Stroke effect

[Gynoom]

Hi, Im new to illustrator, but I have used other adobe applications so I can still find my way in it.

I have got a problem, I have to make something with a big size (340 - 160 cm).
I have a logo and want a stoke over it, but not in the logo but in the outline of it, I have tried " Object, path , outline stroke" but still it didn't gave the results that I wanted. The other problem is that the logo is created in illustrator so that every letter of that logo is seperate and I want the stroke only at de outside of the entire logo. ( so if for example the A and B cross eachother you will see that A has a stoke and B has a separete stroke ). Normaly I would make a pictures of this, and than import it again and stroke it, but because it is so large, it takes to long and my computer cant handle it. Is there another way to combine those layers ?
And is there another way to really stroke the outline without stroking parts of the logo itself ?

I hope somebody could help me with this,
Thanks, Jef

 

[dimoj]

OK if I understand you, you want to stroke the outside of the path right? Lets see if I can explain this: it's actually harder to explain than to do! (instructions for AI10)

First select each of your letters (or whatever objects you want stroked) and then GROUP them.

Now open you appearance palette.

While the group is still selected you will see an object called GROUP in the appearance palette. Single click GROUP to highlight it.

Now click on the right pointing arrow at the top right of that palette and select ADD NEW FILL. Do this twice.

You will see two fill colour boxes in the list now. The top one is your actual fill. Change its colour to the fill colour you want. The bottom one will become the stroke. Change its colour to the stroke colour you want (you won't be able to see the stroke yet).

Now with the bottom FILL attribute selected, go to EFFECT>PATH>OFFSET PATH. Now in the dialogue that opens, enter your required value into the OFFSET PATH box (i.e. 5px for a 5 pixel stroke) and your stroke on the outside of the path will be created.

By the way it's NEVER going to be a problem that the logo was created in Illustrator...if it was created in CorelDraw though.....!!! Hee Hee, just kidding.