Outlines problem, anyone help?

[NothingMan]

Hello everyone,

1.) I have two questions. I drew an object and applied grey inerglow to it. Now when I try to put a black outline it turns out the same color as inner glow. Any way to get a black outline over it (without duplicating the same outlined object and bringing it forward) :)

2.) I started using Illustrator mainly because its sharpness in small icons and stuf (apart from the beast feature being a vector.) And still slightly angled lines or outline on objects seem jaggy (sorry dont know other term.) Any way to get the lines crisp and sharp?

Thanks

[TORCH511]

To answer #1: Sorry, the inner glow trumps right over the stroke as well, the only way to do it is to dupicate the object and apply the stroke you want with no fill. Quick and easy to do so it is not that much of a big deal.

To answer #2: The lines being displayed on the screen are a representation of the mathematics that actually draw the line. Your screen has only so many dots it can draw on, so depending on the dot pitch and resolution of your monitor you may see some slight jagged edges.

When you output, much of that will go away depending on the output's capabilities. You'll never see it on most printers as the resolution of most printers far exceeds what is capable on screen. For example, at work when making films or digital plates, we output through the RIP at 3048 DPI. Even under a stereoscope, the lines look really smooth. compare that to between 72 to 96 dpi of most monitors.

So if you see jagged lines, don't worry about them, they are not really there to begin with.

HOWEVER, once you export to a raster format, you may go back to the jagged lines, depending on the the image settings.

[rsentgerath]

You can achieve what you want in question one through the appearance palette.
Select you object with the black arrow, then bring up the appearance palette from the windows menu.

You will see a line for stroke, a fill, the inner glow effect and finally one named default transparency. Drag the effect line up to the fill and let go so they are "grouped" and the inner glow only applies to the effect.

Your stroke should now show up black or the color you actually wanted without being overridden by the inner glow.

Read up on tutorials about the appearance palette and you will unlock some nice magic in illy.

[rsentgerath]

If you are a member of illustrator techniques then the following tutorial is great to understand what the appearance palette can do, even misspelled as the link name is :D

http://www.illustratortechniques.com/appearance-palate.html

[TORCH511]

LIB (that's redneck for Well I'll Be)

You learn something new every day. I am a big fan of the appearances pallet, but never knew you could link an effect to just a stroke or fill. Maybe, just MAYBE in all my years I should have tried it.

A homer moment... dooh!

[nutella]

Oh, yeah, you can do a whole slew of fancy effects that way.
1. For starters, create a new document.
2. Open the Symbols palette and in its popup menu select Open Symbol Library > Default_RGB
3. In that default_rgb library you will see 2 buttons. Just drag one of them onto the work area, and break the link to the symbol on it.
4. now in the layers palette, open the group and select the path inside it.

Now look at the appearance palette. there are 7 extra fills with various effects applied including warps, transforms, and others.

a fancy way to make a button!

[NothingMan]

Thanks guys,

Another thing I wanted to ask. Is it possible to apply a stroke less than 1 px. There is an option for it but It doesnt seem to work, at least I dont know how...

And yes, Ive gotta real bad monitor :)

[jallinger]

Hi, When I convert a stroke to a path (Object:Path:Outline stroke) in CS3, then use my direct select tool to adjust a point, there are sometime multiple points that I have to move instead of just one. Anyone know why?

Thanks, Janet