We all need to draw a line when it comes to drawing lines. That’s because all Adobe line drawing is not created equal. And, we’re not sure why that is.
By way of example, Adobe InDesign includes a library of strokes. But Adobe Illustrator only has a few basic lines. Try this: on InDesign’s menu bar, go to Window > Stroke. Find the Stroke Type section and click to pop open the various lines you can create.
Now open Adobe Illustrator. Do the same procedure to get to the Stroke panel. It’ s okay if you think, “Huh? Where is everything?” Maybe Adobe feels Illustrator subscribers like to make their own stroke libraries.
Okay. Let’s make a multiple path stroke in Illustrator. It’s not difficult.
1.) Use Window > Appearance to open the Appearance Panel. 2.) In the lower left corner of that panel is the Add New Stroke button. Click on it. 3.) Use the Pen Tool to create a single line. 4.) Make your stroke big: maybe 20 point. Now, “Stroke 20 pt” is in your Appearance Panel. 5.) Two buttons to the right of the Add New Stroke button, that you used in Step 2, is the Add New Effect button. Click on it. 6.) A menu pops up. Choose Path > Offset Path. 7.) A dialog box appears. Click on the Preview box so you can see the effect. 8.) Did the line just get bigger? If the dialog box reads an offset default of “0.1389 in” change that to “0.5 in” just to see what happens. Your line should have become a rectangle. 9.) Below where you changed the offset is a dropdown for “Joins.” If it defaulted to Miter, choose Round. Now the squared-off corners become rounded ones.
Experiment with the options and explore the uses you can create with this panel in Illustrator.
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