Get to Know Graphic Styles in Illustrator
Work Smarter, Not Harder, in Illustrator
Image credited to Codify Design Studio
Don’t limit your styles to just text. Illustrator gives you the ability to style artwork in much the same way you style your text.
Properties that affect the appearance of your artwork, or text, can be captured into a Graphic Style. These styles, which appear in the Graphic Styles panel, can then be applied to any object in your Illustrator document. Graphic styles can include fill and stroke colors, stroke values, drop shadows, opacity, and any of the effects available within the appearance panel.
Graphic Styles provide a powerful way to explore design possibilities in a fraction of the time.
In the example below, we’ll add some appearance properties onto the text for the ranking values. These properties will include a drop shadow, 3D extrusion, and rounded corners, which will give the text a puffy three-dimensional look.
Image credited to Codify Design Studio
Next, select the text object and drag it into the Graphic Styles panel. You can then rename the style by double-clicking on the swatch. Finally, select any artwork or text objects within your layout and click on the style in the Graphic Styles panel to apply it.
More workflow tips for Illustrator
Want more tips? Check out these related articles that will get you working smarter, not harder, in Illustrator.
Speed Up your vector drawings in Illustrator_
_
Share Text Styles From Illustrator with Creative Cloud Libraries
Illustrator Symbols + Layers — Perfect Structure for Responsive SVG!
Watch these features in action
In this webinar, we’ll explore best practices for working with layers, groups, symbols, CC Libraries and Typekit fonts. Bonus: We’ll show you how to make a responsive web graphic.
In this session you’ll learn about:
- Creating a well-structured Illustrator document
- Working with symbols in Illustrator
- Using color and assets from CC Library
- Options for exporting
Adobe Creative Cloud e-learning series: