Pathfinder

What the “Pathfinder” panel does is, it turns multiple selected objects, into a new object.

We’ll see how this works.

First, open the Pathfinder panel.

Click on the “Window” in the menubar and select “Pathfinder” in the drop-down menu.

The hotkey for this is Shift – Ctrl – F9 on your keyboard.

As you see in the image below, “Pathfinder” window is divided into two sections.

You have the “Shape Modes” section (1) and you have the “Pathfinders” section (2).

With the buttons in the top row of the panel, called the shape modes, you can regulate the interaction between the components of a composite form.

With the bottom row of buttons in the panel, called Pathfinder effects, you can click on the first completed form combinations.

As an example I have drawn two objects in the document, a square and a star and selected the two.

The first button under the “Shape Modes” section is the “Unite” button. This button brings the various objects and adjusts the color to the color of the top most object. In this case, yellow. The result can be seen in Figure A.

The second button under the “Shape Modes” section is the “Minus Front” button. This button cuts the area of the front object from the underlying object. The result can be seen in Figure B.

The third button under the “Shape Modes” section is the “Intersect”. This button actually does the opposite of the previous button, preserves the overlapping portions and cuts the remaining away. The result can be seen in Figure C.

And the fourth and last button under the “Shape Modes” section is the “Exclude”. This button is used to exclude the overlapping portion of the top object from the underlying object, so overlapping areas are converted into holes and vice versa. The result can be seen in Figure D.

And then we have the six buttons in the “Pathfinder” section below.

These are called Pathfinder effects, this allows you to click the first completed form combinations.
Divide: An illustration separates into its component filled faces.
Trim: removes the hidden part of a filled object. Lines are removed and objects of the same color are not merged.
Merge: removes the hidden part of a filled object. Lines are removed and adjacent or overlapping objects of the same color are combined.
Crop: splits a clip in planes and removes all parts of the artwork that fall outside the boundaries of the topmost object. Also, the lines are removed.
Outline: splits an object in constituent line segments, or edges. This allows you to prepare an illustration for which an outline is needed for overprinting objects.
Minus Back: pull the rear objects off of the front object. With this command you can remove areas in an illustration by the stacking order.

 

Compound Path

When we use the “Compound Path” option, Illustrator will make holes where the paths overlap.

An example will make this clear.

I have drawn three objects that I need, to put together an eye.
I have the eye socket (1), the eyeball (2) and the pupil (3).

To make a compound path I first drag the eyeball on the socket.
I then select both objects with the “Select” tool and click the “Object” button in the menu bar.
In the drop-down menu that appears, I choose “Compound Path” and I click the option “Make”.

This makes a hole with the size of the eyeball in the eye socket.

The only thing you have to do is to drag the pupil in the eye.

Additionally you can copy and paste the whole eye.

The easiest way is to select the whole area, holding the Alt key on your keyboard and drag to the position you want.

Because both objects, the socket and the pupil, are not grouped, you can shift the pupil so that it squints. A bit like Sara van den thingy on TV.

If you later wish to remove the compound path, select the compound path, click again on “Object” button in the menu bar, choose compound path in the drop-down menu and click the option “Release”.

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