Operation Manual

467
Drawing and painting
Last updated 11/30/2015
• In a compound path, any effect that is positioned relative to a path’s bounding box—such as a gradient, or an image
pasted inside—is actually positioned relative to the bounding box of the entire compound path (that is, the path that
encloses all of the subpaths).
• If you make a compound path, then change its properties and release it, using the Release command, the released
paths inherit the compound path’s properties; they don’t regain their original properties.
• If your document contains compound paths with many smooth points, some output devices may have problems
printing them. If so, simplify or eliminate the compound paths, or convert them to bitmap images using a program
such as Adobe Photoshop.
• If you apply a fill to a compound path, holes sometimes don’t appear where you expect them to. For a simple path
like a rectangle, the inside, or the area you can fill, is easy to see—it’s the area within the enclosed path. However,
with a compound path, InDesign must determine whether the intersections created by a compound path’s subpaths
are inside (filled areas) or outside (holes). The direction of each subpath—the order in which its points were
created—determines whether the area it defines is inside or outside. If a subpath is filled when you want it to be a
hole, or vice versa, click Reverse Path in the Pathfinder panel to reverse the direction of that subpath.
Create a compound path
You can create a compound path from two or more open or closed paths. When you create a compound path, all of the
originally selected paths become subpaths of the new compound path. The selected paths inherit the stroke and fill
settings of the object farthest back in the stacking order.
Note: If one or more selected objects have contents, such as text or imported images, the attributes and contents of a
compound path are set by the attributes and contents of the object farthest back. Selected objects farther behind, without
contents, won’t affect the compound path.
You can change the shape of any part of a compound path by using the Direct Selection tool to select an anchor point
on one subpath.
1 Use the Selection tool to select all of the paths you want to include in the compound path.
2 Choose Object > Paths > Make Compound Path. A hole appears wherever selected paths overlap.
You can fill a hole created by a subpath or turn a subpath into a hole. Using the Direct Selection tool, select a point on
the subpath you want to change. Then select Object > Paths > Reverse Path or click Reverse Path in the Pathfinder
panel.
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.