[Steve Crook jr]

Hi. I’m not sure WHY you want to compound them. If they are just going to stay there visually – leave them grouped and go on.

BUT, I’ll be happy to answer your question under the assumption that you need to work with them further. 🙂

What is causing your problem is that the two V-ish objects are stroked lines, and you need them to be filled paths.

So, select them and Object > Expand and click OK. Now, to make them into a compound path, make sure both are selected and Object > Compound Path > Make *OR* press CTRL-8. You now have a compound path that looks exactly like the two lines did.

Hope it helps.

Steve Crook, Jr.
http://www.stevecrookjr.me

I am a simple creative professional that can get my Adobe suite and a few other creative tools to do what I want. Barely. 🙂

[Steve Crook jr]

I sure hope somebody comes up with a better solution for you than what I have, because you are in for a bit of work, my friend.

Based on your screenshots, I am going to make an assumption: Every line in your artwork is continuous from start to finish. The ones that go from the top to bottom or left to right (for example) are unbroken, creating the border for several areas along their length.

Because of the complexity of your artwork and what I can see in the screenshot, I cannot give you an exact step-by-step. Instead, I’ll have to work on concepts for you that you can then carry on to each area.

Just to give you a quick hands on for what you need to do, let’s do a quick exercise.

1) Create a new AI document, no specific settings.
2) Using the line or pen tool, draw a tick-tac-toe board ( # ). The lines can be straight, or you can make them curvy to better see how this will work for your project – the concept is the same.
3) Window > Pathfinder > Divide

What happened is that AI determined where the lines intersected and removed everything ‘outside’ and made the area a closed path. That *SEEMS* to be what you are after.

It is important to note that the four lines you drew in our example CROSSED OVER each other. In your screenshot, I see a couple of areas that might have gaps. Keep that in mind as we start this next process.

Basically, you are going to have to do this for each territory. Following these instructions, you will be working in one layer, keeping your finished work in another, keeping an original in a third. Naturally, you will be working in a COPY of the original file… 🙂

A) Have you made and named your layers yet?
B) Look for any gaps in the borders and fix them now. Adjust them so that they CROSS the intersecting border and LEAVE THEM DANGLING in another area. For what we are going to do, it is OKAY and even necessary; they will not be in the finished product.

So, the steps in order for each area:

1) Select ALL of the borders of ONE area. CTRL-C (copy), CRTL-SHIFT-V (paste in place), SELECT your work layer in the layers panel, Object > Arrange > Send To Current Layer. **At this point a copy of all of the borders of ONE area are on a layer all by themselves.
2) Hide the finished and original layers, so all you see are the lines you are working on right now.
3) ENSURE that there are no gaps and all paths cross over each other. **I know, you did it earlier, but let’s make absolutely sure right now.
4) Select all the lines (CTRL-A) and Window > Pathfinder > Divide.
5) Unhide your finished work layer, select it in the layers panel, and Object > Arrange > Send To Current Layer.
6) Admire your map as you add each area.
7) Hide your finished work layer, show your original layer and go back to #1 with the next area. Unless you just did the last one. 🙂

So, you are all done, all of your areas are closed paths on their own layer. NOW you can format them.

This is a lot of work and many interesting concepts for someone new to AI. I hope it helps and you learn a bit.

Good luck!

Steve Crook, Jr.
http://www.stevecrookjr.me

I am a simple creative professional that can get my Adobe suite and a few other creative tools to do what I want. Barely. 🙂

[Steve Crook jr]

Okeydokey. No image came through, so I am going to have to go by your description. 🙂

So, here is my take on your issue:

* You have formatted text (stroke/fill) that you want cut out of another object.

Ok. Well, the pathfinder uses the actual lines to perform its functions, not the perceived appearance; when you add a stroke to an object, the lines of the artwork do not change, just how they appear.

So, to get the effect you want takes a little extra work…

1) Style and place the text the way you want it – in this step the most important part is the stroke width and position over the object being cut out. you can fully adjust colors, etc. later, but the position and absolute outline will be fixed from here on out. (Once placed, you may want to hide or lock the underlying object, just for ease of selecting things.)

2) Duplicate the text. CTRL-C, then CTRL-SHIFT-V (paste in place). Then hide one.

Now, we are going to make lines needed to cut out the text from the underlying object.

3) Set your text’s fill to ‘none’.

4) Now use Type > Create Outlines (CTRL-SHIFT-O). {You’ve been here before, kinda.}

Here comes the magic that does what you want…

5) Object > Expand… and uncheck all but stroke.

At this point, each part of the glyphs in your text have been converted to compound paths. They are the key to ‘cutting out’ objects. In fact, you are going to be making your own in just a couple more steps. Do a search sometime for details on how they work.

6) Object > Compound Path > Release (ALT-CTRL-SHIFT-8), does what it says, releases the compound path into its component parts.

We do not want all of those pieces, just the ‘outer-most’ ones. We COULD spend our time deleting all the extraneous paths, but AI will do it for us with just one more click.

7) Pathfinder > Merge

Finally, we are ready to do what you wanted in the first place: (show or unlock your underlying object if necessary)

8) Select your underlying object, Pathfinder > Minus Front.

