How to Use an Appearance in Illustrator Again
You can change the appearance of any object, group, or layer in Adobe Illustrator by using effects and the Appearance and Graphic Styles panels. In addition, you can divide an object into its essential parts to modify elements of the object independently.
About appearance attributes
Appearance attributes are properties that affect the look of an object without altering its underlying structure. Appearance attributes include fills, strokes, transparency, and effects. If you apply an appearance attribute to an object and later edit or remove that attribute, it does not change the underlying object or any other attributes applied to the object.
You can set appearance attributes at any level of the layer hierarchy. For example, if you apply a drop shadow effect to a layer, all objects in the layer take on the drop shadow. However, if you move an object out of the layer, that object will no longer have a drop-shadow because the effect belongs to the layer, not to each object within the layer.
The Appearance panel is the gateway to working with appearance attributes. Because you can apply appearance attributes to layers, groups, and objects—and often to fills and strokes too—the hierarchy of attributes in your artwork can become very complex. For example, if you apply one effect to an entire layer and another effect to an object in the layer, it may be difficult to determine which effect is causing the artwork to change. The Appearance panel shows you the fills, strokes, graphic styles, and effects that have been applied to an object, group, or layer.
Appearance panel overview
You use the Appearance panel (Window > Appearance) to view and adjust the appearance attributes for an object, group, or layer. Fills and strokes are listed in stacking order; top to bottom in the panel correlates to front to back in the artwork. Effects are listed from top to bottom in the order in which they are applied to the artwork.
Reveal additional items in the Appearance panel
When you select items that contain other items, such as a layer or group, the Appearance panel displays a Contents item.
List character attributes for a text object in the Appearance panel
When you select a text object, the panel displays a Characters item.
Turn an attribute on or off for selected object
-
To turn an individual attribute on or off, click the eyeball icon next to the attribute.
-
To turn all hidden attributes on, choose Show All Hidden Attributes from the Appearance panel menu.
-
Click in the attribute row to display and set values.
-
Click the underlined text and specify new values in the dialog box that appears.
Specify how appearance attributes are applied to new objects
You can specify whether you want new objects to inherit appearance attributes or have only basic attributes.
-
To apply only a single fill and stroke to new objects, choose New Art Has Basic Appearance from the panel menu.
-
To apply all of the current appearance attributes to new objects, deselect New Art Has Basic Appearance from the panel menu.
Targeting items for appearance attributes
Before you can set an appearance attribute or apply a style or an effect to a layer, group, or object, you must target the item in the Layers panel. Selecting an object or group using any selection method also targets the object or group in the Layers panel, but layers can be targeted only by using the panel.
The target icon indicates whether an item in the layer hierarchy has any appearance attributes and whether it is targeted:
-
Indicates the item is not targeted and has no appearance attributes beyond a single fill and a single stroke. -
Indicates the item is not targeted but has appearance attributes. -
Indicates the item is targeted but has no appearance attributes beyond a single fill and a single stroke. -
Indicates the item is targeted and has appearance attributes.To target an item in the Layers panel, click the item's target icon. A double ring
or indicates that the item is targeted. Shift‑click to target additional items.Note: When an object or group is selected by any method, the item is also targeted in the Layers panel. In contrast, a layer can be targeted only by clicking its target icon in the Layers panel.
Manage appearance attributes
Edit or add an appearance attribute
You can open an appearance attribute, such as an effect, and change the settings at any time.
Duplicate an appearance attribute
Change the stacking order of appearance attributes
Copy appearance attributes between objects
You can copy or move appearance attributes by dragging or by using the Eyedropper tool.
Copy appearance attributes by dragging
Copy appearance attributes using the Eyedropper tool
You can use the Eyedropper tool to copy appearance attributes from one object to another, including character, paragraph, fill, and stroke attributes between type objects. By default, the Eyedropper tool affects all attributes of a selection. To customize the attributes affected by this tool, use the Eyedropper dialog box.
Copy attributes from the desktop using the Eyedropper tool
Specify which attributes you can copy with the Eyedropper tool
Source: https://helpx.adobe.com/si/illustrator/using/appearance-attributes.html