Live Paint groups can be expanded, at which time they behave like ordinary vector paths. The appearance of an expanded Live Paint group remains identical to the original, but it is split into multiple objects for both fills and strokes. This is similar in concept to expanding live effects. To expand a selected Live Paint group, either click the Expand button in the Control panel or choose Object > Live Paint > Expand.

From a production standpoint, you don’t need to expand Live Paint groups in order to prepare a file for print. Live Paint groups print perfectly, because Illustrator performs the necessary expanding of paths at print time (similar to live effects).

Additionally, you can choose Object > Live Paint > Release to return a Live Paint group to the original paths used to create it. Where expanding a Live Paint group results in objects being broken up in order to preserve appearance, releasing such a group preserves the geometry of the original paths, but the appearance or colors are lost.