InDesign

Change holes to fills in a compound path

The direction of each subpath—the order in which its points were created—determines whether the area it defines is inside (filled areas) or outside (empty). If, in your compound path, holes sometimes don’t appear where you expect them to, you can reverse the direction of that subpath.

Two separate closed paths (left) and two subpaths of the same compound path (right); the compound path uses the center circle as a hole

  1. In Illustrator, make sure that the compound path uses the nonzero winding fill rule.
  2. With the Direct Selection tool, select the part of the compound path to reverse (or a point on that part). Do not select the entire compound path.
  3. Do one of the following:

    • In Illustrator, in the Attributes panel, click the Reverse Path Direction Off button or the Reverse Path Direction On button.

    • In InDesign, choose Object > Paths > Reverse Path.