Inner glow, blending tool, and gradient tool

[ws1413]

Hi! Can I ask what's the practical difference between the blending tool, inner glow effect and gradient tool in Illustrator and which would be a better way to add shade to a character's face if we are creating a children's illustration? Thanks for any advice in advance!

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

Blend is actually a tool. It creates a blend between two shapes, their positions and their color.

How to blend objects in Illustrator

Inner glow is an effect and it's pixel based. Creates a color change inside a shape (or a group of shapes)

Work with drop shadows, glows, and feathering in Illustrator

Gradient creates a gradient fill or stroke

How to use the Gradient tool in Illustrator | Adobe Illustrator CC tutorials

Which one you use for your illustration depends on how exactly you want this to look like. Probably neither of these, but the gradient mesh instead.

Create and edit mesh objects in Illustrator

[ws1413]

Thank you so much for the advice! Appreciate it. Have not tried using gradient mesh so will check out on the effect for this. I've still got lots to learn Thanks again!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Monika Cause already laid out the issue but some more considerations:

The Blend Tool creates »intermediate« vector elements so that can affect the »weight« of a File.

The Gradient Tool creates gradients which, while falling under vector content, could in some cases result in banding in output.

[ws1413]

Thank you so much for the advice! Sorry for my question but could you enlighten me on the banding issue you mentioned? Thanks much!

[c.pfaffenbichler]

Sometimes a gradient may not appear smooth but seem to be made up of noticeable bands in print.

With pixel images one can usually »hide« this effect with noise, but with vector gradients one may have very little influence on this as it largely depends on the RIP (Raster Image Processor) and the ultimate output.

Banding in Gradients when printing

Get Rid of Illustrator CS6 Gradient Banding 

[ws1413]

c.pfaffenbichler   Noted and thank you for sharing your insight on this! Appreciated it!