

Now, select the second object to apply the other pathfinder option to, titled “trim”. Press undo, that is “ctrl + z”, to bring it back to its original position. When you select this object, you can see that each part of it is divided or separated. Go to the tool panel and choose the “direct selection tool”. To apply this, select the first illustration. Over here, you have six pathfinder options. Scroll down and click on the option titled “pathfinder”. To open the path finder options, go to “window” on the menu panel. Step # 1 – Opening the pathfinder options Therefore, while using Illustrator, knowing how to use pathfinder options in Adobe Illustrator can work to your advantage. In cs5 Illustrator the pathfinder options can be used to alter the existing paths of shapes according to your own requirement. These shapes can be created by the pen tool or the shape tool. Do you have any tips for using the Pathfinder Panel? if so, feel free to leave them in the comments section below.Illustrator pathfinder provides a set of options, through which you can bring changes to your shapes. In our business, it’s how much you can do, in as little time as possible.ĭo you use the Pathfinder Panel? I would imagine it saves you a ton of time when creating tough shapes. If you can overlap a few basic shapes, trim some pieces here and there, and be done with it, that’s much better than painstakingly drawing it all anchorpoint by anchorpoint for 10 minutes. Hand drawing tough shapes is for the birds. This can be a really efficient feature for you, depending on what you’re doing. Options like exclude with delete the parts where the shapes overlap, leaving everything else behind. This means that you’ll overlap 2 shapes, and then it will break them down into all the little shapes that are created from the overlapping process. Depending on how your shapes are stacked, this is called Minus Front (On the top row) or Minus Back (On the bottom row). You can also subtract one shape from another. You can see that the best way to use the Pathfinder Panel is to overlap 2 shapes, Then, you decide how they interact, and choose the right button to press to get the results you want. Let’s take a look at the Pathfinder Panel and why it’s so darn helpful. the Pathfinder Panel is also a great place to merge your shapes, too. When you’re working on complex shapes, or you just need to trim a shape to get what you need, there’s nothing better. For the past couple of years, I have been using the Pathfinder Panel, and it’s a life saver. You’ll probably say “What? Are you nuts, James?” While my mental state is sometimes debatable, I didn’t do this by choice. Before I used the Pathfinder panel, I used to try to draw every shape by hand with the Pen Tool.
