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Hi All,
I'm having a problem to add a stroke "frame" around my tiff image in Illustrator. My image is a "traced picture" from Photoshop. I used the following technique:-
Technique: Use an Effect
How do I achieve it. Any help and tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Technique #1: Use a Mask
This technique requires Illustrator CS3 and works only when your keyline will be rectangular in shape.
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Can you provide screenshots of your 1) results achieved and your 2) desired results?
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David,
It sounds as if you are simply placing a raster image in Illy and trying to work on that. Do you actually see the stroke round the image or does it only appear in the Appearance panel? What does the Layers panel have to say about the object(s)?
At least in an older version you will have to create a separate vector object.
You may:
1) Select the image,
2) Create a rectangle of the same size by clicking with the Rectangle Tool and inserting the W and H seen in the Transform panel,
3) Align the rectangle with the image (Align>Align Objects),
4) With the frame object stroke selected, you may Object>Path>Offset Path by the desired width of the frame,
5) Select both rectangles and Object>Compound Path>Make.
To avoid a separate stroke, you may use a fill/nostroke rectangle in 2).
As an alternative to 4) + 5), you may use a stroke/nofill rectangle and move the stroke outwards by half the desired width of the frame (in CS5 you may do it while creating the rectangle) and Object/Effect>Path>Outline Stroke.
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HI,
Things you did are right, no prob with those. u need one more step to go on
after u did outline object, just go to Object>Expand Appearance
hope it will help u..
Praveen
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Hi,
These are 2 screen shots I managed to get. The 1st one was the orginal tiff placed and result is shown in 2nd screen shot. The stroke is round the image NOT the rectangle frame. Pls adv. Thanks a lot.
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The best answer is tio use Jacob Bugge's suggestions listed above which is similar to what I would have recommended--using a separate non-filled stroked rectangle to simulate a frame. You can even add 3D effects to a rectangle this way to simulate a 3D frame with a little more work involved, of course--but this is also possible.
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David,
If I understood it in the right way, that you wish to have the frame following the Bounding Box (rectangle forming the boundary), I believe my post #2 holds the answer.
Edit: Hi markerline.
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Hi Jacob, I guess we replied about the same time .
That seems to happen quite often in adobe forums.
Best,
-markerline
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HI,
So I have to create a rectangle of the same size by clicking with the Rectangle Tool? Unless it is a placed image without traced then adding stroke will accomplish my desired result. Thanks a lot.
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How do I achieve it.
The image you're using includes an alpha channel mask (i.e.; white pixels are treated as "transparent"). If the image were not transparent, the Outline Object effect would do what you want.
To see:
Regardless, it's safer (in terms of accuracy) to just draw a rectangle than to rely on this effect.
JET
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Hi All Masters,
Thanks for all the effort and time looking at my problem. I will follow the instruction to get it done, thanks again.
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For my part you are welcome, David.
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Technique #1: Use a Mask
This technique requires Illustrator CS3 and works only when your keyline will be rectangular in shape.
NOTE: An additional benefit to this method of using a mask is that you now have the elements in place to simulate a "frame and image" paradigm like InDesign. Once you've created your mask, you can decide to "crop" your image by double clicking anywhere on the photo. This will put you into Isolation Mode. Now click on the frame edge and resize at will. When you're done, double click outside the image to exit isolation mode and continue working. This method works wonderfully when you're using the Selection tool (black arrow) and have the Bounding Box option turned on (in the View menu).
Technique #2: Use an Effect
At first, it may seem that applying a keyline with the use of an Effect is a tedious process. But we all know that once we've applied an effect, we can store it as a Graphic Style, at which point applying our keyline will become a single click. Go ahead, ask me why Adobe doesn't ship Illustrator with such an effect as a default setting in the NDPs (New Document Profiles). Go ahead, ask me why Adobe doesn't allow us to assign keyboard shortcuts to styles like InDesign does. I don't have answers to either of those questions (sorry). But let's get on with the styles, shall we?
There are two separate effects that we can use, and each provides a different benefit.
Add Strokes to Placed Images in Illustrator | CreativePro.com
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This is really helpful.
For Technique #1, once you've set the stroke weight, how can you go back and adjust it again? When I click on the image I've put the mask on, I am having a hard time getting back to the place where the mask's settings can be adjusted.
Thank you.
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I used Appearance 🙂
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Do it in InDesign, it takes three seconds (click the object you want to add a stroke to, type a number in the stroke text field). Copy / paste it in Illustrator. Done. I do a lot of design in InDesign, which is faster and more intuitive (try adding one rounded corner to a square in Illustrator, for example...)
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Save your clean image as a PNG in Photoshop before creating outline in Illustrator.