Illustrator - Expand Appearance...

Hello. I've got an issue I've noticed...not sure if it's just me, or what. I recently upgraded to CS5, so maybe it's a setting I'm unaware of.
For example...say I have a rectangular box drawn. I fill it with red, outlined with a 5pt black stroke. I go to 'effects' and add .13" rounded corners. All great so far...
...then I go to 'expand appearance' and that's when I get my problem. The rounded corners expand just fine, but now I have 2 separate pieces that are grouped...a red rectangle and a black 5pt stroke outline.
Maybe it's just me, but I've been using Illy for years now and I never recall "expand appearance" making the element into separate pieces. Seems it used to expand and I'd have a red rectangle with a black stroke..all as one piece, not grouped.
Is there a setting I can adjust to avoid this issue? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!

Expand appearance typically works this way with stroked objects. The stroke ends up as an extra compound path inlining and outlining the original shape.
Alternative: use the Path Offset effect. The effect will give you three options for corner effects. When you expand the effect it will consume the original shape. No groups to break apart or extra paths to eliminate. For clean outlining effects I'll copy the original shape to the clipboard or place a copy of it on another layer. Apply the path offset effect and it's done. Nothing more to edit.

Similar Messages

CS4 cutting and pasting from illustrator expands appearance

I'm working within CS4 taking a few simple vectors and pasting into ID, Everything seems to work except a few images which the strokes are converted to fills.
The illustrator file has multiple artboards but other items cut and paste perfectly.
Is there anyway to fix this? I've tried throwing a clipping mask around it, grouping, ungrouping, dragging... And I can't get it to work.
Here's the file if it'll help: https://www.yousendit.com/download/Y1RwcHBFNXZCMTVMWEE9PQ

Do you know where the complex vs. simple starts and ends?
At the point that ID doesn't support the constuct natively.
I know that answer is less than useless. If you can figure it out, you'll probably also have a great future at the track or as a stock picker (and I don't mean in a warehouse).

Cant expand appearance in illustrator

the expand apppearance option is greyed out when i select one of the lotus flowers on the left. All i want to do is get rid of the unwanted lines in the petals. Any ideas
Thanks in advance

herms_ra,
I am afraid this is not something for Expand (Appearance).
Presuming you have closed individual paths, you may select the relevant ones and Pathfinder>Divide, then delete the unwanted ones.
Or you may click on the paths you wish cut parts off, then cut with the Scissors Tool and delete the newly cut unwanted paths. Smart guides are your friends, telling you when you are there (saying intersect where the paths cross).

Using expand appearance option

Hi, I am new to Illustrator CC ( I last used it on an iMac way back in 1994 - OS.9 as it was then). I work almost exclusively in Photoshop & Muse but I am trying to work through an Illustrator tutorial about creating buttons. Here are the instructions verbatim so far:
Pick the Rectangle Tool (M) and click on your artboard. Enter 93 in the width box and 32 in the height box then click OK. This will create a 93 by 32px shape. Fill it with R=0 G=182 B=241 then go to Effect > Stylize > Rounded Corners. Enter a 17px radius then click OK.
Now, your shape should look like the following image. Select it and hit Control + C then hit Control + F. This will add a copy in front. Have a quick look in your Layers panel (Window > Layers) and make sure that you have the two shapes created so far.
Select the copy made in the previous step and go to Object > Expand Appearance. Select the resulting shape and go to Object > Path > Offset Path. Enter a -1px Offset then click OK. Fill the resulting shape with white then reselect the expanded, blue shape and delete it.
Seems all very straightforward but Control+F places a duplicate on the same layer (I think!). Why not Control+J?
Which selection tool is not specified.
Using either selection tool and Object>Expand Appearance results in a greyed out option. Expand ... is active but when selected nothing happens.
Where am I going wrong or is the tutorial inaccurate?

brushwipe,
1) as Monika said.
When you expand the inner shape you may as well start by expanding the outer shape and then just use Object>Path>Offset Path and recolour the inner path and be done with it.
If you wish to keep the tutorial mess:
2) the (normal) Selection Tool (black arrow), but there is no need to use it before Object>Expand Appearance because the copy is selected already.
3) When you have clicked Object>Expand Appearance, you should see the double Anchor Points at the rounded corners. If that does not work, and you have followed the step carefully, something is wrong with the preferences or something.

Is there any way to join paths after expanding appearances?

