APPEARANCE AND PROPERTIES PANELS
Although it’s mixed in with less powerful tools, the
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the most underappreciated of Illustrator’s default
panels—but I consider this tool my information control
tower. With the Appearance Panel, you have full
command over every aspect of an object’s or group’s
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opacity, and blending mode. But the panel really
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and when you choose Properties from the Window menu.
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context, meaning it changes what it displays depending on
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being useful for designers, but if you prefer, you can
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TOOLSETS PANEL
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expect in a professional drawing application as well as
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Illustrator can run custom scripts—you can use the ones
installed with the program or code some yourself (in
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lots of intriguing automation and function-adding scripts.