Expert: Amy - 12/6/2007

Question
Hi Amy

I have just started to use Illustrator and
I have been searching and searching for an answer to this question, I think at last I have come to the right place.

I am trying to resize a graphic in illustrator to 25% of it's size. I go to scale, uniform and here is the problem

If I resize the strokes I can't see the details anymore, anyway everything looks kind of blurry. If I don't resize the strokes all I can see is the black stroke lines and a little bit of color inside.

Please could you tell me how to do this right?

If it's of any help I am creating the graphics about A4 size
with no effects or filters.

Thank you for your attention.

Martinela

Answer
Hi Martinela.

Usually, you want to scale the strokes, too. Even though the strokes will be very small, they will still be there. If you zoom in, you will see them more clearly.

If they are really too thin, sometimes you can do a little trick. Scale the graphic to 200% size and DO scale the stroke width. Now scale the graphic to 50% and DON'T scale the stroke width. Now scale the graphic to 25% and DO scale the stroke width. You'll end up with strokes that are twice the thickness as your original reduction.

Sometimes there is no easy answer. What I end up doing in that case is scaling the strokes then evaluating the stroke weight of everything manually. I click on different paths and see what weights they are.

I think all the strokes are a little bit too thin, I can select them and modify the stroke width in the stroke window (Ctrl_F10). For example, I select one path with a weight of .25 pt using the Direct Select tool (white arrow). Then I choose Select > Same > Stroke Weight and all of the strokes with the width of .25 pt will be selected. I can now change them all to 1 pt at the same time in the stroke window.  Then I repeat that for the different stroke widths in the graphics.

Alernatively, you could "fatten" up the strokes the same way in the image before you scale it down to 25%.

Well I hope this helps you - personally, I recommend the scaling trick I mentioned first... it usually works great!

Amy