How to Change Stroke Width & Alignment | Adobe Illustrator

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This is how you change stroke width and alignment in Adobe Illustrator. So what we're going to do is we're going to go to our tools panel and we're going to actually, this time, we're going to use the pen tool. We're going to click this and what we're going to do is we're going to click one point anywhere on your art board. It doesn't matter where you click. It can be anywhere - top, bottom - it doesn't matter. And then we're going to click a second point. And what you'll notice is that upon doing that, we have one nice, long line segment.
And since this is just a line segment, we're going to remove the fill from that. So we're going to go down to our panel and if this is already the top square as opposed to this back square, we'll remove the fill by clicking this little icon, which says "None", and it will remove the fill, just to be safe. Now we can look at this line segment and see that it's a stroke. It's just one point to another. That's essentially what strokes are. At one endpoint, at another endpoint, they can be open-shape or they can be close-shape, one or the other, but either way, they're essentially a line segment. And we can change the weight of this line segment and how thick it is, hence the width, by going to our stroke panel.
Now if this panel isn't present, we would click in our Windows menu and we would scroll all the way down to stroke and then it would come up on our right window panel. Over here on the right, you'll notice that it has an option that says "Weight." Now if we want to change this, we can lower it and you'll notice that our stroke is actually getting thinner. Or we can increase it and you'll notice that it gets thicker. That's one way that you can actually change the width of a stroke.
Now another way that they just recently introduced in probably the CS5 and up is the Stroke Width tool. And if you go to your Tools Panel, you'll notice there's this funny-looking tool. It's called the Width Tool. And if you hover over it, you'll see the shortcut key, the hot key to actually get to it. We're going to click that. What we can do is when we use this tool and we hover over this, you'll notice that there's a little white circle that's following your cursor. And your cursor times tool and out with a plus sign. And you can click there and you can actually drag up and change the width. You can click that point and drag down and change the width, and you can also do that to multiple segments on the actual line itself. So that's an additional way that you can actually change the width.
And then if you have multiple line segments, you can actually align these by the entire shape itself or you can align them by the point that's on the endpoint. So we can select our selection tool. And we're going to select this endpoint. And let's say we want it to align to the endpoint of our other stroke, which is at the top. We would click that, go to our line panel, and we'd click Align to Selection, and then we would just align to wherever that selection is. So we would click right, left or middle. So we want to align the left side of this to the right side of this segment. And when we click that, you'll notice now the point is almost nonexistent. But if you would click on it again, you could always drag that out because the selection is still there.
And that is how you work with the width on line segments and aligning them.

[@brentnicolet3572]

I’ve been struggling this for weeks to Months.
Very Professional & Informative.
This Video described the Ultimate solution as a Very Professional manner, unlike other Videos.

[@jayfreemedia]

Still a very useful tutorial after all these years THANK YOU!!!!

[@ritalb316]

This is exactly what I didn't realise I was looking for. Thank you

[@ABB-uf6vz]

Mee tooooo

[@maramtafat5134]

you sir are the light of my life

[@kerithpaterson1668]

Thank you! Exactly what I needed - and simple too!

[@tonyphills6075]

Thanks for this

[@JuzzDooit]

A 2013 GEM.... I love you

[@00TheRealTC]

Brilliant. Thank you for this little tutorial. This is a fantastic tool, and precisely what I needed for a particular project I'm working on. Peace, mate!

[@hughforsyth2595]

Hi William. Thanks for a clear tutorial and good information. The width tool was a bonus for a new user. Hugh

[@julesfuel]

Perfect! Easy to follow and just what I needed. Thank you!

[@elaineireland2411]

Beautifully clear explanation. Thanks.

[@TheRoplo1]

So simple man. LOVE this.

[@pratap20011]

Thank you. Really easy.

[@Will8I1am7]

I have a weird question. Is there a way to increase the weight of the selection line that shows up when you click on a path?

[@1stMikeWhite]

Always so Helpful

[@SR-tt2ys]

I am trying to figure out why when I save the file, and open in another program the line doesn't show up as being thicker, no matter how many times I increase stroke and save file.

[@SR-tt2ys]

Your instructions were clear and precise, and that is awesome. Wish the music wasn't present however.

[@QueenofAlternative97]

Perfect for my single-celled brain

[@WanderlassS]

Good video for quick reference! Keep them coming. Thanks!

[@sorin990]

so how do I make a custom default stroke and profile for my pen to use ?

[@oyetundeisaac2252]

Hi, I got what I need immediately, thanks.

[@Alexander-tj2dn]

When I try to reduce the width of a stroke under 1 point, it dosn´t let me do it. If I change to mm or onother mesure it´s the same, the lines are 1 point minimum width and I can´t go below that.

[@thelove-dragon7039]

I'm also having the same problem... :(

[@jzentertainment1838]

Thank you very much 🤗

[@johnnjoroge6329]

I have an issue joining two line segments. Say the two lines are meeting at an angle of 135 degrees, whenever i increase the stroke size significantly i realize on zooming that there is a partial gap. the two don't connect seemlessly. How do i address that?

[@eyhtwozed2606]

Turn on outline and adjust manually til it meet ? View>outline

[@emiliohakansson]

how do i click?

[@lesliepalmer3299]

So helpful! Thank you!

[@adamdrex9]

Awesome. Thanks!

[@robinmalli34]

thanks

[@jhappysemall2269]

Thank you so much!!!!

[@majorgsd7591]

thanks great help