I'm drawing very simple forms to send to a laser cutter and I need them to be symmetrical. I'm using the "transform" tool to mirror my drawing, then expanding the appearance at the end. But once I have 2 full paths, I can't get illustrator to join them. I've grouped them, ungrouped them, made a copy of the drawing, tried everything I can think of. I swear it actually used to do this so maybe my software is corrupted (I'm using CS4- yes, the dark ages!) so if I need to just move forward that's cool- but if there's an easy way to get this to work I might just stick with the old stuff since this is really all I use it for, and very infrequently. Thanks for any thoughts!

Jacob,
Thanks for the response! It's possible I'm misunderstanding the expand feature, but it seems that until I expand appearances and turn the "mirrored" path into a "real" path, there is no second half to join to, so I couldn't do it beforehand. I tried the suggestions that you and Monika made about trying the Unite/merge etc. in the pathfinder panel, but they didn't work. What's confusing me is that if I simply draw two scribbles with the pencil tool, it's two clicks to join the ends of those paths to make an enclosed form. I can't understand what it is about the lines made by expanding appearances that marks them as somehow different from plain old lines. They look the same, behave the same in all other ways but the software balks when I try to join the endpoints. I even tried clipping a little bit of the ends of the two paths I want to join, just to see if it would "reset" something about the lines, but that didn't work either. I'm attaching an image of one of the forms- neither the top points or the bottom ones are joined. Hope that clarifies what I'm trying to do- I drew the left half with the "copy" reflecting using the transform feature, then when i liked the way the whole thing looked I hit "expand appearances" to end up with two usable halves. I'm not at all attached to that method of getting the two halves; in fact it does work to turn the "transform" effect back off and simply use the reflect tool, but that's more cumbersome and it seems silly that just joining the endpoints can't work. Any other thoughts would be so appreciated!

Expand or Expand Appearance

What is the difference between Expand and Expand Appearance tool

Expand is used to nail down live effects like Warp and Envelope Distort. Before you use Expand the effect is live and can be edited anytime, as can the object the effect is applied to, letting you edit text or modify the objects affected. Expand nails down the effect, making the path match the object’s appearance. After Expand the effect is not longer editable and text is converted to paths.
Expand Appearance is only available is the selection has multiple fills or strokes applied using the Appearance panel. If no multiple fills or strokes have been applied, the command is unavailable and Expand should be available. If multiple fills or strokes have been applied then Expand should be unavailable. I have not kept track to see if there is ever a time one can use either command on a single selection.
The commands really should be combined into one command, since they do the same thing, but depend on whether the Appearance panel has been used. This is example number 879 in the ongoing story of why Illustrator is such a mess. New features have been crammed in with old code and the program needs to be able to support the multiple ways users can do things. I’d bet as experience programmer, asked to document the raw source code for Illustrator, would contemplate suicide.
The program is ancient (24 years old) and an excellent example of how not to update your software. 11 years ago Adobe released InDesign, knowing that continuing to update PageMaker to compete with QuarkXPress was a dead end and that a new program written from scratch was the better way to proceed. Sadly, there is no cross-platform professional vector application directly competing with Illustrator, so Adobe has no incentive to start from scratch and eventually let Illustrator die with dignity. So it stays on life support and we all suffer with a slow, buggy, unintuitive, confusing program.

Expand Appearance of Multiply

Hello,
I have a question about expanding appearance and multiply. I work in print-on-demand, and one of the limitations is that we can not use multiply on artwork. In order to achieve a similar appearance, when I receive these kinds of files, I flatten transparency, and that will sear in the way the multiply effect is interacting with the other elements of the same art file. (in the example below there are no interacting elements) However, if it is intended to interact with the background, I have to fiddle with the cmyk values (adding k) and opacity level until it is as close as possible. It is time-consuming.
Someone suggested we use 'expand appearnce' instead, and I tried it once and it worked! It did all the legwork for me; it spit out a different cmyk value and opacity level that mimics the effect of multiply, so I don't have to calculate it manually. However, I can't get it to work again. Illustrator thinks it is already its simplest form of appearance and will not expand it further. I've tried adding another effect and expanding but it will only expand the effect and keep the multiply.
Maybe she and I were both tripping when we thought it worked once? Does anyone know how to expand the appearance of multiply? Here's a picture of the 3 methods I'm speaking to: on the left is multiply, the center is flattened transparency, and the right is achieving a similar effect of multiply with opacity & color build.

I can send you examples of an original, unexpanded and an expanded, and also one that I dialed in by hand. How do I send it over?
We can't use any overprint fill attributes, because this is for print-on-demand, and aside from the possible complications with the InDesign Processor, things can disappear on darker backgrounds, and we have no control over what the customer does. They could put it on a black background and then wonder where it went!
Flatten transparency is great for when the elements are only meant to interact with each other within one file, but what is hard is when it's supposed to interact with other elements, such as a background or another asset. Since this is print-on-demand, we can't place it in the file and set it to multiply, it has to have it built in with opacity and a tweak of the cmyk values. Here's an example of one where flatten transparency works fine:

Is there a way to script "expand appearance"?

