How to Create Borders in Adobe Illustrator

Developed by Adobe Systems and included in its Creative Suite of design products, Illustrator allows you to create drawings, animations, charts, graphs and other scalable vector images. The program also gives you the ability to select any object and apply a border, known as a stroke, to the object. Once you know where to find the proper menu item and how to set your stroke options, creating borders in Adobe Illustrator becomes a quick task.

Instructions

1. Open in Adobe Illustrator the file containing the object that requires a border.

2. Click the "Selection Tool" icon on the "Tools" palette.

3. Click once on the object around which you want a border created.

4. Look to the "Stroke" section of the "Control" panel along the top edge of the program window. If you don't see this panel, click the "Window" item in the top menu bar and click the "Control" item.

5. Click the "Stroke" drop-down menu and select your preferred border width. The border is applied to the selected object immediately.

6. Click the color selection tool located directly to the left of the "Stroke" drop-down menu and select your preferred border color. The selected color is applied to the object's border immediately.

Tips & Warnings

• To work with Illustrator's full array of stroke options, click the "Stroke" label in the "Control" panel, and then select your options from the resulting drop-down menu.

References

• Adobe Illustrator CS5: Control Panel Overview