Apply a solid color or gradient brush to an object's fill or stroke

Applying a brush is how you change the basic appearance of an object, such as the color or pattern that appears on part of the object. Brush properties are listed in the Brushes category of the Properties panel. The properties you see in the Brushes category vary depending on the object you have selected. Although this topic discusses only Fill and Stroke properties, you can apply a brush to all Brush properties such as Foreground, Background, BorderBrush, and OpacityMask.

This topic shows you how to apply a solid color or gradient brush to an object. For information on how to apply a tile brush, see Apply a tile brush to an object's fill or stroke.

To apply a brush to an object's fill or stroke

1. On the artboard, select the object to which you want to apply a brush. The Properties panel will display the properties for the object.

2. Under Brushes in the Properties panel, click Fill or Stroke, and then click either Solid color brush  or Gradient brush .

3. At this point, you can define a brush by picking a color or creating a gradient. Additionally, you can click the Brush resources tab** ** and apply an existing brush resource to the selected object.

   Tip

   A Color eyedropper  appears in the lower-right corner of the color Editor when you modify a Solid color brush  or a gradient stop on a Gradient brush . With this eyedropper selected, you can grab a color sample from anywhere on your desktop and apply it to the selected brush. When you modify a Gradient brush , you can select the Gradient eyedropper  and drag a line across a sample of a color anywhere inside the Microsoft Expression Blend application window to apply it to the brush. You can press the ESC key at any time to cancel out of the eyedroppers.

To remove a brush that is applied to an object

1. On the artboard, select the object from which you want to remove the brush. The Properties panel will display the properties for the object.

2. Under Brushes in the Properties panel, select the brush property that you want to remove, and then click the No Brush tab .

   Note

   In the case of the Stroke property, you are not actually removing the stroke. For example, you may have a stroke applied that has no brush, yet the thickness of the stroke is still present. You can modify the stroke thickness by changing the StrokeThickness value in the Appearance category.

See also

Tasks

Create a brush resource or color resource

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