Creating and releasing blends


    You create blends in Illustrator by clicking objects or anchor points with the Blend tool, or by selecting objects or anchor points and using the Make Blend command.

    Selected objects before blending
    Selected objects before blending
    The Make Blend command creates intermediate objects between the selected objects.
    The Make Blend command creates intermediate objects between the selected objects.

    Objects are blended relative to either their center points or to selected anchor points. You can also select two or more anchor points from which to blend by clicking anchor points with the Blend tool. By selecting different anchor points on the objects, you can create the effect of rotating the blend from a specific point in one object to a selected point in the next.

    Once you create a blend between objects, 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 release or expand the blend. Releasing a blend removes the new blended objects and restores the original objects. Expanding a blend enables you to divide the blend into distinct objects, which you can edit individually like any object and expand further.

To blend multiple objects with the Blend tool:

  1. Select the Blend tool Blend tool .
  2. Do one of the following:
    • To blend in sequential order with no rotation, click anywhere on each object, but avoid anchor points.
    • To blend to a specific anchor point on an object, click the anchor point with the Blend tool. When the pointer is over an anchor point, the pointer changes from a white square to transparent with a black dot in its center.
    • To blend open paths, select an endpoint on each path.
  3. When you are finished adding objects to the blend, click the Blend tool in the toolbox.

To blend multiple objects with the Make Blend command:

  1. Select the objects.
  2. Choose Object > Blend > Make.

To set blending options:

  1. To change an existing blend, select the blended object.
  2. Choose Object > Blend > Blend Options.
  3. Select from the following options in the Spacing menu:
    • Smooth Color to let Illustrator auto calculate the number of steps for the blends. If objects are filled or stroked with different colors, the steps are calculated to provide the optimum number of steps for a smooth color transition. If the objects contain identical colors, or if they contain gradients or patterns, the number of steps is based on the longest distance between the bounding box edges of the two objects.
    • Specified Steps to control the number of steps between the start and end of the blend.
    • Specified Distance to control the distance between the steps in the blend. The distance specified is measured from the edge of one object to the corresponding edge on the next object (for example, from the rightmost edge of one object to the rightmost edge of the next).
  4. Select from the following options:
    • Align to Page  Align to Page icon to orient the blend perpendicular to the x axis of the page.
    • Align to Path Align to Path icon to orient the blend perpendicular to the path.
    Align to Page option applied to a blend
    Align to Page option applied to a blend
    Align to Path option applied to a blend
    Align to Path option applied to a blend

To release a blended object:

  1. Select the blended object.
  2. Choose Object > Blend > Release.

To expand a blend into distinct objects:

    Choose Object > Blend > Expand. To expand each of the resulting objects, see Expanding objects.