Using Illustrator’s Blend Tool
Illustrator’s Blend tool lets you combine shapes and colors between two or more objects to create a new object. The Blend tool blends colors as well as shapes and interpolates the intermediate steps to get from one object to the next. The ability to create blends is a fundamental skill for anyone using Illustrator. If you’re new to Illustrator, the following tips will get you on your way to a true blending buff.
To get started, set the Blend tool options by double-clicking on the tool or going to the Object menu and selecting Blend > Blend Options.
- Smooth Color estimates the number of steps needed to produce a smooth color transition between objects. Be aware that interim steps will be colored using process colors, even if you have a spot color assigned to an item or items.
- Specified Steps lets you control the number of interim items to get from one object to another.
- Specified Distance gives you control over the distance of each of the interim steps.
- Orientation sets whether the objects are oriented to the page, or the path (spine).
Once you have the options set, select the Blend tool and click on items you want to blend in the proper sequence. Or select the items with the Selection tool, then choose Object > Blend > Make from the menu bar.
The original objects can be manipulated and the interim steps will be updated to reflect these changes. To work with the original objects, double-click on one of them to enter Isolation Mode. Make your changes and hit Escape. The interim objects don’t have their own anchor points and therefore can’t be manipulated, unless you first expand the object (which breaks the blended object, so only do so once you’re satisfied with the blend).
The original objects also cannot be moved around the stacking order—set the order before you create the blend—but you can reverse the blend direction. Under the Object menu, choose Blend, then choose Reverse Front to Back. The menu option just above is the Reverse Spine command, which will reverse the direction of path the blend occurs along. The spine is just a path that starts out as a straight line, but can be manipulated like any other path. You can even set a new path to be the spine by selecting that path and the blended object, then selecting Replace Spine from that same Blend menu. Finally, if you want to remove the blend and get your original objects back, choose Release from the Blend menu.
It would be very useful if this article was expanded to differentiate between a Gradient and a Blend.
Gradients use PostScript/PDF smooth shaded gradients to provide a smooth transition from one to another color (or in fact multiple intermediate colors. If a gradient is applied to a single object, only a single object remains in the Illustrator file and in the resultant PDF. By definition, whatever is rendering the gradient, whether for display or print, is supposed to use an algorithm optimized for the device and resolution thereof.
On the other hand, a blend yields a whole array of adjacent polygons with slightly different colors to simulate a gradient, but depending upon the parameters chosen in Illustrator document creation or in the blend parameters, the output may be quite suboptimal. Plus, you end up with a fairly bloated file that requires much more time to render on screen or RIP.
In fact, the introduction of gradients in Illustrator was to REPLACE blends! The major reason why the blend feature was maintained was for editing compatibility of legacy Illustrator artwork from old versions of Illustrator from the 1990s.
In most cases, designers are much better off using a gradient than a blend.
– Dov Isaacs, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Yes, but there are definitely times when a gradient doesn’t accomplish what you are aiming for. I use blends all the time to create process graphics–maybe a set of five arrows across the top of a page, with a number of tasks bulleted below each arrow. In fact, I will frequently be working in InDesign, and will open up Illustrator just to create a blend, and then sample the color values for each of the individual blend steps which I can then use in InDesign.
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