Illustrator CS (v11) Gaussian Blur failure on drop shadow

[GB2]

I'm wondering if anyone has any clue as to what might resolve this problem for me. I seem to have something wrong with my gaussian blur control in a drop shadow. When I try to assign a drop shadow the blur control is grayed out and inaccessible, which is resulting in hard shadows. I've tried searching Adobe's support Knowledge base and forums but can't come up with anything and can't find anything that would correct it. This has happened to me once before and the only way I could resolve it then was to completely uninstall and reinstall my entire Adobe CS. I'm hoping somebody here is smarter than me!

 

[Rick]

If there are funky tricks to the vector you are trying to drop shadow or some oddity in the graphic, you might want to...

---Copy the image you want drop shadowed.
---Then turn the selected image a color with no tricks (I usually use black)
---Apply drop shadow (should work)
--- delete the image you used as a shadow template
--- Then copy>front (command+f)

 

[Rooster]

are you going through

filter/stylize/dropshadow

or

effect/stylize/dropshadow

 

[GB2]

Rick...it is not a problem with an object, it is a problem with the program. I cannot use the blur control for any drop shadows on anything.

Rooster...I've tried both methods and the blur control fails to function on either.

I can go to Effect/SVG Filters/AI Gaussian Blur 4 (or 7) and apply a gaussian blur but I just cannot get a blur in a drop shadow. Once again, the blur button is grayed out, where you would normally specify the dimension of the blur you want to apply, and therefore I cannot apply any type of blur and I get hard edged shadows.

 

[iSign]

after the first few times I've used the drop shadow feature, I ended up working on a complex file that had a fair bit of work yet to be done, after i had already assigned the shadows.

What I learned is that the gaussian blur feature would constantly need to slow me down to re-establish itself dozens of times when I'd resize, save, or modify the drawing... by the time i realized i'd probably spent a sum total of 1 hour watching that dang gaussian blur update window... I decided i'd probably rather export a layered file to photoshop & do my shadow there.

 

[Rick]

I have not used CS in a while.. might it be because it's an RGB or CMYK problem?

 

[GB2]

Yes, I understand the frustration with the gaussian blur drop shadow when it is working properly, but in my case I have hundreds of files with that effect applied already and now when I open them they are all converted to hard shadows and I could never alter them in Photoshop. Either way it is something that isn't working properly and I must fix. I fear that there is just some corruption in the program that cannot be corrected and I'll just have to do the re-install again. I've been doing so much of that recently since I just rebuilt a number of computers and restructured my network I'd like to see the end but it seems that every time I think I've got it all perfect, the next day there's another issue and I've got to do it again. Just the never ending nature of computers I guess.

 

[GB2]

RGB or CMYK has the same result. I feel like there is a switch or something somewhere that I should be able to change to turn the blur feature on again but nothing in my research has turned up an answer like that. There seems to be very little control over that function. Also, it isn't related to the raster effects settings, I've been all over that with no luck.

 

[Idea Design]

... I decided i'd probably rather export a layered file to photoshop & do my shadow there.

This is exactly how I would solve this problem. 9 times out of 10 a photoshop drop shadow looks better than an illy shadow anyway. Way more control.

 

[iSign]

This is exactly how I would solve this problem. 9 times out of 10 a photoshop drop shadow looks better than an illy shadow anyway. Way more control.

except that it doesn't solve his problem ..but other than that... I agree

 

[GB2]

Actually if you know how to manage the drop shadows in Illustrator with your raster effects settings, then they come out just fine...but that still doesn't account for the annoying screen refreshing for every change

 

[iSign]

holy crap... I went to do a little drop shadow experiment... I almost forgot how much I hate that... dang I almost had to ctrl/alt/del the program just to keep myself from trashing my laptop... Adobe really needs to fix that crap... I hope I NEVER waste a second with that feature again!! (except if there was a way to help GB2... send me a file if you want me to see if it opens on my machine)

 

[GB2]

OK, finally, I knew there was a simple solution, I just needed to persevere to find it. Whenever you have strange issues with Illustrator it is usually related to some corruption in your preferences file. The solution is to delete (or rename) your current preferences file and then Illustrator will create a new one on start-up. Here is a good document describing an overall optimization/troubleshooting of Illustrator CS-CS2. If you have a different version, you should search for the appropriate instructions for your version:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/324/324053.html

 

[jfiscus]

just an FYI to the people frustrated with slow "effects" processign in illustrator, put the effeceted objects on their own layer & hide it while you do the rest of your work, you can even save the document with the layer hidden to improve speed when saving. I sometimes do large maps with fills/effects that majorly slow me down, just remember to turn the layers back on when you're ready for printing.

 

[cptcorn]

Rather than using a drop shadow or Gaussian blur, trying using the gradient mesh tool.

If you want a nice drop shadow, use Photoshop.