Select the Live Paint Bucket tool from the toolbar or press K.
Last updated on
May 29, 2026
Learn how to use the Live Paint Bucket tool to paint faces and edges.
Paint faces and edges
The Live Paint Bucket tool lets you paint the faces and edges of Live Paint groups with the current fill and stroke colors.
Select the Fill or Stroke color that you want to apply. If you select a color from the Swatches panel, the Appearance section of the Properties panel, or the Control panel, the pointer shows three colored squares. The selected color is in the middle, and the two adjacent colors are on either side. To use an adjacent color, press the left or right arrow key.
Hover the mouse pointer over a face or edge:
- When you hover over a face, you see a thick colored highlight around it, and the pointer turns into a filled paint bucket .
- When you hover over an edge, you see a thin colored highlight on it, and the pointer turns into a brush .
To paint faces, do one of the following:
- To paint a face, select it.
- To paint multiple faces at once, drag across them.
- To flood paint from a face through unstroked edges into adjacent faces, double-click the face.
- To paint all faces of the same color as that of the face in focus, triple-click the face.
Tip
To switch to the Eyedropper tool and sample fills or strokes, Option-click (macOS) or Alt‑click (Windows) the fill or stroke you want.
To paint edges, double-click the Live Paint Bucket tool in the toolbar, and select Paint Strokes. Alternatively, temporarily toggle to the Paint Strokes option by pressing Shift while hovering over the Live Paint group.
Then, do any of the following:
- To stroke an edge, select it.
- To stroke more than one edge at a time, drag across the edges.
- To flood paint from an edge to all connected edges of the same color, double-click the edge.
- To paint all edges of the same color, triple-click the edge.
Note
Pressing Shift lets you quickly toggle between painting only strokes and only fills. You can also specify these changes in the Live Paint Bucket Options dialog box. If you currently have both the Paint Fills option and the Paint Strokes option selected, pressing Shift switches to Paint Fills only. This can be helpful when you are trying to fill a small face surrounded by stroked edges.
Live Paint Bucket tool options
The Live Paint Bucket tool options allow you to select how the tool works. You can set it to paint only fills, only strokes, or both. You can also select how it highlights faces and edges as you move the tool over them. To see these options, double-click the Live Paint Bucket tool.
|
Options |
Function |
|
Paint Fills |
Paints the faces of Live Paint groups. |
|
Paint Strokes |
Paints the edges of Live Paint groups. |
|
Cursor Swatch Preview |
Previews the selected color in Swatches panel. The Live Paint Bucket tool pointer appears as three color swatches: the selected fill or stroke color plus the color closest to the left and right of it in the Swatches panel. |
|
Highlight |
Outlines the face or edge that the cursor is currently over. Faces are highlighted with a thick line, and edges are highlighted with a thin line. |
|
Color |
Sets the color for the highlight. You can select a color from the dropdown menu or select the paint swatch to specify a custom color. |
|
Width |
Specifies the thickness of the highlight. |
|
Tips |
Displays tips to how to use the Live Paint Bucket tool. |
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