I have created a method to create line art roof shingles row-by-row. I think something like this is a good candidate for scripting, but I run into a dead-end quickly when trying to script this. Basically, I use "expand appearance" multiple times during the course of this process and I can't find any way to script that action. I have heard about using MenuIDs, but I can't find anything on how to discover what the MenuID for "expand appearance" is.
Anyhow, here is the tutorial. If anyone can give me some pointers on how to script this process, I would be very thankful.
I have also tried recording an action, but "expand appearance" doesn't get saved.

I used the recorder to record an action. The Expand Appearance step didn't record. I just now noticed you can add menu items to actions from the drop-down menu. Trying that. The next step is to add the tweak and roughen steps to the action.
I'm using Windows BTW and was going to script in javascript.

Why do I get an extra set of anchor points when I "Expand Appearance"

When I use the expand appearance? First I create a rectangle then I transform it vertical or horizontal I create 2 copies, then expand appearance. I see double the amount of anchor points. I was trying to copy a youtube video and when they do it the amount of anchor points does not double. I am doing the expand appearance in order to use pathfinder tool shape mode unite in order to create shape inside. The Youtube video I was trying to follow is below. Any help is appreciated! I kinda of got stuck inthe the very begining.

Depending on what version of AI, what specific appearance is used and a couple of other things this may happen. Some are bugs, others logical like theprogram inserting extra points to retain the shape of paths. In any case, you can always remove extra points if they get in the way, though most likely you will see other unwanted points after the pathfinder operations, anyway.
Mylenium

HT3919 In the past was able to adjust the memory for each individual application, my Illustrator CS5 appears is doesn't have enough memory to complete a particular project. How do I boost the amount of memory that Illustrator uses so I can complete my pro

In the past I have always been able to adjust the memory of each individual application,
my Adobe Illustrator CS5 appears that is doesn't have enough memory to complete a particular project.
How do I boost the amount of memory that Illustrator uses so I can complete my project?

With OS X, it automatically allocates RAM and it can't be allocated manually.
What model Mac do you have and what OS X version is it running. Your profile shows a PowerMac and OS 10.6.8. A PowerMac can't run OS 10.6.8. It's max OS is 10.5.x
How much RAM is installed in your Mac? You need to max out the RAM and close other open apps if you are having problems with Illustrator.
 Cheers, Tom

Object - Expand appearance in SDK

Hi, do you know of equivalent SDK call to reproduce UI action Object -> Expand appearance?
I tried to use ExpandSuite -> Expand and GetFlattenedArt from ArtStyle suite but the results are different
Luky

I am really trying to expand a symbol, but after is already "copied". Here is the code
AIArtHandle slice,tsl;
error=sSymbolSuite->CopySymbolPatternArt(pat,kPlaceInsideOnTop,sliceGroup,&tsl);
EXIT_ON_ERROR(error);
error=sArtStyleSuite->GetFlattenedArt(tsl,&slice);
EXIT_ON_ERROR(error);
When I used "Expand appearance" from UI I can see on my particular art that group of arts is transformed to group of groups and paths.
However when I use GetFlattenedArt (or Expand) result is just group of paths.
I am trying to use GetFlattenedArt as I can see from the debugger that this call is used when I do UI Expand appearance action, but apparaently some othercalls are probably used in the sequence, which I can't recognize
And to give you even more background I am trying to use Cropp effect and results differ if Expand apparence is used before crop and when it is not. And unfortunatelly correct "Crop" is after using Expand appearance

Any Way to Un-Expand Appearance?

I expanded the appearance of a brush path intending for it to only be temporary, but accidentally saved it that way. When I reopened the file, obviously I couldn't undo "expand appearance." Is there any way to un-expand it and make it a path again?

tieba,
Unfortunately not.
Unless you can fall back on an earlier version, I am afraid you will have to recreate the original path. If you are lucky with a symmetric brush, you may be able to cut the object at the ends and create a 1 step blend between the bounding paths and expand the blend thus getting access to the central and hopefully original path, and then you may reapply the brush.

Illustrator pictures appear/disappear in InDesign CC?

