How to Make a Dotted Line in Illustrator

This content originally appeared on Envato Tuts+ Tutorials and was authored by Andrei Marius

In the following tutorial, you'll learn how to make a dashed line in Illustrator following a few simple methods.

Once you've learned how to make a dashed line in Illustrator, you might want to create more intricate dashed lines in Illustrator. If you don't have the time to create such designs, you can always count on Envato Elements.

This set of dotted stroke Illustrator brushes is a perfect solution. At the end of this tutorial, you'll learn how to make a dotted stroke in Illustrator using one of these brushes.

Are you strapped for time to read this tutorial? If you'd like to learn how to make a dotted line in Illustrator in a more dynamic way, we've got this video tutorial for you. Don't forget to visit and subscribe to the Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel if you like this content!

What You'll Learn in This Dashed Line Illustrator Tutorial

How to make a dashed line in Illustrator
How to make a dotted line in Illustrator
How to make a dotted line in Illustrator using the Blend Tool
How to make a dotted line in Illustrator using brushes

Method 1: How to Make a Dotted Line in Illustrator

Step 1

Start with the Line Tool (\) or the Pen Tool (P) and create your line.

Using the Line Tool (\), hold down the Shift key as you click and drag to easily create a straight line. Alternatively, you can click on your artboard to open the Line Segment Tool Options window. Set the Angle and the Length of the line, and then click OK to create it.

Using the Pen Tool (P), click once to add the starting point of the line, and then hold down Shift to create a straight line. Click once more to add the other end of the line, and then you can press the Escape key to finish creating the path and switch to the Selection Tool (V). Now that you have the line, let's move to the next steps and learn how to make a dashed line in Illustrator.

Step 2

Make sure that your line stays selected and open the Stroke panel (Window > Stroke). If you can't see all the options shown in the following image, open the fly-out menu from the Stroke panel and go to Show Options.

To start, let's increase the stroke Weight to 20 pt and check the Round Cap button, which will help you create the dots as it adds roundness to the end of a stroke.

stroke panel dotted stroke Illustrator tutorial

Step 3

To turn a line into a dashed line in Illustrator, start by checking the Dashed Line box from the Stroke panel. By default, the first Dash value will be set to 12 pt, which will turn your line into a dashed line. Set the value for the first gap setting to 20 pt (or more) to better notice each dash.

To turn this dashed line into a dotted stroke in Illustrator, all you have to do is lower the dash value to 0 pt.

dashed line Illustrator dotted stroke Illustrator tutorial

Step 4

Just increase the gap value whenever you wish to add more spacing between the dots.

dotted line Illustrator dotted stroke Illustrator tutorial

Step 5

Check the button highlighted in the following image to align the dots to the ends of the path and make them fit the length of the entire path.

Step 6

Using the other dash and gap boxes, you can add a second dash sequence for your dotted line.

Enter 0 pt in the second Dash box to add a second dot, and then set the second Gap value to 80 pt. With these settings, you will have a dot followed by a 40 pt gap and a second dot followed by an 80 pt gap. You can do the same for the remaining two fields. Feel free to play with these values, and remember that the stroke weight dictates the size of the dots.