Illustrator

Work with compound shapes

Creating a compound shape is a two-part process. First, you establish a compound shape in which all components have the same shape mode. Then, you assign shape modes to the components until you obtain the desired combination of shape areas.

Create a compound shape

  1. Select all the objects you want to be part of the compound shape.

    You can include paths, compound paths, groups, other compound shapes, blends, text, envelopes, and warps in a compound shape. Any open paths you select are automatically closed.

  2. Do one of the following:

    • In the Pathfinder panel, click a Shape Modes button. Each component of the compound shape is assigned the shape mode you select.

    • Select Make Compound Shape from the Pathfinder panel menu. Each component of the compound shape is assigned the Add mode by default.

  3. Change the shape mode of any component by selecting it with the Direct Selection tool or Layers panel and clicking a Shape Mode button.

    Note that you never need to change the mode of the backmost component, because its mode is not relevant to the compound shape.

    To sustain maximum performance, create complex compound shapes by nesting other compound shapes (containing up to about 10 components each) instead of using many individual components.

Modify a compound shape

  1. Use the Direct Selection tool or Layers panel to select an individual component of the compound shape.
  2. Look for the highlighted Shape Mode button in the Pathfinder panel to identify which mode is currently applied to a selected component.
    Note: If you’ve selected two or more components that use different modes, question marks appear on the Shape Mode buttons.
  3. In the Pathfinder panel, click a different Shape Mode button.

Release and expand a compound shape

Releasing a compound shape separates it back into separate objects. Expanding a compound shape maintains the shape of the compound object, but you can no longer select the individual components.

  1. Select the compound shape using the Selection tool or Layers panel.
  2. Do one of the following:

    • Click Expand in the Pathfinder panel.

    • Choose Expand Compound Shape from the Pathfinder panel menu.

      The compound shape is converted to a <Path> or <Compound Path> item in the Layers panel, depending on the shape mode it used.

    • Choose Release Compound Shape from the Pathfinder panel menu.

Move compound shapes between Illustrator and Photoshop

The shape layers and layer clipping paths (vector masks) in Adobe Photoshop are types of compound shapes. You can import shape layers and layer clipping paths into Illustrator as compound shapes and continue to manipulate them. In addition, you can export compound shapes to Photoshop. Keep the following in mind when using compound shapes with Photoshop:

  • Only compound shapes that reside at the top level of the layer hierarchy are exported to Photoshop as shape layers.

  • A compound shape painted with a stroke using a join other than round, or with a weight in points that is not an integer, is rasterized when exported to the PSD file format.