# Illustrator help



## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

I am sure this is an easy question, but I just cant figure it out. I do very light work in Illustrator and its usually working with a customers file. Anyways, I am trying to an image, it would be a solid background, then there would be a letter in the image. The desired outcome would look like this:









(this image is just an example of what I am trying to accomplish)

Now it looks fine on white, but if I were to place that on any solid image it looks like this:









I want the white of "C" to not leave the confines of the red circle. Clipping masks do opposite of what i am trying to accomplish, and making a compound path leaves me with this:









I tried searching online, but I dont think I am using the right terms for what I am trying to accomplish. How do I go about getting my file to look like the first image posted, while keeping the "C" locked into the red circle so when on a background, nothing is sticking out of the circle. Hope that makes sense.

This is in Illustrator CS6.


thanks


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## chuckster (Nov 30, 2003)

One method: Retain two items: the red circle and white "C". Duplicate the red circle, select it and the C, and use pathfinder to remove the excess area of the C. Now take the C and the original red circle and again use Pathfinder, this time to remove the C from the red circle. You should now have a red circle only, with the C area cut out of it. To put white in the cut-out area, just create another circle the same size in white, move to back and group the two. I hope this works for you.


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## i-rui (Sep 13, 2006)

clipping mask should work, but it depends on how you have the shapes interacting, but as chuckster said the pathfinder palette should be able to help with what you want to do.


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

chuckster said:


> One method: Retain two items: the red circle and white "C". Duplicate the red circle, select it and the C, and use pathfinder to remove the excess area of the C. Now take the C and the original red circle and again use Pathfinder, this time to remove the C from the red circle. You should now have a red circle only, with the C area cut out of it. To put white in the cut-out area, just create another circle the same size in white, move to back and group the two. I hope this works for you.


Here's another I think is easier.

Just turn the C from type into an outline (Type > Create outlines) Then select both the circle and the C and use divide in Pathfiner. Ungroup the object, select and delete the trailing part of the C and then regroup the remaining objects. Done.


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## wonderings (Jun 10, 2003)

Thanks for the help guys, I did get it. Though not its not exactly what they want. Instead of the white showing through in the "C" They want it transparent, so if you were to place the red circle with white C, you would see what ever image the red circle was on top of through the "C"

I was looking for something to knock it out, but like my first question, could not come up with what I need to do.


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## CanadaRAM (Jul 24, 2005)

If you have done the convert to paths and then the clipping masks you are 99 % of the way there. You need to think of this as two red shapes (a crescent moon and a squashed keyhole), and abandon the idea of the C being an entity. Once you have the paths for the two red shapes, fill them with red, and nothing else should be filled with any other colour. Then it will be transparent. (Keeping in mind that for use as a different graphic filetype - a GIF or JPG for the web, for example - you will have to choose a file type like GIF that supports transparency. Don't use JPEG


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## screature (May 14, 2007)

So is it something like this that you are looking for?









If yes then just follow the instructions I already said above and then before regrouping the objects click on the centre "C" and remove the fill i.e. no fill colour, then regroup and save.

Then if you need to use it with a photo in Photoshop you can just "place" it and it is imported exactly as above and then you would be best to convert it to a smart object in Photoshop.


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