Graphic Styles

To create a Graphic Style in the Adobe Illustrator Graphic Styles panel (so that you can reuse it in future work on the same document), you typically use a model object, i.e., one that is displaying the Appearance attributes that you want to save:

1. Open the Graphic Styles panel.
2. Select the model object, which will both Select and Target it. Ai will show its Attributes in the Appearance panel.
3. Go to the thumbnail in the top row of the Appearance panel, which represents all of the Appearance Attributes of the Targeted object, and drag it to the Graphic Styles panel. Ai will add a thumbnail representing the new style to the document's Graphic Styles panel.
4. In the Graphic Styles panel, double click the icon to launch the dialog box to give it a name.

Note:

Selecting the model object is just a way of getting Illustrator to target it so that Illustrator displays its attributes in the Appearance panel. Instead of using a model, you could, with no object selected, simply add the attributes that you want to save to the Appearance panel and then drag the Appearance panel's target thumbnail to the Graphic Styles panel.

However, if you use a model, as an alternative to step 3, you can simply drag the model object into the Graphic Styles panel, or you can Click the New Graphic Style (+) button. Ai will add the style to the document and display the icon in the panel.

Nonetheless, as Mordy Golding points out in the "Saving appearances with graphic styles," section of his Illustrator: Rethinking the Essentials course dragging the thumbnail that represents all the appearance attributes into the Appearance panel represents exactly what you are doing, saving not the object, not its structure, but just its Appearance attributes.

You can apply or append a Style from the Graphic Styles panel to any object that is in the same document as the panel.

To apply a Style from the Graphic Style panel: in Adobe Illustrator:

1. Select the object to which you want to apply the Style.
2. Go to the document's Graphic Style panel and click the style. Ai will delete the object's current Style Attributes and replace them with the Attributes of the saved Style.

To append a Graphic Style panel Style to an object:

1. Select the object.
2. Go to the Graphic Styles panel, and Alt + Click the Style. Ai will not delete the object's current Attributes but will add the Style's attributes to those of the object.

Note that you can select all the objects in a document that have the same Style by selecting an object with the Style, and executing the Select > Same > Graphic Style command.

To create a Graphic Style for a Type Object in Adobe Illustrator:

1. Select the text. Ai's Smart Targeting will automatically target the Type object that contains the text. The Type object is a variant of a Group, that contains Characters rather than generic "Contents." The Appearance panel will show that Ai, has targeted the Type object not the Characters.
2. In the Appearance panel, modify the appearance of the Type object (e.g., add additional Fills, Strokes, or Effects) until it is a model of the collection of Attributes that represents the Style that you want to reuse. Styling a Type Object is analogous to applying Appearance Attributes to a Group.
3. Open the Graphic Styles panel.
4. Optionally, click on the hamburger button to open the flyout menu, execute the Select All Unused command, and click the Trash Can icon to delete the default styles.  Ai will preserve only the default style (white Fill and black Stroke).
5. In the Appearance panel, drag the icon for the Target (the Type row at the top of the panel) into the Graphic Styles panel. Ai will:
   1. Create a new Graphic Style, and give it the default name Graphic Style.
   2. Make the object that you used as a model into an instance of the Graphic Style.
6. Rename the Style (e.g. xxx). Ai will rename the Style not only in the Graphic Styles panel, but when you target the object that formerly was the model, its Target row in the Appearance panel will read "Type: xxx."

To edit and redefine a Style in the Adobe Illustrator Graphic Styles panel:

1. With no object selected on the Artboard, select a Style in the Graphic Styles panel. Ai will load the Graphic Style into the Appearance panel. The Target row at the top of the panel will read "No Selection: …"
2. Edit the Attributes in the Styles panel.
3. Go to the Appearance panel flyout menu and click the Redefine Graphic Style option.

To apply a style from a Graphic Style Library in Adobe Illustrator:

1. Click the Graphic Styles Library icon at the bottom of the Graphic Styles panel. Ai will open a dropdown menu that displays:
   1. A Save Graphic Styles link that allows you to save the entire Graphic Style panel as a Library in the User Defined Libraries Collection.
   2. A list of links to all the libraries in the Predefined Libraries collection,
   3. User Defined, which displays a list of links to the User Defined Libraries, and
   4. Other Library, which when clicked opens a File Explorer window from which you can open Libraries that have been saved as Illustrator (xxx.ai) files.
2. Click on one of the Predefined Library links or one of the User Defined Library links to open a Library. Ai will display (in addition to the Graphic Styles panel) a separate Opened Graphic Styles Libraries panel that shows the Styles in the just-opened library.

   

3. In the Open Graphic Styles Libraries panel, you can either drag styles to the Graphic Styles panel and use it later, or apply it to an object directly from the Open Graphic Styles Libraries panel. If you select an object and then click one of the Styles in the Open Graphic Styles Libraries panel, Ai will not only apply the Style to the object, but will also automatically copy the Style to the Graphic Styles panel.

Creating a new User Defined Graphic Style Library, is simply a matter of making a custom Graphic Styles panel and saving it in a special file folder that constitutes the User Defined Graphic Style Library Collection.

To create a new User Defined Graphic Style Library in Adobe Illustrator:

1. Empty the Graphic Styles panel of any styles that you to not want to be part of your new User Defined Library:
   1. Click the hamburger button in the upper right corner of the Graphic Styles panel and execute the Select All Unused command. Ai will select all the rows of Styles that have not been applied to any object in the document.
   2. Press the delete key to delete all the unused Styles.
   3. Define and Save in the Graphic Styles panel, all the Styles that you want to save in your new User Defined Library.
2. Click the Graphic Styles Libraries Menu icon at the bottom of the Graphic Styles panel. Ai will open a menu.
3. On the menu click, the first item to execute the Save Graphic Style to Library command. Ai will open a file that constitutes its User Defined Graphic Style Library Collection. For example, on Windows, Ai will open a File Explorer window (with the title "Save Graphic Styles in Library," which is open to the folder \AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Illustrator 25 Settings\en_US\x64\Graphic Styles.
4. Give the file a name (xxx.ai) and click the Save button. Ai will add the name (xxx) to the list of files that it displays when you click the User Defined item at the bottom of the Graphic Styles Libraries menu.  

To delete a Library in the User Defined Graphic Style Collection in Adobe Illustrator:

1. Navigate to the special User Defined Library Collection folder. For example, on Windows, go to your Local Disc (C:) > Users > your user name > AppDate Roaming > Adobe > Adobe Illustrator 25 Settings > en_US > x64 > Graphic Styles folder.
2. Select the xxx.ai file that corresponds to the Library that you want to delete.
3. Press the Delete-key.