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I am desperately trying to make a spiral (see picture below) narrowing out at the end. The line should be thick at the beginning and become very thin at the end. It should be a very smooth transition. I tried brushes, which works well but it does unfortunately NOT work with a gradient. And I need to apply a gradient on my object. The width tool does not work as well (see pictures below), as it seems to work only between anchor points (although I have joined the pathes...). How can I reach my goal to have a tapered spiral with a gradient applied on it?

Many thanks for your much appreciated comments.

Best regards, Silvan

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7
  • I worked with this tutorial: youtube.com/watch?v=cC3oVwYehd0
    – Silvan
    Jul 25, 2021 at 7:01
  • What didn't work? You need same spring with similar gradient but it should keep getting narrower?
    – Vikas
    Jul 25, 2021 at 7:38
  • Width tool seems work fine, if I correctly understand what you want to achieve.
    – Vikas
    Jul 25, 2021 at 8:32
  • 1
    Err. Width tool works anywhere on the curve.
    – joojaa
    Jul 25, 2021 at 8:52
  • 1
    Please see my comment below. Size tool unfortunately doesnt work well...
    – Silvan
    Jul 25, 2021 at 10:48

2 Answers 2

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You may not need the actual Width Tool.

You can simply set a Stroke Profile in the Stroke Panel for many things. Then use the Width Tool if you wish to refine further.

enter image description here

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  • wow, It is super quick!
    – Russian Blue
    Jul 25, 2021 at 18:50
  • Ahhhh !!! JUST what I needed :) upvoted
    – Deborah
    Nov 1, 2022 at 1:09
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Like you said, gradients don't work on a stroke with art brush. However, width tool seems to work fine to me:

enter image description here

I can reproduce your problem following way. Applying a small amount of Width tool somewhere middle of path or near one end, and then applying it at extreme end:

enter image description here

EDIT - After checking the OP's open file, I found this:

Here's what was causing problem:

enter image description here

As you can see, two anchor points were going in opposite directions and once I moved them in 'proper' place, Width tool worked throughout the stroke. You will need to find and fix all those anchor points. I guess the they weren't joined properly in first place. So it caused problems.

Another way of doing this is by making a raster image like this and add it to art brushes and then applying it to your stroke:

enter image description here

But it will have some limitations like you might not get smooth result and you won't be able to edit colors.

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9
  • Thanks for your answers. I dont know why but width tool doesnt work with my form (see pictures below). It changes only size between anchor points. Why is that?
    – Silvan
    Jul 25, 2021 at 10:46
  • @Silvan I think the problem with your path is they are not joined. Are they two seperate paths?
    – Vikas
    Jul 25, 2021 at 10:50
  • I posted a picture few seconds ago. I marked all the paths, went to object -> path -> join. but it doesnt work with the width tool...
    – Silvan
    Jul 25, 2021 at 10:51
  • I'll check and udpate
    – Vikas
    Jul 25, 2021 at 10:52
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    yes would be great. I will share it
    – Silvan
    Jul 25, 2021 at 11:40

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