Width profile for pen tool keeps changing back to uniform after i finish an illustration

[imahsickhunt]

Having this problem in Illustrator CS6 where I will be using the pen tool with width profile 1 for a design and complete the design using that profile, but then when I click off the pen tool onto selection tool or live paint bucket , it reverts the whole design back to uniform 1pt and now I cant get my original width profile 1 back. When I select everything to try change it back the width profile tab is also greyed out ?

Any help on a fix for this problem would be gratefully appreciated.

[Doug A Roberts]

Tell me if I'm getting the steps right here:

1. You use the pen tool to draw with a partcular width profile selected.

2. When you switch from the pen to another tool, the stroke loses the applied width profile.

Does this happen with every stroke? If not, what do you mean by 'complete the design' exactly?

[imahsickhunt]

Yeah step 1 and 2 are right.

So ill use the pen tool with my selected width profile and use that particular width profile throughout the design, but after I've finished using the pen tool (completing the sketch part of the design) and want to start adding colour or using another tool, the design/sketch I did with the pen tool seems to group and change every stroke/path I've drawn back to Uniform 1pt width profile.

Hope that's a bit clearer to understand.

[Monika Gause]

Live paint objects can't have width profiles applied.

You will have to either outline the paths or make a duplicate that you then apply the fills to (and delete all strokes)

[Doug A Roberts]

imahsickhunt  wrote

Yeah step 1 and 2 are right.

So ill use the pen tool with my selected width profile and use that particular width profile throughout the design, but after I've finished using the pen tool (completing the sketch part of the design) and want to start adding colour or using another tool, the design/sketch I did with the pen tool seems to group and change every stroke/path I've drawn back to Uniform 1pt width profile.

Hope that's a bit clearer to understand.

Not really. Are you saying it 'groups' without any input from you? Or is Monika's inference that you are using the Live Paint tool correct?

[rcraighead · Accepted solution]

Live Paint strokes cannot be assigned width profiles directly, but you can add a "Stroke" to the appearance panel and assign a profile to it. That way you're "Live Paint" remains editable and you don't have to deal with separate copies of your artwork.

[DougKatz]

Ray, after making the Live Paint object, I add a stroke and assign a profile. As you say, it becomes a single object—no need for copies—which is convenient. But I can't seem to edit the Live Paint object's colors after adding the profiled stroke. Am I out of sequence? What am I missing? I'm on Sierra and AICC 2017. Thanks.

[rcraighead]

It's kind of glitchy. I'm using CC 2015.

[DougKatz]

Thanks for this, Ray. There are several ornery processes (in your 2015 version and my 2017 version) that can only be brought into line by temporarily changing tools, selections, visibility, and so forth. This looks like one of them.