Practical Tips for Illustrator’s Detailed Analysis of Stroke Function

Yesterday, a friend asked me how to draw a circle composed of dots by AI. My first reaction was to use a stroke, and the second alternative was to use a scatter brush.

The following picture on the left is drawn by stroke, and the picture on the right is drawn by scatter brush. By comparison, it is obvious that the first figure is better than the second one. The second figure is uneven and even the dots overlap. However, you can try to adjust the parameters of the scatter brush, which will have unexpected effects.

Stroke method (parameters of outer circle and inner circle respectively):

The advantage of stroke is to adjust the thickness value, which can control the size of the dot and the thickness of the line, and adjust the distribution distance through the gap. The disadvantage is that the dots you see are not 100% round. If you want to be perfect, you can use the following method.

The left side is the stroke effect, and the right side is the pattern brush effect.

Comparing the effects of the two (the parameters are slightly different without fine adjustment), the pattern brush is still a good solution. The only disadvantage is that you can’t control the thickness of the line alone. If the thickness is not appropriate, you need to draw a small line again, and then set it as a pattern brush.

If it is only used for typesetting, it is OK to use stroke, which is simple and fast. The most perfect solution is to calculate the value yourself and rotate it with tools.

Don’t mention the specific parameters, just download the source file to see. Here are some patterns with color and line configuration.