How to Draw with Illustrator: FILL and STROKE

© Ugur Akinci

TOOL 4: Fill and Stroke

Every Illustrator object is made up of 2 parts: Fill and Stroke.Or the INSIDE of a shape (Fill) and its BORDERS (Stroke).

In the case of a line, there’s only stroke and no fill. If a line does have a fill, it actually becomes a very thin and long RECTANGLE.

You can delete or add both fill and stroke to a selected object easily, through the Fill-Stroke ICONS on the TOOLBAR:

“Square Donut” shape with a hole in the center is the STROKE icon. The solid square is the FILL icon.

Whichever is in FRONT is the one that is active. If you click the white square with RED DIAGONAL on the LOWER RIGHT corner, you DELETE the display of whichever icon is in front.

For example here are the Fill and Stroke icons of an object (not shown here) with STROKE DELETED:

You can do the same while working through the Color tab:

To assign any color to a Fill or Stroke of a selected object, just click it to bring it upfront and then click on any color you like in the Color tab.