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Problem With Using Intersect Tool on Text
Hey,
Im using Illustrator to make a watermark for my video. I am trying to make a shimmer over the top half of the text. I write the text and then put an overlapping ellipse and then select both, I then use the Intersect tool in the Pathfinder window to attempt and make the ellipse only show on top of the text. If this we to actually work i would then make it white and take down the transparency to make it look like a sort of reflection/shimmer.
But when i try to intersect the two shapes Illustrator tells me that they are not overlapping and nothing happens. I tried rasterizing the text and still nothing. This works fine with the background when the text is replaced with a rectangle.
Does anyone know whats wrond or an alternate way to do this?
Thanks,
Cammi
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7 Replies
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Don’t use intersect. Use something else, like crop, etc. Find one that cuts the text into half. You probably will need to carry out the action twice. Once to cut and keep the upper, and again to cut and keep the lower part of the text.
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Thanks alot, Got it now. Used a basic Clipping Mask with an ellipse, worked a charm. Thanks!
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The intersect filter tries to intersect all the selected shapes. A text converted to outlines is not a single shape, but rather a group of distinct shapes which really do not overlap. To make an outlined text suitable for intersection, you may ungroup it and convert it to a compound path (Cmd-8).
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Ok great, so i select the text, then ungroup it, and then convert it to a compound path and it should be intersectable?
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Yes, exactly. First convert the text to outlines, then ungroup it and convert to compound path.
There’s one possible problem with this solution: with some fonts holes may appear at the areas where letters intersect. To avoid these holes, it would be a good idea to apply Pathfinder Unite to the letters before ungrouping. -
Fantastic, so i do:
Type > Create Outline
Pathfinder > Unite
? > Ungroup
Pathfinder > intersect -
Type > Create Outlines
Pathfinder > Unite
Ungroup
Make Compound Path
IntersectSlightly complicated, but it makes the result most predictable.
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