[Vincent Rosati]

I’d consider scaling the project to 1/2 or 1/4 scale, including any linked resources (TIF, PSD, whatever), considering the overall art size and processing power.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Select the text box than click S (Scale tool). Then it will resize the box and the text that is inside it.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

You shouldn’t have any issues.
Create a project folder that holds the AI file and a source folder for your raster TIF or PSD files.
Make sure the AI file and the source files are CMYK.
I’d suggest that you File / Place the rasters as linked resources, instead of pasting them. This way, you can update them independently in Photoshop and they will update in the Illustrator project file.
Finally, from AI you can export, save as PDF, or open the AI file directly with Photoshop to rasterize.
Just make sure every step is CMYK, since you are going to print.
I hope this points you in a generally appropriate direction.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Sounds like you just want to remove the black lines – Just select all of the objects, then near the bottom of the Tools palette you’ll see the Fill & Stroke controls. Click the small double-arrow so that the Stroke is in the front, then click the None button below it (the small square with the red line).

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Maybe just selecting all of the objects and setting the Opacity to 50% in the Transparency palette (Window / Transparency) would do the trick.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

The easiest option might be to just select everything and do Pathfinder / Divide.
After everything is broken into pieces, you can select the unwanted portions with the Group select tool and delete them. Then if any objects need to be joined back together, select them and Pathfinder / Unite.

Or of you want to keep the star shapes, select the circle and Copy/Front (Ctrl + C, release C, F), or Edit / Copy, Edit / Paste in Front.
Then select a circle and bring it to the front, Ctrl + Shift + ] (Object / Arrange / Bring to Front). Now with one of the circles on top, select it and the two stars and Ctrl + 7 (Object / Clipping Mask / Make).

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Example:

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

Example:

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

I may not be following exactly what you are trying to do, but maybe creating a Symbol is what you are looking to do.
Basically, drag whatever into the Symbols palette, then create multiple instances of the symbol.
Then, if you ever need to modify the symbol, you just double-click on one of them and make the change. Double-click off of it to update the other instances.

Vince

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[Vincent Rosati]

I suspect that you deleted the paths between the points at the ends of the parallel section, or their otherwise are simply no paths there – indicated by:
‘the part I want to remove does not have a blue outline and I cannot add points to it’

You probably need to use the Pen tool to close the paths.
When you attempt this you might get the Same Path/Endpoints error. If this happens, you’ll probably have to either Object/Expand the object and/or ungroup the object before you can close the paths.

Try what I mentioned, and if you still can’t get it to work you can always upload the file and I’m sure someone will fix it for you.

Vince

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