Difference between Expand and Expand Appearance in AI

[Firefox_f12]

What is the difference between Expand and Expand Appearance tool

[Scott Falkner]

Expand is used to nail down live effects like Warp and Envelope Distort. Before you use Expand the effect is live and can be edited anytime, as can the object the effect is applied to, letting you edit text or modify the objects affected. Expand nails down the effect, making the path match the object’s appearance. After Expand the effect is not longer editable and text is converted to paths.

Expand Appearance is only available is the selection has multiple fills or strokes applied using the Appearance panel. If no multiple fills or strokes have been applied, the command is unavailable and Expand should be available. If multiple fills or strokes have been applied then Expand should be unavailable. I have not kept track to see if there is ever a time one can use either command on a single selection.

The commands really should be combined into one command, since they do the same thing, but depend on whether the Appearance panel has been used. This is example number 879 in the ongoing story of why Illustrator is such a mess. New features have been crammed in with old code and the program needs to be able to support the multiple ways users can do things. I’d bet as experience programmer, asked to document the raw source code for Illustrator, would contemplate suicide.

The program is ancient (24 years old) and an excellent example of how not to update your software. 11 years ago Adobe released InDesign, knowing that continuing to update PageMaker to compete with QuarkXPress was a dead end and that a new program written from scratch was the better way to proceed. Sadly, there is no cross-platform professional vector application directly competing with Illustrator, so Adobe has no incentive to start from scratch and eventually let Illustrator die with dignity. So it stays on life support and we all suffer with a slow, buggy, unintuitive, confusing program.

[Jacob Bugge]

Scott,

I have not kept track to see if there is ever a time one can use either command on a single selection.

I have seen it recently, and I think I was awake; I remember my surprise, but I shall have to ponder some more which kind(s) of object(s).

[Guest]

Where exactly is the Expand Appearance tool?

[Kurt Gold]

It's a menu item, located inside the Object menu.

It should also be straight on the Appearance palette, but it still isn't there.

[iptinak]

Here you go. This is in Outline mode. I can achomplish what I want to do (get text outlined for the plotter) by just using the "expand" option. Still I am wondering why I can;t see the "expand appearance".

[Kurt Gold]

Here you go. You obviously used an Envelope Distort which – technically – is not an appearance according to the Illustrator Effect enactment.

Therefore you'll have to accept that you can only expand your creations. You are not allowed to expand their appearances !

[iptinak]

is there another way to do it? If I use "effect" it only shows the arc in preview mode. In "outline" the text remains normal so for the plotter it's like I didn't even do it.

Looks like somehow I got this into two different threads while reading other peoples threads about the issue.

[Santiago M Calisto]

Hi all

Expand Appearance only shows up after an effect (fx) has been applied to my shape. But I modified my shape by the anchors individually, how do I turn that shape into an expanded shape?

[Monika Gause]

santiago m calisto schrieb:

Hi all

Expand Appearance only shows up after an effect (fx) has been applied to my shape. But I modified my shape by the anchors individually, how do I turn that shape into an expanded shape?

Why do you think you need to expand? What do you want to achieve by expanding? What kind of object is it?

[Santiago M Calisto]

I want to get round corners, I'm following tutorial from BrianWoods and CreativePro.com who seem to have the best methods to achieve round corners without using effects/convert to shape/round corners which transforms all corners instead of only some, which is what I want.
Illustrator Tip: rounding any corner on a button - YouTube

http://creativepro.com/round-corners-quickly-illustrator/

If you have a method to change corners individually (I'm using CS6) please, would love some tips on this.

[Larry G. Schneider]

http://design.tutsplus.com/articles/20-free-and-useful-adobe-illustrator-scripts--vector-3849

Here's a bunch of very useful scripts, one of which is Round Any Corner

[PamShoulder]

Use the Corner widget. I can't remember which version introduced Shape properties - think it was there in CS6. The Corner widget looks like a little bullet inside the corner - i normally turn them off (view Menu). But to do what you want - turn them on (View Menu). Select the corners that you want to change with the Direct Select tool, sometimes the Lasso selection tool and then the corner widget will allow you to work with only those corners.