Hiya! Total Illustrator novice, so apologies for not naming things properly…

I am working with a file (not my creation) that has a shape made up of a bunch of vectors (I guess), which has another shape sitting behind it, also made of vectors. Both are black, but when the one at the back is in contact with the front shape, it becomes transparent, making a ‘hole’ in the other shape (it’s a letter…). However, when I copy and paste the objects, the one at the back loses it’s funky transparency thing and I have no idea how to fix it 🙁

Any ideas? Thanks!

This slipped quietly beneath the waves last night…anyone out there today to help?

It will be a compound path ,are they on different layers? if so “paste remembers layers” needs to be checked

Or is there something in the drawing that is locked and not being picked up when you copy?

If it’s a clipping path or a compound shape, you can double-click the group and it will let you edit individual parts. Sometimes you have to keep double-clicking to get right down to the bit you want.

Double-click on some empty space to come out again.

You can also go through the menus to make and release clipping paths, but you may get lost that way.

Edit: Feel free to mail me it (mail in profile) and take me through it.

Pasting in to? May have some influence. “Paste special” or Place import filters, within that program could preserve layers.

Hi, thanks for the replies!

The original image is an .eps file, and only a single layer. In fact, it’s the TdF logo (http://www.brandsoftheworld.com/logo/le-tour-de-france-0?original=1) if anyone wants a shot! I’ve been trying to copy the ‘d’ in ‘de’ (although same problem with the ‘e’).

Will have a play again later tonight!

Ta,
Kit

It’s things like this that made me hate Illustrator! 👿

I’ve done it and will send it after lunch – but if you want to do it yourself.
Copy the ‘d’ out.
Then you get the complete filled in ‘d’ in front and the hole behind it.
Select just the filled in whole ‘d’ and ‘send to back’.
Then select both and go to pathfinder and select “subtract from shape area”.

Hope that helps.

Here it is – I separated out all the bits with cutouts.

http://www.thingswelike.org/Le_Tour_de_France2.ai

BTW – I don’t think this is the original file – I could be wrong but it looks like a traced bitmap to me.

Hi Alex, thanks for the advice. I gave it a go and your instructions work, thanks!

Don’t mind what the origin of the file is, but it was just what I needed for a wee project 🙂

Nice one!