Help! Can't scale art that uses double strokes in illustrator.

[HelenHRB]

Normally if I want to scale my artwork that uses strokes I go to object > path > outline stroke. Then I can scale the artwork to any size and maintain the same proportions of the stroke. As far as I can tell this cannot be done with paths that have more than one stroke on them. When I try to use the create outlines option with double strokes I get only a single line.

I've now created an artwork that uses hundreds of double strokes and it needs to be scaled. I have no idea how to scale it without editing those hundreds of strokes to make them two paths instead of one with a double stroke. Help! What do I? How can I scale my artwork without making these major changes?

[jane-e · Accepted solution]

Do you have Scale Stroke turned on?

You can do it in several places, including Prefs > General, Transform dialog, Scale dialog, and variations of these.

[Jacob Bugge]

Helen,

Normally if I want to scale my artwork that uses strokes I go to object > path > outline stroke. Then I can scale the artwork to any size and maintain the same proportions of the stroke.

I would suggest your keeping the strokes so you can edit the artwork freely.

And of course have Scale Strokes & Effects ticked when you scale.

Obviously, for certain things that setting should be unticked.

[agile_video98A5]

You can always convert the stroke to a fill. Select "Outline Stroke" from the Path fly-out menu of the Object menu. Adobe Illustrator turns your object's stroke value into the dimensions for its path elements. Double-click on the Fill swatch in the Adobe Illustrator toolbox to bring up the Color Picker. Choose a fill color for your object.

[jane-e]

Nick, that's exactly what the OP said in her first sentence that she is doing.

Jacob Bugge and I have both suggested not doing that anymore and using Scale Strokes when scaling instead. It is considered best practices for scaling (but not for drawing).

[agile_video98A5]

That's one of the things I do and it works great for me jane-e but I totally agree with both of you. Scale Strokes & Effects is something I also use works great too.