9) Show your original text.

That should do it for you.

🙂

Steve Crook, Jr.
http://www.stevecrookjr.me

I am a simple creative professional that can get my Adobe suite and a few other creative tools to do what I want. Barely. 🙂

[Steve Crook jr]

This is an informed guess based on a bit of experience. But STILL a guess:

When you drag in artwork at its native resolution (9000px x 3500px in your case) and change the DPI in the image size dialog BUT ensure the width and height are the same as the initial values, Photoshop does not resample the image. Fairly straightforward and consistent with your results.

When you drag your artwork into a document that has a lower resolution (as defined by pixels in either/both width by height, NOT DPI) Photoshop automatically downsamples the artwork to fit.

Basically, Photoshop makes it fit and tosses the extra info.

Again, this is just how it seems to work for me, and your tests seem to confirm it.

Your best bet to retain highest quality is to use File > Place Embedded -or- Linked so it is a smart object and retains all info no matter what you do to it. It resamples as needed, on the fly. (I added this last bit to maybe answer some other questions.)

Hope I helped a little bit…

Steve Crook, Jr.
http://www.stevecrookjr.me

I am a simple creative professional that can get my Adobe suite and a few other creative tools to do what I want. Barely. 🙂

[Steve Crook jr]

I am very glad the project got completed. I’d like to look at both files, just to satisfy my curiosity. Could you post the files (changing any private data)?

Steve Crook, Jr.
http://www.stevecrookjr.me

I am a simple creative professional that can get my Adobe suite and a few other creative tools to do what I want. Barely. 🙂

[Steve Crook jr]

Hey, Denise.

You don’t give enough information to give a solid answer, but every time something like this has happened to me is has to do with Pixel Aspect Ratio. If the ratio isn’t the cause in your case, I don’t know how to fix it. 🙁

Firstly, you are likely using two files, correct? Did you make either or both of them yourself? *I* haven’t encountered any PRINT application where you would want to use anything other than “Square Pixels” for your file. (I am sure someone can come up with good reasons, if they try hard enough! 🙂 )

So, when you create your files, make certain the “Pixel Aspect Ratio” option in the “Advanced” area is set to “Square Pixels”. If the file was created with the wrong aspect ratio (someone else provided file or you created improperly) all you can do is fix it and scale/redo everything.

Steps:
1) Open file 🙂
2) View -> Pixel Aspect Ratio -> Square
3) Image -> Image Size –or– Image -> Canvas Size (determine which works better: Image Size may mean less work, but proportions may be off)
4) Tweak artwork as needed

Hope this helps.

Steve Crook, Jr.
http://www.stevecrookjr.me

I am a simple creative professional that can get my Adobe suite and a few other creative tools to do what I want. Barely. 🙂

[Steve Crook jr]

You should be able to find the painter’s tape in Lowe’s or Home Depot, perhaps even Target or Walmart. It is commonly only available in blue or green.

The best kind of tape to use, though, is gaffer’s tape. Your local music supply store may have some, or you may have to order some online (which with shipping time is why I suggested where you can get the painter’s tape). The gaffer’s tape is designed to not leave residue or damage surfaces over the medium term, and can come in many colors to help if you are keying.

The painter’s tape is designed solely for very short term application – one to two days.

Disclaimer: This is my understanding based on a bit of research and a little experience. If someone has something better, PLEASE let us know! 🙂

Steve Crook, Jr.
http://www.stevecrookjr.me

I am a simple creative professional that can get my Adobe suite and a few other creative tools to do what I want. Barely. 🙂

[Steve Crook jr]

The only time I have encountered anything like what you describe is when I am working with my document in CMYK mode.

In general, you should work in RGB mode for screen and film, and in CMYK for any form of print output – you didn’t say what your project is.

You can check which mode your document is in by File > Document Color Mode…

As far as the swatch goes, AI may be making the swatch with the correct values in RGB, but converting the colors to CMYK when you apply it.

I hope this helps you solve your problem, if not, it is outside my knowledge.

Steve Crook, Jr.
http://www.stevecrookjr.me

I am a simple creative professional that can get my Adobe suite and a few other creative tools to do what I want. Barely. 🙂

[Steve Crook jr]

I know of no way to get what you need directly, but you could draw a line along the baseline and get those coordinates.

Hope it helps.

Steve Crook, Jr.
http://www.stevecrookjr.me

I am a simple creative professional that can get my Adobe suite and a few other creative tools to do what I want. Barely. 🙂

[Steve Crook jr]

No way for me to be absolutely certain, but it sounds like you are still in a mode that needs a confirmation before it is finished.

For EXAMPLE (only) if you were in Crop tool mode and made adjustments, you must accept the changes before you can save, etc.

Look along the toolbar for Accept and Cancel buttons and complete your action or cancel it.

If this is what is causing the problem, you can then save it.

Hope this helps.

Steve Crook, Jr.
http://www.stevecrookjr.me

I am a simple creative professional that can get my Adobe suite and a few other creative tools to do what I want. Barely. 🙂