Adobe Illustrator CS4 - Manual (Page 242)

235 USING ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR CS4
Reshaping objects
See also
“ Methods of combining objects ” on page 233
“ Group or ungroup objects ” on page 206
“ Move an object to a different layer ” on page 217
“ Targeting items for appearance attributes ” on page 350
Apply a Pathfinder effect using the Effects menu
1 Do one of the following:
• Group together the objects you want to use, and select the group.
• Move the objects you want to use into a separate layer, and target the layer.
2 Choose Effect > Pathfinder and choose a Pathfinder effect.
To quickly apply the same Pathfinder effect again, choose Effect > Apply [effect].
Apply a Pathfinder effect using the Pathfinder panel
1 Select the objects to which you want to apply the effect.
To apply a Pathfinder effect to a group or layer, target the group or layer.
2 In the Pathfinder panel, click a pathfinder button (in the bottom row), or Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click
(Mac
OS) a Shape Mode button (in the top row).
Summary of Pathfinder effects
Add Traces the outline of all objects as if they were a single, merged object. The resulting shape takes on the paint
attributes of the top object.
Intersect Traces the outline of the region overlapped by all the objects.
Exclude Traces all nonoverlapping areas of the objects, and makes overlapping areas transparent. Where an even
number of objects overlap, the overlap becomes transparent. Where an odd number of objects overlap, the overlap
becomes filled.
Subtract Subtracts the frontmost objects from the backmost object. You can use this command to delete areas of an
illustration by adjusting the stacking order.
Minus Back Subtracts the objects in back from the frontmost object. You can use this command to delete areas of an
illustration by adjusting the stacking order.
Divide Separates a piece of artwork into its component filled faces (a face is an area undivided by a line segment).
Note: When you use the Divide button in the Pathfinder panel, you can use the Direct Selection or Group Selection tool
to manipulate the resulting faces independently of each other. You can also choose to delete or preserve unfilled objects
when applying the Divide command.
Trim Removes the part of a filled object that is hidden. It removes any strokes and does not merge objects of the same
color.
Merge Removes the part of a filled object that is hidden. It removes any strokes and merges any adjoining or
overlapping objects filled with the same color.
Crop Divides artwork into its component filled faces, and then deletes all the parts of the artwork that fall outside the
boundary of the topmost object. It also removes any strokes.