Appearance Tool
Use Tools → Methods → Appearance to construct or load an Illustrator appearance and apply it to tagged artwork, selected artwork, or artwork on a layer. The editor turns its object, paint, and effect controls into properties for the Darty appearance method.
For every accepted property, alias, and value, see the Appearance method reference, Appearance Colors, and Appearance Effects.
Start from Artwork or Build Manually
Load from Selection
- Select Illustrator artwork with the appearance you want to reuse.
- Open Method Options.
- Select Load from Selection.
- Review the loaded paints, effects, root opacity, blend mode, and visibility.
- Add, remove, reorder, or edit the loaded items as needed.
Loading replaces the appearance currently shown in the workbench. It preserves method-level targeting and row options such as Target Tag Search, Source Tag Search, layer target, Replace, UI Method, Apply Effects To Group Members, and Skip.
Loaded paints use Paint Field indexing so the generated pf[n] properties preserve the exact order of mixed fills and strokes.
Load from Selection reads an appearance into the editor. It does not apply the method or add a Table row.
Build Manually
A reset editor begins with one Stroke and one Fill. Use the bottom toolbar to add paints or effects, then expand each row and configure the values that should become Darty properties.
Blank optional fields and Unset three-state controls are omitted from the generated row. True and False are explicit values. This distinction is especially important for root visibility, opacity-enabled state, Replace, Skip, and other three-state appearance options.
Method Options and Target Properties
Method Options configures the complete appearance method rather than an individual paint or effect.
| Editor control | Generated property or behavior |
|---|---|
| Target Object's Tag Search | tagSearch; identifies the artwork whose appearance should change. |
| Source Tag Search | sourceTagSearch; identifies artwork whose existing appearance should be copied. |
| Style | style; applies an existing named Graphic Style to the target. |
| Layer Name / Layer Number | layerName or layerNumber; targets artwork on a layer and takes precedence over an artwork tag target. |
| Replace | replace; replaces the existing appearance instead of preserving unspecified values. |
| Contents Position | contentsPosition; places object contents at the requested point in the appearance stack. |
| UI Method | uiMethod; selects the UI-compatible appearance application path. |
| Apply Effects To Group Members | applyEffectsToGroupMembers; applies supported effects to group members when UI Method is used. |
| Skip | skip; True skips the method, False explicitly runs it, and Unset omits the property. |
Use Selection Tags reads existing Darty tags from selected artwork into the adjacent tag-search field. It does not load the artwork's visual appearance; use Load from Selection for that. See Darty Tags for search syntax.
Appearance Workbench Order
The workbench follows Illustrator's Appearance panel order:
- Pre Effects apply before the paint stack.
- Strokes and Fills form the ordered paint stack. An effect may also belong to an individual paint.
- Post Effects apply after the paint stack.
- Object controls root visibility, opacity, blend mode, and opacity-enabled state.
Select a row to make it active. Select the active row again while holding Ctrl on Windows or Command on macOS to clear the selection. Expand a row to edit its values, or use the section controls to expand or collapse related items.
The active selection determines where a new effect is added:
| Current selection | New effect location |
|---|---|
| Stroke, Fill, or one of its effects | Attached to that paint field. |
| Pre Effect | Added to Pre Effects. |
| Post Effect | Added to Post Effects. |
| No paint or effect | Added at the current object-effect placement. |
| Opacity subrow | Effect is unavailable because opacity cannot contain effects. |
Index Type and Generated Paint Properties
Index Type controls the prefixes used for paint properties.
| Index Type | Generated properties | Use when |
|---|---|---|
| Auto | Uses fill[n] and stroke[n] for one fill and one stroke; otherwise uses pf[n]. | The editor should choose a concise, order-safe representation. |
| Paint Field | Uses pf[1], pf[2], and so on. | Exact mixed fill/stroke order matters. |
| Fill / Stroke | Uses separate fill[n] and stroke[n] indexes. | Fills and strokes should be addressed by type. |
For example, stroke[2]width changes the second stroke, while pf[2]color changes the second paint field regardless of its type. See Stroke, Fill, and Effect Indexes.
Fills and Strokes
Use Stroke or Fill in the bottom toolbar to add a paint field. When a paint is selected, the new paint is inserted relative to that item; otherwise it is added to the stack.
Expanded paint rows expose properties including:
- Visibility, index, Mode, Replace, and Skip.
- Color model and channels, raw
color,swatch, and Process, Global, or Spot color type. - Blend mode, opacity, opacity enabled, overprint, knockout, and isolated blending.
evenOddfor fills.- Stroke width, alignment, cap, corner, miter limit, dash values, dash alignment, and arrowheads.
- Effects nested under that paint.
The color editor supports raw Darty color syntax and Hex, CMYK, RGB, Lab, Grayscale, HSB, HSV, HSL, Swatch, and None where applicable. See Appearance Colors.
Paint Mode
| Mode | Result |
|---|---|
| Add | Inserts a new paint at the requested index. |
| Add/Edit | Edits the paint if present or adds it if missing; unspecified values are preserved. |
| Add/Edit, Remove Effects | Uses Add/Edit after removing the paint's existing effects. |
| Edit | Edits an existing paint without adding a missing one. |
| Edit, Remove Effects | Uses Edit after removing the paint's existing effects. |
| Remove | Removes the targeted paint. |
| Replace | Replaces the targeted paint and its effects with the supplied definition. |
Paint Mode is independent of the root Replace option in Method Options.
Effects
Select the intended object or paint scope, then select Effect in the bottom toolbar. In the Add Effect dialog:
- Search for or select an effect.
- Configure the effect-specific controls.
- Select Add.
- Expand the new effect row to edit its Mode, index, visibility, opacity, and parameters.
Object effects are placed in Pre Effects or Post Effects according to the effect type. Paint effects remain attached to their fill or stroke. Unsupported drag destinations are rejected. See Appearance Effects for every effect and property.
Reorder and Remove Items
Drag fills, strokes, or effects to reorder compatible parts of the appearance stack. Press Escape to cancel an active drag.
Remove an item by selecting it and using the trash control, dragging it onto the trash target, or using an effect row's remove control. The Object row and Opacity subrows cannot be deleted.
Object Controls
Expand Object to configure properties for the complete appearance:
- Visible →
visible. - Opacity →
opacity. - Blend Mode →
blendMode. - Opacity Enabled →
opacityEnabled, with True, False, and Unset states.
Targeting, Replace, contents position, UI Method, group-member behavior, and Skip remain in Method Options.
Capture and Apply
The editor requires at least one configured appearance value before Add Row or Apply.
- Add Row captures the current appearance without changing Illustrator.
- Apply captures the row and runs it against the configured artwork or layer target.
- Apply to Selection applies the current values directly to selected artwork without adding a Table row.
- Reset restores the initial Stroke and Fill and clears the working Table.
See Tools Method Actions and Apply Modes and Tools Method Table Preview.