One of Illustrator’s most powerful and overlooked tools is the Appearance Panel. Think of this tool as a super-Style feature: you can add an infinite number of effects that remain completely editable and the Appearance you create can be quickly added to new objects. Many designers close the Appearance Panel because it seems redundant when you have swatches and styles available. But as we will demonstrate, the Appearance Panel creates opportunities for incredible efficiency and creative exploration.

Anyone designing graphics has – or will – run into a situation where a client provides a logo in BMP or JPG format. These rasterized images simply do not scale well when large printing projects require hi resolution images. The worst is when the client uses the logo off the website and expects a full-size, full-color brochure to look professional.