You use the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke) to specify whether a line is solid or dashed, the dash sequence and other dash adjustments if it is dashed, the stroke weight, the stroke alignment, the miter limit, arrowheads, width profiles, and the styles of line joins and line caps.

You can apply stroke options to an entire object, or you can use Live Paint groups and apply different strokes to different edges within the object.

Layers Magazine instructor Dave Cross shows you how to apply fill and stroke in Illustrator and some handy shortcuts to work with fill and stroke in this tutorial.

Create strokes with variable widths

Available in the toolbar, the Width tool enables you to create a variable-width stroke and save the variable width as a profile that can be applied to other strokes. You can now adjust or expand the variable-width strokes easily with fewer anchor points as Illustrator applies simplified paths on the strokes.

When you mouse over a stroke with the Width tool, a hollow diamond appears on the path with handles. You can adjust the stroke width, move the width point, duplicate the width point, and delete the width point. For multiple strokes, the Width tool adjusts only the active stroke. If you want to adjust a stroke, make sure that you select it as the active stroke in the Appearance panel.

To create or modify a width point using the Width Point Edit dialog box, double-click the stroke using the Width tool and edit the values for the width point. If you select the Adjust Adjoining Width Points check box, changes to the selected width point affect neighboring width points as well.

To automatically select the Adjust Adjoining Width Points check box, press Shift and double-click the width point. The Width tool distinguishes between continuous and discontinuous width points while adjusting the variable width.

To create a discontinuous width point, do the following:

For discontinuous points, the Width Point Edit dialog box shows both sets of side widths.

Width tool controls

Do any of the following:

• Drag the handles outward or inward to adjust the stroke width at that location on the path. Width points created at a corner or at a direct-selected anchor point stick to the anchor point during basic editing of the path.
• To change the position of the width point, drag the point along the path.
• To select multiple width points, press Shift and click. In the Width Point Edit dialog box, specify values for Side 1 and Side 2 of multiple points. Any adjustment to the width points affects all the selected width points.
• To globally adjust the stroke weight for all the width points, specify the stroke weight in the Weight drop-down list of the Stroke panel.

Save width profiles

After defining the stroke width, save the variable-width profile using the Stroke panel, the Control panel, or the Properties panel.

Do any of the following:

• To apply width profiles to selected paths, choose them from the Width Profile drop-down list in the Control panel or Stroke panel. When a stroke with no variable width is selected, the list displays the Uniform option. Select the Uniform option to remove a variable-width profile from an object.
• To restore the default width profile set, click the Reset Profiles button at the bottom of the Profile drop-down list.

If you apply a variable-width profile to a stroke, it is indicated with an asterisk (*) in the Appearance panel.

For Art and Pattern brushes, the Width Points/Profile option is automatically selected for size in the Stroke Options dialog box after you edit a brush path with the Variable Width tool or apply a Width Profile preset. To remove any width profile changes, select the Fixed option for size or one of the tablet data channels, such as Pressure, to restore the tablet data options.

Create dotted or dashed lines

You can create a dotted or dashed line by editing an object’s stroke attributes.

Change the caps or joins of a line

A cap is the end of an open line; a join is where a straight line changes direction (turns a corner). You can change the caps and joins of a line by changing the object’s stroke attributes.

Add arrowheads

In Illustrator, you can access arrowheads from the Stroke panel and associate controls to adjust size. Default arrowheads are available from the Arrowheads drop-down list in the Stroke panel. Using the Stroke panel, you can also easily swap arrowheads.

You can resize the tip and end of the arrowheads independently, using Scale option. If you want to link the start and end of the arrowheads scale, click the Link Start and End of Arrowheads Scales icon, adjacent to the Scale option.

You can also adjust the path to align to the tip or the end of the arrowhead, using the Align options. The options are:

• Extend arrow tip beyond end of path

• Place arrow tip at the end of path

  Note: To remove arrowheads from objects, choose the None arrowhead option from the drop-down list.

Customize arrowheads

To define custom arrowheads, open the Arrowheads.ai file, which is located under ShowPackageContent\Required\Resources\<locale>\ (for Mac) and \Support Files\Required\Resources\<locale>\ (for Windows). Follow the instructions in the file to create custom arrowheads.

Place the updated Arrowheads.ai file at: <Illustrator home>\Plug-ins\ and avoid replacing the existing Arrowheads.ai file.