Outline Your Strokes, Expand Your Effects Before Release

Outline Your Strokes, Expand Your Effects Before Release.

In Adobe Illustrator, when you have vector objects with strokes & effects, it's very easy to end up with some undesirable results when scaling the object. If you scale an object using the Scale tool, your strokes and effects will not scale if you do not have 'Scale Strokes & Effects' selected under the General tab in the 'Preferences' dialog. The same goes for using the scaling dialog box without having the 'Scale Strokes & Effects' option selected at the bottom of the dialog.

This is all pretty standard stuff and under your control while the file stays with you. But if you release the file to a client or vendor, there is no guaranteeing that they will have the Scale Strokes & Effects options selected if they attempt to scale the object.

To avoid nasty changes to your beautiful graphics after they have left your hands, simply outline the strokes and expand the effects. Outlining Strokes can be done under the Object menu in the Path submenu. You should also unite the object using the Pathfinder dialog to create one nice clean object. Unite is the first icon at the left in the top row.

Expanding effects can be accomplished under the Object menu by selecting Expand Appearance.