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peterg29127494
Participant
March 16, 2018
Question

Live Paint, gaps showing background colour

  • March 16, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 1824 views

Hello, Ive been using live paint in my editorial illustrations, Ive just had an eps preview of a mag cover sent back to me to check all is ok.

The background colour is much lighter than the objects in front. Where the elements meet in live paint there is a faint colour line of the lighter background showing through tiny gaps around all the objects that make up that live paint group. When I export to Photoshop a jpeg it shows this line work around all the objects involved in the live paint group.

This is obviously going to show up when its printed. I'm so reliant on live paint, this happens if the live paint has been expanded or left in place. If I move the colour around and get the colour blocks to overlap it doesn't happen, there is no gap of colour showing though. So frustrating, You would think a design tool like illustrator

would be able to do a basic function of making sure the colour is where its needed to be and not add in white lines and gaps. Thanks in advance. Pete

Any ideas?

2 replies

S
SpacetimeTeaArt
Participant
March 7, 2025

It's been years since you've posted this, but I wanted to offer a solution for anyone who comes across this thread. Maybe this won't work for everyone; I'm just learning, but it worked for me.

So I was initially making a "compound path" of my pen tool drawing. Then, I used the live paint bucket. This let a space between the stroke and the shape filling. You can see my problem there in the photo provided. The stroke exists; the stroke is not the problem. There's an unnecessary gap along the stroke.


I changed my methods and never had this problem again. I used: Object > Live Paint > Make.

I hope this helps.

hammer0909
Community Expert
hammer0909Community Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2018

Have you tried double-clicking on the Live Paint Bucket tool and enabling Paint strokes? I'm wondering if your original artwork had strokes applied and they didn't get filled when you use Live Paint? I'm guessing here. Also, have you tried zooming in hard on those lines to make sure that they're really there?

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peterg29127494Author
Participant
March 16, 2018

Thanks Chad for your reply. Yes checked that and its not "paint strokes".

Ive zoomed in and the lines or gaps do get smaller but are still there, the issue is when I export the file to a jpeg the lines are there in photoshop which makes me think it will show up in the final print. My client was very worried about this appearing in the artwork I sent to him.

So its not a preview thing.

Cheers

pete

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 16, 2018

This is an antialiasing issue.

Usually it should not print in offset printing. With other printing methods, it might print.

After expanding your live trace, use the pathfinder "Merge".

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