Creating a dashed line with two colours in Illustrator

by Jakub Marian

Tip: See my list of the Most Common Mistakes in English. It will teach you how to avoid mis­takes with com­mas, pre­pos­i­tions, ir­reg­u­lar verbs, and much more.

It is possible to create dashed lines in Adobe Illustrator using the “dashed line” option in the Stroke panel (Window → Stroke):

illustrator-stroke

However, illustrator doesn’t allow you to select the colours of the “dashes”; it simply leaves gaps in the paths. But there’s a simple fix. First, create the path you want to be dashed using whatever method you prefer:

illustrator-path

Now, select the whole path using the Selection Tool and press Ctrl-C, Ctrl-Shift-V (or Cmd on Mac). This creates a copy of your path at the exact same spot as your original path. Select a different stroke colour and use the “dashed line” options mentioned above. Voilà, you now have a dashed curve with two colours:

illustrator-dashed-line

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