- Now in the file that I'm working with here.
I have a plain common or garden stroke
down at the bottom here, which I'm just going to zoom in on,
so it's easier for us to see.
And the stroke panel can actually be accessed
in several places.
In the layout that I'm using here,
which is essentials classic,
I have the stroke panel here, like so.
Now you may well come across
it in this short form here, but
if you choose show options, the full panel will be revealed.
However, if you choose to pick it
up from any of the other places, you can get it such
as the stroke hyperlink here in the properties panel
and also if you're using the control strip up here
then you do get the full panel from there.
I'm going to leave mine open
and its full state just here so we can examine it.
And the first thing that we come across
is the strokes weight.
Now by default, that's usually measured in points.
However, if you wanted to give it a specific dimension
for your artwork.
So let's just say I wanted to go
to three millimeters just here.
As long as you type the unit
then the dialogue will convert it to points for you.
You can change it either using the field just here.
So I'm using a track pad
and I'm just scrolling over the numbers there.
That's why they're changing so rapidly.
You can also use the carousel icons to move it up
and down and some preset weights over here on the dropdown.
Next on from that, we've got the end caps.
Now at the moment, mine is using a flush or butt cap
which means it actually finishes
at exactly the same place as
the ends of the vectors, just here.
I can use a rounded cap
which rounds off the ends after the vectors.
And also I can use a projecting cap
which is the square version of the same.
In addition, we've got some options for corners.
So I'm just going to pan across here
to this shape on the side here
which has some corners and the default is mitered.
So pretty much if you've ever seen the construction
of a picture frame, those are usually mitered.
But you can have them rounded
and you can also have them beveled if you choose to do so.
The default there is corner.
You can also set a limit for how much of a corner you get.
So if you get a really steep angle
it may be that you end up with a super pointy edge.
Let me show you how that works.
If I just get my pencil
just read moment and draw you a very, very steep angle.
Like so, okay.
So there's my very steep angle
you can see it's not doing anything with the mitering
but if I increase the mitering here, then
I get this very long point.
To be perfectly honest, unless I was using
that as an effect I'd probably round that off
because it makes a nicer join there, like so
The last thing we'll look
at is the stroke alignment.
Now you'll notice that two of these here are dimmed.
They're not available and that's
because stroke alignment can only work on closed paths.
So if I delete the shape that are just drawn there
and go back and select the shape from the corner here
you can see that I now have those options available.
So if I choose to align the stroke to the inside
it moves to the inside of the actual vector stroke,
and the outside is the converse.
The default there is always to the inside.