Inspiring

Question

Pencil Parameters Reset Themselves

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
June 29, 2022
3 replies
1606 views

I am running Illustrator on an iPad Air 4th generation with an Apple Pencil. When using the Pencil Tool, I can easily draw a stroke, set the stroke color, width and width profile but when I create a second stroke, the parameters have reset themselves to the defaults.

I am very experienced with Illustrator on my desktop computer (and many other sketching apps) and have never had to customize appearance settings before drawing the second stroke. Or if I might, I would have, at least, the option to check “New Artwork Has Basic Appearance.”

Today I’m looking for clues for things to try so I can set appearance parameters once and draw multiple strokes.

Draw and design

I

ItsssHeaven

Participant

September 2025, brand new iPad and still the exact same problem. I pay too much for adobe for these bugs not to be fixed.

A

Anne2229548871zt

Known Participant

If I were Adobe, I'd be embarassed that this is still unresolved. Illustrator on iPad is suprisingly good, yet this function lacking leaves a blatant hole. It is an utterly basic, core functionality just missing. ._.

J

justine5C80

Participant

In July of 2024 this is still an issue. I thought I was crazy but every time I change the new width profile it reverts back to the basic after drawing one line. This is extrmeely annoying and I cant believe its been an issue for 2+ years now.

Anubhav M

Community Manager

Hello @justine5C80,

We understand that encountering technical issues can be frustrating. Would you mind sharing more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator, your iPad model, and a screen recording of your workflow and the problem (https://adobe.ly/46EDtzK), so we can investigate this further?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Anubhav

Laura Coyle.

Community Expert

You're right, it's different on the iPad unfortunately, and we don't have the "new art has basic" setting to solve it. When you use brushes or width profiles, you can't draw continuously with the last stroke weight setting. It's very frustrating, and I believe Adobe is aware of it and hopefully working to fix this in the future (🙏). For now, regular uniform pencil strokes work as expected with the last width setting. For width profiles, I don't have a workaround, but for brushes, you could create one with the thickness you need so you don't have to rely on the stroke weight setting. Select art and click the plus at the bottom of the brush menu.

go2qdesign

Participating Frequently

It's been over a year since your reply. I've just started using the ipad (been on the desktop since the 90s) I too have been frustrated that I can't set a stroke profile and draw multiple lines. It seems each new line resets to the 1pt, basic line. I assumed that there was something wrong or that I wasn't using the tool correctly, but if I'm reading this right, the behavior I've describe was, anda year later still is, how the iPad version is intended to behave? Can that really be true?

S

Skierx333Author

Inspiring

A quick test on my iPad this morning (November 2023, 1.4 years from my original post) revealed the situation is unchanged, that is, the Pencil Tool parameters reset themselves after the first stroke. I suspect users have found workarounds, such as drawing all strokes at the 1 point basic line, then selecting them all changing them as desired. Or they just use other software.

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