lines in two colours

[Peter_Chadbund@adobeforums.com]

I need to create lines, eg dashed lines, in two colours. a dashed line with one colour for the dashes and a second colour between the dashes would be ok. I am using Illustrator 8. would a newer version have such a facility as above?

[Scott_Falkner@adobeforums.com]

You can do it in AI8 by makign a brush. Look up patterns and brushes in the help file or your manual. The same method can be used in Illustrator 10 and 11. But an even easier method exists is which you would give a path two strokes, like a solid yellow path with a black dashed stroke on top.

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

You can do it in AI8 by makign a brush.




The problem with that, Scott, is that in IL 8, expanding a dotted/dashed stroke results in a solid filled line. And if you can't expand, you can't give individual elements of the line different colors.

To be more accurate, the problem in IL 8 is that there is no flatten transparency function as there is in IL 10. The same thing happens in IL 10 if you try to expand a dotted/dashed line, but flatten transparency with the 'convert all strokes to outlines' option selected gets the job done.

=-= Harron =-=

[Philip_Peterson@adobeforums.com]

As another approch, how about a solid line of one color beneath a dashed line of a different color.

[Scott_Falkner@adobeforums.com]

The problem with that, Scott, is that in IL 8, expanding a dotted/dashed
stroke results in a solid filled line. And if you can't expand, you can't
give individual elements of the line different colors.




He will need to make a brush consisting of tho willed rectagles, one longer than the other. There is no dash.

[Peter_Chadbund@adobeforums.com]

As I will have a lot of these to do, which will probably involve quite a lot of "adjusting and alignment, I am trying to get away from the "one line on top of another" type of approach. On one of the " graphics" newsgroups it was suggested that I could do what I need in Illustrator and Corel Draw. I guess my version of Corel is far too old, so I wondered if the same was true of Illustrator !

[Scott_Falkner@adobeforums.com]

I have explained how to do this in Illustrator. Here is a more complete explanation:

First, let's assume that the line you want is a black dash with yellow gaps.

1. create a rectangle that is 1 pt. high and 6 pt. wide.
2. give this rectangle no stroke and a 100% yellow fill.
3. draw a rectangle that is 1 pt. high and 4 pt. wide.
4. give this rectange a 100% black fill, with overprint fill selected in atributes.
5. align the two rectangles to the top and left.
6. select both rectangles and group them.
7. drag the group onto the bruch palette.
8. create a new art brush.

Done.

Now draw any path and select the art brush you created for your stroke. You can increase the width of the stroke using the strokes palette.

[Harron_K._Appleman@adobeforums.com]

Yup. I can confirm that works as Scott describes in IL 8.0.1. It's fast, and, of course, once the brush is created, instantly repeatable.

=-= Harron =-=

[Peter_Chadbund@adobeforums.com]

Thanks Scott. sounds simple enough that even I can understand it!!
Pete