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How to maintain Illustrator pen tool stroke settings (size, brush, etc.) for all new paths?

Community Beginner ,
Jan 07, 2013 Jan 07, 2013

I'm a newbie, so this is probably obvious, but I can't find it in any tutorials or documentation.  In Illustrator I want to maintain the stroke settings while creating several paths with the pen tool.  However, every time I start a new path, the stroke settings revert to what must be a default.  E.g. I set 16pt + Variable width profile + Basic and stroke a path.  When I start a new path, the settings revert to 1pt + Uniform + Basic, and I have to reset back to my original. Other art programs I've used maintain the tool settings most recently used until they are manually changed.  How can I get the settings to stay through multiple uses of the pen tool?  Thanks.

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Adobe Employee , Jan 07, 2013 Jan 07, 2013

Hi Bion_s,

In the course of playing around in Illustrator to find a solution, I found that if you open your appearance panel (Window > Appearance), select the fly-out menu and deselect New Art has Basic Appearance.

Screen Shot 2013-01-07 at 3.16.51 PM.png

I found that with this option unselected, you can select your stroke width and profile and draw multiple times without it reverting to the default stroke!

Please let me know if this works for you. I'm not sure how this might affect your workflow on other projects, but it did result in th

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Community Expert ,
Jan 07, 2013 Jan 07, 2013

From the appearance panel's menu uncheck "New Art has basic appearance"

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 07, 2013 Jan 07, 2013

Monica and mjarrott,  thank you both for your super-fast replies with a (to me very un-obvious) solution that works perfectly!  Exactly what I wanted.

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Community Beginner ,
Apr 26, 2021 Apr 26, 2021

Problem solved Monica 🙂 Thanks

 

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New Here ,
Jul 10, 2022 Jul 10, 2022

Hi @Monika Gause , This seems like the perfect solution - but using InDesign in 2022, this setting doesn't appear to exist? Do you know where they might have moved it to?

 

The appearance panel is now built into the properties tab and doesn't have a fly out menu with options. I have searched other menus and properties and can not find "New Art has basic appearance" anywhere!

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New Here ,
Jul 10, 2022 Jul 10, 2022

Ignore me - I thought this was about InDesign. I really need this setting for InDesign too!

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Community Expert ,
Jul 10, 2022 Jul 10, 2022

InDesign has a way to change the defaults very easily. Start InDesign, make sure no documents are open. Change any setting in any panel. 

The next time you create a document it will have these settings

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New Here ,
Nov 29, 2022 Nov 29, 2022

Thank you

 

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Adobe Employee ,
Jan 07, 2013 Jan 07, 2013

Hi Bion_s,

In the course of playing around in Illustrator to find a solution, I found that if you open your appearance panel (Window > Appearance), select the fly-out menu and deselect New Art has Basic Appearance.

Screen Shot 2013-01-07 at 3.16.51 PM.png

I found that with this option unselected, you can select your stroke width and profile and draw multiple times without it reverting to the default stroke!

Please let me know if this works for you. I'm not sure how this might affect your workflow on other projects, but it did result in the behavior you seemed to want.

Cheers,

Michael

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Community Beginner ,
Jan 07, 2013 Jan 07, 2013

Michael, see my reply to Monica and thank you so much.

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New Here ,
Oct 06, 2015 Oct 06, 2015

Thanks!

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New Here ,
May 14, 2017 May 14, 2017

Why is this not the default!!! Thank you. I am finding every new tool I learn I have to Google Why doesn't this work the obvious way. There is typically some short cut keys I have to press or some weird order I have to do it in to get it to work like everyone seems to assume it should.

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Community Expert ,
May 14, 2017 May 14, 2017

sef23fwa3fg324  schrieb

Why is this not the default!!!

Because about as many people are irritated when new artwork have effects applied (which on top if that might slow down Illustrator considerably).

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New Here ,
May 01, 2020 May 01, 2020

You are my saviour, I am eternally grateful. You should have a Nobel Peace Prize

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New Here ,
Jun 26, 2021 Jun 26, 2021

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for. 

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New Here ,
Mar 15, 2023 Mar 15, 2023

10 years later and this still works. Thanks!

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New Here ,
Sep 18, 2023 Sep 18, 2023

Thanks 😄

 

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New Here ,
Jun 01, 2024 Jun 01, 2024

Thank you

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New Here ,
Apr 02, 2025 Apr 02, 2025

The New Art Has Basic Appearance option in the flyout menu is unchecked in Illustrator, and I'm still having this problem. Whenever I start drawing a new line with the Paintbrush tool, it keeps reverting back to Basic Appearance. I even tried resetting the basic appearance in the Appearance panel, but if keeps doing it. Using ACC Illustrator 2025.

Anyone else still having this issue?

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Community Expert ,
Apr 02, 2025 Apr 02, 2025

The brush tool will always apply a brush to the path.

If you do not want that, do not use the brush tool. Use the pencil tool.

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New Here ,
Apr 03, 2025 Apr 03, 2025

Yes. I understand that the brush tool applies a brush stroke. My question is that every time I apply a new brushstroke, the stroke itself reverts back to the basic appearance for the brush tool that is set in the program. So if I select a particular brush stroke style and weight, it reverts back to the basic appearance when I apply a new brush stroke. Someone here suggested that this could be fixed by unchecking New Art Has Basic Appearance in the flyout menu, but I have done that and it doesn't work.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 03, 2025 Apr 03, 2025

So whenever you draw a new line with the brush it resets to the round brush?

 

It doesn't do that for me. So what I would try now is first reboot the computer, if that does not help, reset the preferences.

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New Here ,
Apr 03, 2025 Apr 03, 2025

Yes, it resets to 5 pt "basic" line. It's not a question of restarting, because I shut down my computer every day and the problem persists. I also reset the preferences, as I mentioned earlier, and that didn't work either. At this point I can only assume that it's a glitch in the program that I can't do anything about.

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Community Expert ,
Apr 03, 2025 Apr 03, 2025

That's weird. Are you perhaps using a graphic tablet? That would be a difference to what I have tried. I'm drawing using a mouse.

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New Here ,
Apr 03, 2025 Apr 03, 2025

I'm using a mouse too.

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