How to Make an Object Into an Outline in Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator provides a wide range of fill types to apply to the artwork you draw in the program, including solid colors, gradients and intricate gradient meshes. Despite all these options, some artwork needs nothing more than an outlining stroke to define its perimeter. When you only want to apply a stroke to your Illustrator graphics, remove the default opaque fill before you draw your objects.

Instructions

1. Check the positions of the Fill and Stroke icons near the bottom of the Adobe Illustrator toolbox. Click on the Swap Fill and Stroke double-headed arrow to the right of the fill and stroke icons near the bottom of the Adobe Illustrator toolbox if the Fill icon is not in the default forward position.

2. Click on the None icon near the bottom of the Adobe Illustrator toolbox to set your fill value to None. The icon displays a red slash through a white square.

3. Click on the Swap Fill and Stroke arrow again to activate the Stroke icon in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox. Double-click on the icon to bring up the Color Picker and choose the color you want for your outlining stroke.

4. Open the Stroke panel by choosing "Stroke" from the Window menu if the panel isn't already visible on your screen. Enter a numeric value for the weight of your stroke.

5. Select the Pen, Rectangle, Ellipse, Rounded Rectangle, Star or any other drawing tool from the Adobe Illustrator toolbox. Draw your shapes and other graphic objects using the tool you selected. Your objects display an outlining stroke without a fill.

Tips & Warnings

• Remove strokes from objects you've already drawn by selecting your objects, activating the Stroke icon in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox and clicking on the None icon below the Stroke icon.

• You cannot apply a gradient to a stroke. If you need to mimic the appearance of a gradient outline, apply a stroke to your object, choose "Outline Stroke" from the Path fly-out menu of the Object menu, and apply your gradient to the converted object.

• Objects with no fill or stroke become invisible unless they're selected or you view your Adobe Illustrator artwork in Outline view.

References

• Adobe Systems: Using Adobe Illustrator CS5
• "The Adobe Illustrator CS5 Wow! Book"; Sharon Steuer; 2010
• "Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium All-in-One for Dummies"; Jennifer Smith, et al.; 2010
• "Illustrator CS5 for Windows and Macintosh Visual QuickStart Guide"; Elaine Weinmann, et al.; 2011