Using Help | Contents | Index Back 145
Adobe Illustrator Help Transforming and Distorting Shapes
Using Help | Contents | Index Back 145
To flatten a compound shape into a path or compound path:
1 With the selection tool, select the compound shape to expand.
2 Do one of the following:
• Click Expand in the Pathfinder palette.
• Choose Expand Compound Shape from the Pathfinder palette menu.
Creating compound paths
A compound path contains two or more paths that are painted so that holes appear where
paths overlap. Compound paths act as grouped objects; to select part of a compound
path, use the direct-selection tool or the group-selection tool. You can manipulate the
shape of individual components of a compound path, but you cannot change appearance
attributes, styles, or effects for individual components, and you cannot manipulate
components individually in the Layers palette.
Use the Compound Path command to create paths that have holes where the original
objects overlapped (such as the interiors of the letters o and g). When you define objects
as a compound path, all objects in the compound path take on the paint and style
attributes of the backmost object in the stacking order.
Note: If you want more flexibility in the compound path creation, you can create a
compound shape and then expand it. (See “
Creating and adjusting compound shapes” on
page 143.)
To create a compound path using the Compound Path command:
1 Select the paths you want to include in the compound path.
2 Choose Object > Compound Path > Make.
The resulting shape appears in the Layers palette as a <Compound Path>.
Adjusting the appearance of compound paths
You can specify whether a compound path is a non-zero winding path or an even-odd
path. Both the non-zero winding fill rule and the even-odd fill rule use mathematical
equations to determine if a point is outside or inside a shape. The even-odd rule is more
predictable: every other region within an even-odd compound path is a hole, regardless of
path direction. Illustrator uses the non-zero winding rule as the default rule. Photoshop
and Macromedia Freehand both use the even-odd rule by default, so compound paths
imported from either of these applications will use the even-odd rule.
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