About blending
One of the simplest uses for blending is to create and distribute shapes evenly between two objects. For example, you can create a series of evenly spaced bars using the blend tool or the Make Blend command. Two objects selected using the blend tool Blending distributes shapes evenly You can also blend between two open paths to create a smooth transition between objects, or you can combine blends of colors and objects to create color transitions in the shape of a particular object. The following rules apply to blending shapes and their associated colors: - You can blend between an unlimited number of objects, colors, opacities, or gradients.
- Blends can be directly edited with tools such as the selection tools, the rotate tool, or the scale tool.
- A straight path is created between blended objects when the blend is first applied. You can edit the blend path by dragging anchor points and path segments. (See Adjusting path segments.)
- You cannot blend between mesh objects.
- If you blend between one object painted with a process color and another object painted with a spot color, the blended shapes are painted with a blended process color. If you blend between two different spot colors, process colors are used to paint the intermediate steps. If, however, you blend between tints of the same spot color, the steps are all painted with percentages of the spot color.
- If you blend between two patterned objects, the blended steps will only use the fill of the object on the topmost layer.
- If you blend between objects that have blending modes specified with the Transparency palette, the blended steps will only use the blending mode of the top object.
- If you blend between objects with multiple appearance attributes (effects, fills, or strokes), Illustrator attempts to blend the options.
- If you blend between two instances of the same symbol, blended steps will be instances of that symbol. If, however, you blend between two instances of different symbols, the blended steps will not be symbol instances. (See Working with symbols.)
- By default, blends are created as knockout transparency groups, so that if any of the steps consist of overlapping transparent objects, these objects will not show through each other. You can change this setting by selecting the blend and deselecting Knockout Group in the Transparency palette.
- The Adobe Illustrator program automatically calculates the number of steps in a blend, unless you select Specify Steps in the Blend Options dialog box.
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