Fill to edge, stroke on inside, overprint

[sPretzel]

Hello,

I noticed that when the stroke of an object is set to overprint, if the stroke is aligned to the inside of the object, then the fill of the object does not go all the way to the edge of the object. The fill stops halfway under the stroke (so half the stroke is on the fill, half the stroke has nothing under it). I was expecting the fill to go to the edge of the object and the stroke to be entirely on top of the fill.

Is this standard behaviour? Is there a simple way to achieve what I was expecting?

Thanks. This is for CS4.

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

I would use the Offset Path effect on the stroke.

[sPretzel]

Hi Monika,

Great tip. Works as expected. Given your response and SJRiegel's, am I to say that what I observed in my original post is not how it "should" behave and that the correct behaviour should be what I expected to happen?

SJRiegel. Thanks. I didn't try what you suggested but it might work too, though I think Monika's workaround is more to the point as it keeps the overprint restricted to the stroke without any additional elements.

[sPretzel]

Or perhaps it serves the purpose of trapping, but I would expect settings for trapping to be defined separately.

[Monika Gause]

I don't know how it "should" behave, but maybe this feature has been smuggled into Illustrator by some weird workaround and you're just seeing the result of this.

[SJRiegel]

I see the same in CC2017.

I was able to get what I think you want by moving the fill above the stroke, and setting the fill to overprint (instead of the stroke). If you need to avoid having the fill overprint objects underneath, you can add a non-overprinting white fill beneath the stroke.

(blue stroke, yellow fill set to overprint, and moved above the stroke, white fill under the stroke)