What is Pathfinder? How to use Pathfinder in Adobe Illustrator

So what is Pathfinder? How to use Pathfinder? Please read along to learn about Pathfinder in the article below.

1. What is Pathfinder?

Simply put, Pathfinder is an intelligent shaping tool, allowing you to nest 2 objects, shapes, and paths to form patterns. Thanks to this feature, you can create unique patterns or draw difficult patterns in the design.

In the Pathfinder tool there are 2 groups of commands: Shape Modes and Pathfinder . Shape Modes includes 4 small commands: Unite, Minus Front, Intersect and Exclude . Pathfinder group will include 6 small commands: Divide, Trim, Merge, Crop, Outline, Minus Back .

2. Instructions for using Pathfinder

Step 1: Click on the Windows menu (1) => Pathfinder (2) or use the keyboard shortcut Shift + Ctrl + F9 to turn on this tool.

Then, the Pathfinder tool panel will appear as shown below.

Step 2: To test this tool, create two shapes (Shapes) by clicking on the Shape tool (1) => select pattern (2) and draw 2 patterns (3) .

Step 3: Take the Selection Tool (1) and select 2 drawings (2) . You can then combine the shapes with the Pathfinder tool (3) .

3. Meaning of commands in the Pathfinder tool

3.1. Shape Modes command group

Shapes Mode has the effect of cutting, merging, selecting intersecting areas and creating a new shape with one color.

Unite

This is the action of merging two images into one, the upper layer will wrap the bottom layer.

Minus Front

This command will delete the top layer and create the pattern shown in the example below.

Intersect

This command will keep the intersections and delete the intersections.

Exclude

The effect is the same as the Minus Front command but take the color of the bottom layer.

3.2. The Pathfinder command group

Divide

The Divide command is used to subdivide objects and create new layers.

Trim

The Trim command will keep visible parts of the image and delete the invisible image area. The visible image area after using this command will be split into separate layers.

Merge

The way it works is the same as the Trim command and separates the same layers. If two layers have the same color, this command will automatically merge both layers of the same color.

Crop

The Crop command will keep the visible part of the front layer and the part that does not intersect the front and back layers. After using this command will create the front layer and the non-intersecting part of the bottom layer image.

Outline

This command will process the layers by preserving the border and removing the color inside. Next, a new layer will be created with different elements.

Minus Back

The Minus Back command will keep the non-intersecting layers and remove all overlapping layers.

With the sharing in the article about Pathfinder tool in Illustrator , you can grasp the basics and discover great uses that this tool brings. I wish you good learning and practice!

Samuel Daniel

Update 31 October 2020