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Inspiring
June 29, 2022
Question

Pencil Parameters Reset Themselves

  • June 29, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 1548 views

I am running Illustrator on an iPad Air 4th generation with an Apple Pencil.  When using the Pencil Tool, I can easily draw a stroke, set the stroke color, width and width profile but when I create a second stroke, the parameters have reset themselves to the defaults.

 

I am very experienced with Illustrator on my desktop computer (and many other sketching apps) and have never had to customize appearance settings before drawing the second stroke.  Or if I might, I would have, at least, the option to check “New Artwork Has Basic Appearance.”

 

Today I’m looking for clues for things to try so I can set appearance parameters once and draw multiple strokes.

3 replies

Participant
September 8, 2025

 September 2025, brand new iPad and still the exact same problem. I pay too much for adobe for these bugs not to be fixed. 

Known Participant
January 26, 2024

If I were Adobe, I'd be embarassed that this is still unresolved. Illustrator on iPad is suprisingly good, yet this function lacking leaves a blatant hole. It is an utterly basic, core functionality just missing. ._.

Participant
July 6, 2024

In July of 2024 this is still an issue. I thought I was crazy but every time I change the new width profile it reverts back to the basic after drawing one line. This is extrmeely annoying and I cant believe its been an issue for 2+ years now.

Anubhav M
Community Manager
Community Manager
August 8, 2024

Hello @justine5C80,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind sharing more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator, your iPad model, and a screen recording of your workflow and the problem (https://adobe.ly/46EDtzK), so we can investigate this further?


Looking forward to hearing from you.

 

Thanks,

Anubhav

Laura Coyle.
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 1, 2022

You're right, it's different on the iPad unfortunately, and we don't have the "new art has basic" setting to solve it. When you use brushes or width profiles, you can't draw continuously with the last stroke weight setting. It's very frustrating, and I believe Adobe is aware of it and hopefully working to fix this in the future (🙏). For now, regular uniform pencil strokes work as expected with the last width setting. For width profiles, I don't have a workaround, but for brushes, you could create one with the thickness you need so you don't have to rely on the stroke weight setting. Select art and click the plus at the bottom of the brush menu.

Skierx333Author
Inspiring
July 2, 2022

Thanks for helping.  I will reiterate a request for improvement with Adobe.

My workaround has been to use the default Pencil settings to sketch things out (it’s like working in Outline Mode in Illustrator on a desktop) then selecting them all to set the final parameters.