Make a traced signature thicker?

[christophecuny]

Hello community,

I traced a scanned signature in AI and the results are fine but the stroke is a bit thin. I am pretty certain it is possible to thicken the stroke, and even to apply brush shapes to the design, but I am also sure I have to do something to the traced output first and I don't know what.

Am I right in thinking I can somehow transform the stroke and if so, would you please point me in the direction of a suitable workflow?

Thank you all.

Best regards

Chris

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

Chris,

You will have to Expand the Image Trace.

I believe that for this purpose, maybe the trace should be with filled paths rather than strokes (and you may have that).

Maybe as a first attempt, you should be able to select the lettershape(s), then Object>Path>Offset Path by a suitable (small) amount.

[christophecuny]

Hi Jacob,

Thank you for the rescue, once again. I will try that and report back.

kind regards

Christophe

[christophecuny]

Hi Jacob,

I expanded the traced output. Then I select the whole thing and just changing the stroke size seems to do the trick. I'll see what the difference is using Object>Path>Offset Path.

Sorry to ask another question, but is it possible to hide the blue box and lines (sorry, I don't know the right terminology) while I am changing attributes so I can see more clearly how the object is being affected? With the blue line running in the middle of the shape, it's quite difficult to see the results without clicking away.

Anway, thanks a lot. That seems to do the trick.

[Jacob Bugge]

You are welcome, Christophe.

is it possible to hide the blue box and lines

As I (mis)understand it, (especially) for the lines you can DoubleClick the (first, I guess) Layer, then switch from blue to black to have them disappear (or grey or something if you wish to see them less profoundly); for the box you can View>Hide Bounding Box (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+B).