

Now you can create unique blends to give an artistic look to your logos, posters, banners, and more. You can save your artwork as a Creative Cloud document, learn how to blend objects in Illustrator desktop, and continue your design journey.

Got a question or an idea?

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