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Inspiring
April 24, 2025
Answered

Expanding stroke changes sizes and position?

  • April 24, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 714 views

I'm wanting to expand my design from stroke to fill.

Yet when I expand (object>expand) the stroke both the position and size are altered.

You can see in this screenshot:
The black is stroke (align centre)
The cyan is what happens when you outline.

Are there any settings that will preserve the orginal design. As overall these small differences ruin a carefull constructed design.

Correct answer Tom258935824rl2

I uninstalled Illustrator, reinstalled Illustrator and pasted it into a new document.

The issue didn't reproduce and fixed itself. Thanks for your help anyway.

Mad how Adobe charges so much for soemthing that doesn't work.

3 replies

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 24, 2025

What is the zoomfactor of your screenshot? Does it make a difference if you toggle the Preview from GPU to CPU with Cmd or Ctrl E ?

Kurt Gold
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 24, 2025

Can you share the Illustrator file? Or at least a relevant part of it?

 

Also, which version of Illustrator are you using?

Tom258935824rl2AuthorCorrect answer
Inspiring
May 18, 2025

I uninstalled Illustrator, reinstalled Illustrator and pasted it into a new document.

The issue didn't reproduce and fixed itself. Thanks for your help anyway.

Mad how Adobe charges so much for soemthing that doesn't work.

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 24, 2025

Check if any snapping options are active (like snap to pixel).

Inspiring
April 24, 2025

Thanks for the reply. Great idea, but I think they're all off (align to pixel grid also off)

Ton Frederiks
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 24, 2025

I can see a tiny shift in position when you outline the stroke, about 0,015 pt or 0,005 mm when I zoom in 64000%.

I don't think it will be visible for humans at 100%.

This is a screendump of a transparent 1 pt black stroke on top of a red outlined stroke.