How to Fix "Illustrator’s Stroke or Path Is Not Showing"

When your stroke or path isn’t showing up in Adobe Illustrator, it can be due to a variety of reasons such as visibility settings, corrupted files, or incorrect stroke settings.

To begin troubleshooting, make sure the stroke is applied correctly.

Select the path or object that should have a stroke and go to the Properties panel to ensure the stroke is not set to None.

If you see a stroke color but still can't see the path, it could be due to the stroke’s thickness being too small.

In the Stroke panel, adjust the thickness value to a more visible size.

If the stroke still isn’t visible, make sure the object is not set to be hidden.

Go to View > Hide Edges to check if the edges are hidden.

If this is the case, simply toggle it back on by selecting View > Show Edges.

Another common cause for this issue is the document’s color mode.

If you’re working in a document set to RGB, it’s possible that the stroke color appears differently on-screen than it does in print.

Try changing the color mode to CMYK or vice versa by going to File > Document Color Mode.

If you still can’t see the stroke, check the layer settings.

Sometimes, Illustrator may hide strokes in certain layers due to visibility settings or locked layers.

Ensure that the layer you are working on is visible and unlocked in the Layers panel.

If none of these solutions work, the issue might be related to corrupted preferences or a file conflict.

Resetting preferences by holding Ctrl + Alt + Shift (Windows) or Cmd + Option + Shift (Mac) during launch can solve this problem.

If the problem persists, try restarting Illustrator or your computer to clear any temporary bugs or glitches.