• Adobe Illustrator

  Is there a way to use eraser tool with soft edges?

  Posted by Nick Harambee on May 20, 2011 at 7:37 am

  Hi,

  I am wanting to erase the edges of a rectangular object so that it blends better with the background, and am wondering if there is a way of doing this using the eraser tool with soft edges?

  Here is a snapshot to illustrate further what I mean:

  

  You should be able to see that above the curve on the left there is a gradient which extends to the top of the image. This is the rectangle which I have applied a gradient to. At the top of the rectangle the colour is the same as the background. What I am trying to do is to blend the left edge of the rectangle in with the background above the curve (below the curve there is a line so no blending is needed). The way I thought of doing this is using the eraser tool with a soft edge. I can do this in Photoshop, but I’m not sure if this is possible or the best approach in Illustrator.

  I would be grateful for any advice on this,

  Thanks,

  Nick

  David Cabestany replied 14 years, 11 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
• 1 Reply

• 

  David Cabestany

  May 20, 2011 at 3:19 pm

  Since illustrator is vector based and not pixel based, you can’t have soft edges on any tool, however you can either use a blend mode or past your illustrator content on a photoshop document as a smart object, that way you can still keep vector features and go back to illustrator as needed, but can hide the contents using masks with soft edges.

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