Blended objects overview

Learn about blended objects to create a visual transition of colors and shapes.

You can blend objects to create smooth transitions and evenly distributed shapes between two objects. You can use blending to:

• Distribute shapes uniformly between two endpoints.
• Create smooth transitions between open paths.
• Blend colors and shapes to form complex gradients that follow a specific path or shape.

Blend between objects

Once you create a blend, the blended objects are treated as one object. If you move one of the original objects or edit the original object’s anchor points, the blend changes accordingly. In addition, the new objects blended between the original objects don’t have their own anchor points. You can expand the blend to divide it into distinct objects.

Rules to blend between different objects

The following rules apply to blended objects and their associated colors:

• You cannot blend between mesh objects.
• Blending colors:
• When you blend a process color object with a spot color object results in blended steps using process colors.
• When you blend two different spot colors, it produces blended steps in process colors.
• When you blend tints of the same spot color, it results in blended steps using percentages of that spot color.
• When you blend between two patterned objects, the blended steps will only use the fill of the object on the topmost layer.
• When you blend between objects that have Blending Mode specified with the Transparency panel, the blended steps only use the blending mode of the top object.
• When you blend between objects with multiple appearance attributes, such as effects, fills, or strokes, Illustrator attempts to blend the options.
• Symbol instances:
• When you blend between two instances of the same symbol, blended steps display a pattern of that symbol.
• When you blend between two instances of different symbols, the blended steps display a colliding pattern from both symbols.
• By default, blends are created as transparency knockout groups, so if any of the steps consist of overlapping transparent objects, they will not show through each other. You can change this setting by selecting the blend and then deselecting Knockout Group in the Transparency panel.