I'm importing two Illustrator CC pictures into an InDesign CC file (Running Adobe CC on Mac OS X 10.8.5).
If I set my display preferences to "Normal", they show up correctly (although an imported Photoshop JPEG appears in low-res). If I put the display into "High-Quality" mode, the photo is fine, but the two Illustrator files disappear, leaving only the bounding/content boxes. If I zoom out to 25%, the Illustrator files are visible on-screen, but at any higher zoom, I get nothing.
What am I doing wrong?

I just recently experieced this issue and when importing an .AI (CC 2014) into InDesign CC 2014. When viewed in Typical Display the proxy would appear and disappear when changed to High Quality Display (HQP). However when Overprint Preview is turned on the .AI file will appear while in (HQP). On a side note, while placing art with import options, the preview did not update when toggling on and off various layer's visibilty.
Trying to troubleshoot, I turned off all overprint settings for element in Illustrator and no difference. The solution that worked for me, I used a blend between three paths. Two of the three used the uniform stroke profile but the last path used "width profile 2". Once I changed the last path to uniform as the others, during placement, the preview worked properly and the vector art rendered correctly in all displays with and without overprint preview enabled.
I hope this helps, anyone else with their files and contributes to a more distinctive cause and quick resolution.
InDesign CC 2014
Illustrator CC 2014
Mac 10.9.5

WRE54G Range Expander, appears to be connected but...

I have auto configured the range expander.
I have 2 blue lights, on the link and the activity
when I try to ping the expander, results are: timed out
How can I tell if its connected to MY unsecured SSID or my neighbors?

As you have mentioned that you see 2 Blue lights on your WRE, but when you try to ping your WRE it gives your RTO. So this indicates that your WRE is not configured Properly...
To Configure your WRE, first you need to be sure then wireless network which you are try to connect is unsecured... AS you are trying to configure your WRE with your Neighbours wireless network, Well in this case you can try to configure your WRE Manually..
Press and hold the reset button for 30 seconds...Release the reset button...Unplug the power cable from your Expander, wait for 30 seconds and re-connect the power cable...
1. Connect your Expander to a computer, click on the Start button >>> Settings >>> Control Panel >>> Network Connections - Right click on the icon for Local area connection and go to properties- On the 'General' tab select 'Internet Protocol TCP/IP' and click on the Properties button- Select 'Use the following IP address'- Provide IP Address - 192.168.1.5, Subnet Mask - 255.255.255.0...Click on Ok button to Save and Click on "Close" on main Properties window...
2. Now open an Internet Explorer browser page on your wired computer(desktop).In the address bar type - 192.168.1.240. Leave the Username blank & in Password use admin in lower case...It should open your Expander set-up...
3. Once you get to the set-up page you can follow this link to change the Expander Settings...
NOTE : The link also explains to check the Wireless Settings on your Router...
4. While changing the Expander settings you have to make sure that the Wireless Settings(SSID/Network Name and WEP/WPA Key) are identical on both the devices(Router and Expander)...Also make sure to change the Expander's default IP to match your network and Gateway Address should be your Router's address...ex.Expander's IP Address : 192.168.1.240(assuming your router's default IP Address is 192.168.1.1),Subnet Mask : 255.255.255.0, Default Gateway : 192.168.1.1...
5. After configuring the Expander you should disconnect it from the Computer and go into Local Area Connection TCP/IP Properties and set it back to Obtain IP Address Automatically...Disconnect the Expander from the computer and power cycle both the devices(Expander and Router) ...Your Expander should be configured...
In case if you don't get the Expander set-up just leave it connected to your computer and reset it for 30 seconds and follow Step 2, Step 3, Step 4 & Step 5...
Hope this helps.

Illustrator: Expanding Blend Mysteriously Changes Shape

Hi all!
My name is Alexis I have a blending problem (hiiii Alexis...).
Okay, seriously, I've used the blend tool to make a series of lines between two other lines; I need to expand everything so that the whole thing becomes a fill-only object (no strokes):
- I expand it (Object > Expand; Object box checked, Fill box checked, Stroke box checked) and the object becomes strokes-only (no fill at all)
- I expand it again (Object > Expand; Object box greyed out, Fill box checked, Stroke box checked) and the object becomes fill-only (yay!) except the shape of the lines has changed (boo!). Unchecking the stroke box and leaving only the Fill box checked seems to have no effect, the object remains stroke-only).
What's going on here?
I've made a diagram to explain my problem a little better in case I haven't been clear enough: http://tinypic.com/r/6pqbyc/5
Please and thank you!
A

This is a shot in the dark, I admit, but;
After you expand the first time, while the shapes are only strokes, what happens if you try Object > Path > Add Anchor Points before expanding the second time?
It really shouldn't make any difference, but I've seen cases where it does.
--OB

Illustrator - Expand Appearance...

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for