When using Adobe Illustrator, eventually you will want to make a gradient on a stroke. Problem is that Illustrator does not allow you to do that directly. However, there is an effective work around that will allow you to place a gradient on a stroke in Adobe Illustrator. This tutorial will show you how simple that process is.
- Draw a shape and give it a stroke. In this example, I have drawn a simple circle in Adobe Illustrator and given it a 10 point stroke. Simply draw your shape and select the Stroke option on the toolbar. In the Stroke palette (Ctrl+F10), use the pull down menu to choose the width of your desired stroke.
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Step 2
Make the stroke an Illustrator object. Be sure your circle is selected in Adobe Illustrator. You cannot add a gradient directly to a stroke. So, to add the gradient, you must first make the stroke an object. To do this, select your circle. From the file menu at the top choose Object ~ Path ~ Outline Stroke. This will turn the stroke into an object that you can add a gradient to.
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Step 3
Add a gradient. Now you are free to add whatever gradient you want to the stroke of the circle. If you are not sure how to use gradients in Adobe Illustrator, see Related Articles for a tutorial on that.
