Participant

Question

Illustrator CC Pathfinder Tool Minus Front Shifting lines

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
March 14, 2018
5 replies
3726 views

It seems like whenever I use the pathfinder tool's minus front function the lines of my artwork are shifted slightly. It's slight but very apparent and Make a huge difference in how my illustration looks at smaller sizes. Attached is a screenshot showing what I mean.

Has anyone else had this issue? Is there any clear fix to this problem?

This topic has been closed for replies.

anjag22817385

Participant

I know this is an old post but I have exactly the same problem.. Does anybody know the solution by now? I checked the original answers but none could solve my problem..

Pathfinder minus front tool: the result after substraction looks quite different then the original - the lines seem to be thinner in the substracted version. It gets more obvious if you scale down the image (See attached file)

The lines I used for substraction are outlined storkes whithout additional outline
In path view both versions have exactly the same "line thickness"

So there is not a real shifting of lines - it seems to be a preview / displaying problem of illustrator? Is there a setting that needs to be changed? How can you predict how it will look in print if the display before and after substracting looks so different?

Thanks a lot if anyone knows the answer

Monika Gause

Community Expert

It's the way the anti-aliasing is calculated. In your first image, the white lines get anti-aliased, which makes them appear thicker, because anti-aliasing is applied to the outside. In the second image, the blue is anti-aliased.

anjag22817385

Participant

Thank you very much for your anser - this explains the effect. So I think the endresult (print) will be somewhere in between the two?
Best;
Anja

F

FolderRonda

Participant

I do foil stamping work at the company I work for. I have to have one color artwork. Customers never send in one color art so I have to create this. So if you are looking at that chicken above I would want only the orange in the file.

Select the whole image

Object>Expand---I never change the expand options and hit okay. (if there are no strokes you'll get no box)

pathfinder>trim

Magic wand settings at 0 across the board, I select the orange

hide it (command 3)

Direct Select the all the remaining bits (DON'T do a Select All or use your black selection tool as this will delete everything) and delete them

Show all (option command 3) if you have more things hidden they will all show with this so sometimes I work in the layers to hide and show elements

Make sure all remaining orange is selected and Unite (pathfinder option)

This gives you a solid one color graphic and won't cause the shift you're seeing above. You don't have to Unite I just prefer this because I hate extra paths.

I know this was months ago, but I thought I would contribute.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

If what you show is very zoomed in artwork, you may have a look at the Pathfinder precision option.

From the Pathfinder fly-out menu choose: Pathfinder Options and set the precision to something small like 0,001 pt.

A

austinymcaAuthor

Participant

@Ton Frederiks I didn't know that the pathfinder precision option existed. Good to know! Unfortunately, doesn't seem to resolve the issue.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Does the orange shape have a stroke?

That would be applied to the objects that are subtracted, making them smaller.

Doug A Roberts

Community Expert

i think it's also possible it's a visual effect of antialiasing or similar. does the difference shift if you zoom in? or if you turn off GPU preview?

A

austinymcaAuthor

Participant

@Doug A Roberts When I zoom in the difference isn't as apparent, but it's definitely still there. Turning off GPU Preview doesn't seem to make a difference.

tromboniator

Community Expert

I would suggest that your front paths have a stroke applied to them. The Pathfinder…well, it finds the path and acts on that, ignoring the stroke. If you Expand, or Object > Path > Outline Stroke, then apply Minus Front, you should get the results you're expecting.

Peter

A

austinymcaAuthor

Participant

@tromboniator That's not the case. There is no stroke on the front paths.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded