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Transparent stroke in illustrator?

transparent stroke in adobe illustrator

Leeny

12:42 am on Jan 19, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Hey there.. I have a bit of a bizarre question. I've recently had a student designer design a logo for my business. They've provided me with the un-flattened file so that I can make minor colour changes etc myself if needed. I'm no Illustrator wizz, but I do know the basics enough to do minor things.

Anyhow, I selected a font to be used, and asked if it was possible to make thinner.. She ended up putting a stroke around the letters so the font looks thinner.. I went to use the logo on a photograph, but because she used a white stroke, of course it shows, which isn't what I want.

Is it possible to make the stroke transparent? I've searched a bit and have read that you can make a stroke transparent by clicking the "none" box with the red line through it in the colour palette... When I click it however, it makes the stroke completely disappear, and blanks out the stroke number. If I try selecting the box with the red line first, then putting in a stroke number, It just makes the stroke a normal white.

I know this is long winded.. Any ideas at all? Is it even possible to make a stroke transparent?

jessejump

10:25 am on Jan 19, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

In the Appearance panel, select the stroke.
In Transparency panel, lower transparency.

Leeny

10:35 am on Jan 19, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Hmm your right, that does work, thanks.. But it brings the letter back to the original size.. I didn't really think the stroke thing through very well.. I guess I can't make the letters any thinner..

limbo

1:09 pm on Jan 19, 2009 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

10+ Year Member

Hi Leeny.

Does the typeface that the logo written in have more weights? Finding a medium, regular, light or thin font would be a better option. Butchering a fonts weight by adding a border is going to make the letterforms irregular and disproportionate. It's the designers role to do a proper job - and the way it's been done now is very crude, to be honest.

However you can do what you describe: choose object > path > outline-stroke - then delete the extraneous paths.

jessejump

1:53 pm on Jan 19, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Go to Type Menu
Create Outlines
Object Menu
Path
Offset - negative number

Leeny

5:25 am on Jan 20, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Thanks for the help guys... The logo doesn't have another typeface... I have tried both things suggested, but I can't get it to work, so I think I'll probably give up lol..

jessejump

11:47 pm on Jan 20, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

What i wrote makes the text thinner.

Leeny

1:21 am on Jan 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Oh I do believe you :) I just can't get it to work..I dont know what I'm doing wrong.. I follow it all until Offset - negative number, and no matter what negative number I put, I cant get it to work.. If I put a positive number in, it gets bigger like it should, but no negative numbers are working.

pageoneresults

1:28 am on Jan 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

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Wait, isn't there an option to put the stroke on the outside, middle or inside of the path? Would that achieve the desired effect without moving things around?

jessejump

2:02 am on Jan 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

I just did offset -3 and it makes the text 'thinner'. Use Preview.
YMMV.

jessejump

2:24 am on Jan 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Sorry-
after offset
select the letter
Object > Ungroup
Click on and drag innner letter away.

Leeny

2:32 am on Jan 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

pageoneresults, the problem is making the stroke transparent :)

I'll give that a go jesse, thanks!

Leeny

2:53 am on Jan 21, 2009 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member

Thanks Jesse! :) I wasn't using a small enough negative number.. I was starting at one... My text was obviously smaller so I needed to use a .o number :)