Participant

Question

Updated to 2026. When I Expand Appearance on a blended object, the results are broken.

Forum|Forum|5 months ago
October 29, 2025
2 replies
692 views

I updated to Illustrator 2026 today. When I use the blend tool, it doesn't seem to function in the complete way it used to. Furthermore, when I Expand Appearance, it breaks the shapes completely. Any tips, or am I waiting for a fix?

Community Manager

Community Manager

Hi @HarmerLlama_83,

I tested this on my end but couldn't reproduce the issue. If it's happening consistently for you, please share a short screen recording showing your complete workflow, so I can better understand and test. Also, kindly provide the details requested the expert, including the file setup or a sample file if possible. This will help us check it more closely with the team.

Looking forward to your update.

Abhishek

HarmerLlama_83Author

Participant

Hi Abhishek. I've attached a screen recording. I have never had this issue before.

Nick

Screen_Recording_2025-10-30_at_08-34-17.zip

Community Expert

Community Expert

I wouldn't expect Expand Appearance to even be available for a blend comprising objects with basic appearance.

Can you show the appearance panel for each object?

Community Expert

Community Expert

What kind of outcome are you expecting?

What kind of original objects are there in the blend?

Can you provide the AI file? (change the file extension to pdfm then you can upload it to the forum)

HarmerLlama_83Author

Participant

Hi Monika. In this file I have the 3 steps.

1. 2 shapes

2. Blended shapes - I was expecting it to be symmetrical. I have done this before on the previous version

3. Expanded appearance - I was expecting 3 separate shapes, not what appears to besome form of path combination.

Any ideas?

Nick

Community Expert

Community Expert

I can't reproduce your result. Did you create the blend with the menu command?

Also: Expanding appearance would only work here if that is a brush applied to the shapes or perhaps an outside stroke. Was that the case?