Creating slanted dashed line in Illustrator

Question

I'm trying to create a slanted dashed line in Adobe Illustrator, something like this:

I've tried to create a dashed line and then apply shear to it, but for some reason when I do the shear nothing happens. I'm using Adobe Illustrator from the Creative Cloud.

Any suggestions? Maybe another way to do the slanted dashes?

Thank you !

Answer 1

Draw a path and set the dashes correctly...

Then choose Object > Expand Appearance, Then Object > Expand

You can then shear the shapes however you need.

The great thing about using dashes this way is you can use the Width Tool and the Stroke Profile to create bordering shapes with the dashes if necessary:

Answer 2

Create a vertical line and apply a 30°- 60° shear to it (depending how slanted you'd like it)

Then go to Effects → Distort and Transform → Transform and set it to move horizontally and add in the number of copies you'd like.

If you need to edit the lines individually later on, you can go to Object → Expand Appearance

Answer 3

Not difficult: for this you create a custom brush - you create the rectangles you've posted as vector, and select them, and go to Brushes>New Brush, choose Art Brush, set the Art Brush preferences you prefer for corners, recolouring etc, et viola! You've just made your own brush you can apply to any vector stroke.

Here I've quickly roughed the angled strokes from your image

I've selected them and gone to the Brush palette, and chosen New Brush

In the popup dialogue I've chosen Art Brush

Set the preferences I want for corners, recolour etc

And applied that new brush to a bezier vector - done!

Hope this helps.

EDIT: OH and BTW - the Stroke Width tool (and / or tablet pen pressure) still work perfectly with this method, allowing for all kinds of interesting effects - sort of 90's tribal tattoo style!

Answer 4

Create a pattern brush from a module made with 4 slanted rectangles.

Answer 5

Begin by creating a rectangle and using the pen or line tool create a line from the top of the rectangle to the bottom at an angle.

Next using the move tool while holding down Alt drag and copy the line.

Then using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D or going through the menu. Transform again until the lines fill up the rectangle.

Then you just move the rectangle to the top of the layer stack and make it a clipping mask using Ctrl+7

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For a better look at sheering the stroke.