How do you 'stipple'???!

[tembographics]

I am struggling to find the easiest way (actually any way!) to do stippling.....I am working on a medical illustration and cannot work out how to do stippling (to denote bone) in a way that looks like 'pen and ink'? So I need dots...not squares....

......and I didnt understand the last answer re 'if you want the dots to be round, try putting a round cap on your stroke'! Oh dear, sorry!

By the way - first time on the forum...scary!!!

[vmagic118]

I am struggling to find the easiest way (actually any way!) to do stippling.....I am working on a medical illustration and cannot work out how to do stippling (to denote bone) in a way that looks like 'pen and ink'? So I need dots...not squares....

......and I didnt understand the last answer re 'if you want the dots to be round, try putting a round cap on your stroke'! Oh dear, sorry!

By the way - first time on the forum...scary!!!

I tried using the Paint brush, I choose the 3 pt round Calligraphy brush, of course you can easily adjust the pt size. Once you select the brusgh you want just double click on the Piant brush icon and your adjustment box will appear. I use a Wacom Pen and tablet so it was easy... Might be a bit difficult otherwise

[MKO]

Does this help Anne?

In Illustrator you could try 1) working in RGB mode (to activate the raster filter effects); 2) Go to Effects - Raster Effects Settings and change to a res of 300 or higher; and 3) Go to Effects - Texture - Grain, and use the Stipple grain.
Found at http://groups.google.com/group/adobe.illustrator.macintosh/browse_thread/thread/6496bc37493d04a2/acd1561b804213ac%23acd1561b804213ac

Illustrator CS2 gives a nice preview of the effect. Set Grain Type: Stippled and play with the Intensity slider. Be aware that your illustration is no longer in pure vector format.

I wished there where a point diameter slider.

[MKO]

[QUOTE=tembographics;2280......and I didnt understand the last answer re 'if you want the dots to be round, try putting a round cap on your stroke'! [/QUOTE]

In the Stroke palette right to the Weight field, there are buttons. The middle one sets a round cap to your stroke.

[tembographics]

Fantastic....many thanks for the advice!

[Molly]

Anne,
I came across your post looking for a solution to the same problem. I ran across this site and based on experimenting with patterns, brushes, etc. this afternoon, I liked this technique the best. I don't think the quick mask mode is necessary; a magic wand selection or custom shape works fine. As far as intensity of the dots, I'm just using a large brush and varying the placement (i.e. the extremities of the pressure sensitive brush makes a "lighter" stipple as opposed to the center of the brush). The home page is interesting also- scientific illustration techniques.
-Molly

[Molly]

And the link would be http://nhm.ku.edu/illustration/structuraldrawing/keybdshortsnstipple.html

[billseymour]

Hello-
First post on this forum.

Just a quick thought on 'stippling'. I am coming from a Photoshop background primarily, and I wonder if perhaps this might be a situation where either a photoshop brush (like the 'bristle brush/drybrush' that comes with Ps), or else some scanned images of stippling, would give you the basic information you require.

The 'stippling' effect in Ps from a bristle brush would be done by using the brush as a 'stamp'. Not dragging the brush along a path, but 'stamping' the 'dots'. One could then either erase or mask out any areas where the stippling spilled over.

Again, being new to Ai- could one take a 'stippling' pattern from Ps or scanned as I mentioned, and make a calligraphy brush? If I understand correctly, one could use the calligraphy brush more like a Ps brush.

Anyway, just tossing out some ideas. Hope they are of some use.
--Bill