Changing stroke attributes


    Stroke attributes are available only when you stroke a path. These attributes, available in the Stroke palette, control whether a line is solid or dashed, the dash sequence if it is dashed, the stroke weight, the miter limit, and the styles of line joins and line caps.

    The stroke weight determines the thickness of the stroke. Illustrator strokes a path by centering the stroke on the path; half of the stroke appears on one side of the path, and the other half of the stroke appears on the other side of the path.

To set stroke attributes using the Stroke palette:

  1. Select the object whose stroke attributes you want to change.
  2. Click the Stroke box in the toolbox, Appearance palette, or Color palette to select the object's stroke.
  3. Choose Window > Stroke.
  4. To specify a stroke weight, enter the desired weight in the Weight text box.
  5. If you enter a weight of 0, the stroke is changed to None.

  6. To see other options, choose Show Options from the Stroke palette menu; then click one of the following cap option buttons:
    • Butt Cap Butt Cap for stroked lines with squared ends.
    • Round Cap Round Cap for stroked lines with semicircular ends.
    • Projecting Cap Projecting Cap for stroked lines with squared ends that extend half the line width beyond the end of the line. This option makes the weight of the line extend equally in all directions around the line.
  7. Click one of the following join option buttons:
    • Miter Join Miter Join for stroked lines with pointed corners. Enter a miter limit between 1 and 500. The miter limit controls when the program switches from a mitered (pointed) join to a beveled (squared-off) join. The default miter limit is 4, which means that when the length of the point reaches four times the stroke weight, the program switches from a miter join to a bevel join. A miter limit of 1 results in a bevel join.
    • Round Join Round Join for stroked lines with rounded corners.
    • Bevel Join Bevel Join for stroked lines with squared corners.
  8. Select Dashed Line for a custom, non-solid line, and specify a dash sequence by entering the lengths of dashes and the gaps between them in the Dash Pattern text boxes.
  9. The numbers entered are repeated in sequence so that once you have established the pattern, you don't need to fill in all the text boxes.

    Illustration of 6pt dashed lines with dash gap of 2, 12, 16, 12 with these callouts: A. Butt cap B. Round cap C. Projecting cap
    6pt dashed lines with dash gap of 2, 12, 16, 12 A. Butt cap B. Round cap C. Projecting cap

To specify the stroke units:

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Display Performance (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Units & Display Performance (Mac OS).
  2. Choose the units of measurement you want from the Stroke pop-up menu and click OK.