How To Set Pen Pressure In Illustrator

If you lot have a pressure level-sensitive graphics tablet, it's possible to apply pen pressure in Illustrator brushes. Nevertheless, because Illustrator has five types of brushes with different settings for each, creating a pressure-sensitive brush can be quite tricky. And then in this tutorial I'll show you how to choose the pressure for castor options in Adobe Illustrator!

What You'll Learn in This Adobe Illustrator Brush Pen Force per unit area Tutorial

How to set the pressure sensitivity in Illustrator
How to choose the pressure for brush options in Adobe Illustrator
How to create a pressure-sensitive brush in Illustrator
How to accommodate the Adobe Illustrator brush pressure settings

one. How to Set the Brush Pressure for Calligraphic Brushes

Step 1

Let'south start with Adobe Illustrator pressure brushes for calligraphy. Open Illustrator, then go to Window > Brushes to open the panel with the default brushes. Have the Paintbrush Tool (B) and select the first castor from the list—a unproblematic Calligraphic Brush.

Pace ii

If you draw a line with it, yous'll notice it doesn't thing whether you use a graphics tablet or a mouse—the line looks exactly the aforementioned.

Step 3

To set the pressure sensitivity for this brush, double-click its icon on the list. Calligraphic Brushes have only three settings: Angle, Roundness, and Size. All of them tin can exist linked to the pressure of your pen. To give your lines tapered tips, you just demand to set Size to Pressure level, and increase the Variation.

add pressure sentitivity to calligraphic brush

Footstep 4

Printing OK and draw some other line, pressing lightly at the offset and strongly at the stop. At present the line looks exactly as you would expect!

ii. How to Set the Brush Pressure for Art Brushes

Stride one

Now permit's see some Adobe Illustrator pressure brushes for artistic designs. Select the castor in the third row at present—"Charcoal - Pencil", an case of an Art Brush.

Step 2

If y'all depict a line with it, you lot'll notice information technology really has a tapered end, only but because information technology's a role of the shape of the brush—it'due south not really linked to the pressure of your pen.

Step 3

To set the pressure sensitivity for this brush, double-click it to open its settings. Art Brushes are more complex, but for now we're merely interested in the Width property. If you open the drop-downward carte next to it, yous'll be able to pick Pressure level. Then, past dragging the markers on the left and correct, you lot can set the Minimum width (low pressure) and the Maximum width (high pressure).

Step 4

Press OK and draw another line just like before—starting lightly and catastrophe strongly. The width of the line will be adapted to your pressure level!

3. How to Prepare the Brush Pressure level for Bristle Brushes

Step 1

Some other brush on the list is "Cat'southward Natural language", and information technology's an example of a Bristle Brush.

Step ii

If you open its settings, you'll notice it doesn't really have any drop-down bill of fare that you could set to Pressure. This is because Bristle Brushes are pressure-sensitive by default!

Footstep three

If you don't believe me, just depict a line with your mouse, and another one with your pen. The departure is pretty clear!

Step 4

Bristle Brushes are supposed to imitate traditional brushes, and in traditional brushes things are more complicated than "low pressure = small; loftier pressure = big". That'southward why you can find a lot of different settings in the Bristle Brush options, and finding the correct configuration may crave some experimenting. Withal, both Size and Bristle Length are a good place to outset if you desire to control the general variation in size.

how to adjust pressure settings in bristle brush

4. How to Set the Castor Pressure level for Pattern Brushes

Step 1

Another brush on the list is "Leather Seam", an instance of a Pattern Brush.

Step ii

If you draw a line with it, it doesn't react to pressure:

Step 3

Open its settings. They expect quite complicated, only again, we're interested just in one—Calibration. Open its drop-downward menu, and prepare it to Pressure. Just like in the Art Brushes, define the Minimum and Maximum size.

Step iv

Non all Pattern Brushes work nicely with Illustrator castor pen pressure level. This one, for case, doesn't have its beginning and end defined, which works for the mouse—simply makes the line get crazy when force per unit area is involved.

Step 5

Nevertheless, if you open the carte du jour in the upper correct corner of the panel and go to Open Brush Library > Arrows > Pattern Arrows, you'll take a chance to experiment with brushes that don't have this problem. So if you desire to create your ain pressure-sensitive Design Castor, it'south good to learn from those!

5. How to Set the Brush Pressure for Scatter Brushes

Step ane

The last type is a Scatter Brush. You won't observe it on the default list, so open the menu and go to Open Brush Library > Decorative > Decorative Scatter. Select one of these brushes and draw a line.

Step 2

Scatter Brushes have four main settings: Size, Spacing, Scatter, and Rotation. All of them tin can exist set to Pressure, although Size and Spacing are best suited for information technology.

Footstep 3

Let's compare our pressure-sensitive Scatter Castor to a default one:

6. How to Create a Pressure-Sensitive Castor in Illustrator

OK, now you know how to set the castor pressure in Illustrator in the brushes that already exist. Allow's now go through the procedure of creating a new castor from scratch!

Step ane

Create the epitome that you want to turn into a castor. A Scatter Brush can be made out of multiple elements, or only one. When yous're done, select all the parts and press Command-G to turn them into a group.

Step 2

Select the whole grouping and click the plus icon in the Brushes panel.

Footstep iii

Select Scatter Brush.

Step four

Now you can configure your brush using the same settings every bit earlier. To make the procedure more visual, you lot can utilise random settings at first, and printing OK. Then describe a line using this brush, double-click information technology to edit it, and alter the settings once again with the Preview choice checked.

Footstep 5

And that's all! Here you tin run across the difference between the same brush used with a mouse and a tablet pen. The settings didn't change—only the force per unit area!

vii. Pressure Sensitivity in Other Tools

The Hulk Brush Tool (Shift-B)

The Hulk Brush Tool draws shapes instead of lines. Considering this tool uses brushes from the Brushes panel, it will have any settings y'all've set for your brushes. So in gild to utilize pressure sensitivity to your Blob Brush, just create a brush with pressure sensitivity.

The Eraser Tool (Shift-E)

The Eraser Tool works like an anti-brush—its "lines" remove everything they cross. To change the settings of this "brush", double-click its icon in the toolbar. So set its Size to Pressure, simply as we did before with other brushes.

how to make eraser pressure sensitive in illustrator

The Pencil Tool (N)

The Pencil Tool draws lines in their most basic form. Making it react to pressure would piece of work against this purpose—so if you need a very basic castor that does react to pressure, use the Paintbrush Tool with a very simple Calligraphic Brush.