My subject today is the differences between Effects and Filters. If you look at the Illustrator menus for effects and filters, you will notice that there is a lot of duplication. First, within each menu there are duplicate stylize and distort choices. Of course, we already know that's because the top half of the menu is for vector graphics and the bottom half for raster graphics, right? But why do distort and stylize appear in both effects and filters? Just how much stylizing and distorting are we supposed to do anyway? What exactly is the difference between filters and effects?
Surgery vs. Cosmetics
Let's say you get up in the morning and take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror. Your looks just aren't that exciting anymore and you are decide to glam yourself up a bit. You call a plastic surgeon. Get a nose job. Have those saggy eyes lifted up a few inches. Get some eye liner and rosy cheeks tattooed on. A few thousand dollars later, you look in the mirror and realize you look atrocious. Too bad. It can't be undone. You instituted permanent changes. That's how filters are.
Let's say you get up in the morning and take a good hard look at yourself in the mirror. Your looks just aren't that exciting anymore and you are decide to glam yourself up a bit. You call a plastic surgeon. Get a nose job. Have those saggy eyes lifted up a few inches. Get some eye liner and rosy cheeks tattooed on. A few thousand dollars later, you look in the mirror and realize you look atrocious. Too bad. It can't be undone. You instituted permanent changes. That's how filters are.
Now, let's say that you had decided to keep your options open. So, instead, you bought some new eye shadow, rouge, lipstick, hair color, powder, and mascara and you went into a makeup putting-on frenzy. Again, you look in the mirror and realize you look atrocious. Ah, but this time you can grab a washcloth and wash it all off. Behold the magic of effects. Effects are always under your control and can be altered, adjusted and undone anytime you want.
Undo for you
If you apply three filters to an object and decide you only like the last two but not the first, you have to undo everything. (And you can't even do that if you have already saved your file.) But, if you use effects instead, you can undo the first effect without undoing the last two. Even after you have saved and closed the file, you still have the option to reselect your object and edit its effects.
If you apply three filters to an object and decide you only like the last two but not the first, you have to undo everything. (And you can't even do that if you have already saved your file.) But, if you use effects instead, you can undo the first effect without undoing the last two. Even after you have saved and closed the file, you still have the option to reselect your object and edit its effects.
My, How you've changed
Filters change the structure of an object and effects merely change their appearance. I drew two star on my page. The one on the left was treated to two filters: a drop shadow (stylize) and a 68% bloat (distort). The right got the same treatment, except instead of using filters, I used effects.
They look exactly the same don't they? When I look at the stars in outline view, though, I get a different picture.
The effect star was only "made-up" to look pretty, it's still just a star. The filter star, though, will never be the same.
So, the question for today is:
"Why would anyone ever use filters instead of effects?"
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